SYDNEY, N.S. — A local man has made it easier for residents isolated at a long-term care facility to connect with their families.
This week, Glen Muise donated a high-definition projector, nine-foot screen, laptop, microphone and Bluetooth speakers to R.C. MacGillivray Guest Home in Sydney. He said he began buying the approximately $1,000 worth of equipment online in January when he realized the novel coronavirus outbreak would eventually reach Cape Breton.
“I figured out this was going to have legs so I decided I’d better do something,” Muise, a 65-year-old Sydney resident, told the Cape Breton Post. “I waited and then I figured MacGillivray Guest Home was probably one of the most vulnerable so I called up and they came and picked it up and now all the residents can appear on the big screen and see their families. It’s great.”
Kim Hooper, director of recreation and volunteer services at the guest home, said the because the screen for the projector is so big, they’re waiting for their maintenance team to set it up in a large room.
However, the laptop has seen heavy use in the three days since they acquired it.
“I was speechless because it’s something that we desperately need right now to keep up with the abundance of calls that are coming through from families. We are operating on one iPad for 108 residents so to get that second piece of equipment is fantastic because now I can divide it up so that all Skype calls are being done on the laptop and all the Facetime and Facebook calls are being done on the iPad,” said Hooper.
“They can so easily slip into a depression without their loved ones being around, so we try to do as many Facetime calls as we can. We got to the point where we’ve booked 15-minute appointments and it’s working fantastically. They call and just to see their face and have that little 15-minute chat goes a long way. And they look forward to it the next day. They say, ‘When can I set up my appointment?’ It’s a great, great thing.”
Hooper said resident Marlene MacDonald turned 83 on Tuesday and the open house the family had been planning to hold at the guest home obviously couldn’t take place. So instead, they showed up outside the Alexandra Street facility.
“Her family showed up in the parking lot and help put up banners with well wishes and she actually had a Facetime party with her family.”
Group activities were an important part of keeping residents socially engaged, and going from groups of 30 to five or less has been a “huge adjustment,” said Hooper.
“They’re missing their bingo games, their horse races, but we’ve been modifying everything so that they’re still being reached socially,” she said.
“Years ago, I don’t know what we would have done without these iPads, these portable computers and stuff like that. I don’t know what they would have done if this had happened years ago.”
Muise, a former coal miner and longtime advocate for people with mental illness, is encouraging other people to follow his example and team up with a few friends or family members to buy the same components he did then donate them to a home for seniors.
“Pick out a nursing home and get together,” he said. “People could easily do that if they wanted.
