LIBERTY, Mo. — A year into the pandemic, life is slowly getting back to normal for staff and residents at long-term care facilities.
It's been a long road to get to this point, filled with tough decisions by facility leaders.
Ryan Phillips sat down with 41 Action News to reflect on his time as a business office manager at Liberty Health and Wellness, a skilled nursing and assisted living facility in Liberty, Missouri.
Phillips remembers the start of the pandemic and thinking the coronavirus wouldn't hit close to home. However, the virus hit his building hard in October 2020.
"My entire building but two residents got COVID in a week," Phillips said.
The year would continue to bring a multitude of challenges.
"The mental stress that comes with not only trying to assure family members that their loved ones are safe, but in addition to your staff trying to assure them that you're doing everything you can to protect them," Phillips said.
Liberty Health and Wellness administrator Roderick Warren said residents had to stay in their rooms for protection. Many haven't seen family in person in a year.
"A lot of the patients here have a lot of family involvement and so to put that on hold for a year has been quite the challenge," Warren said.
Warren said the facility also had a great deal of difficulty finding staff.
"As a result of the pandemic, the pool of applicants shrunk because it spooked quite a few people," Warren said.
Warren said the facility recently held its first resident council meeting where all residents were able to gather in one place. They had a chance to voice their opinions about how the last year has been.
"It's been tough, I mean they've been alone, some of their opinions left out," Warren said.
During his time at the facility, Phillips said 14 or 15 residents passed away due to the virus. One of the biggest challenges he said was not being able to allow family members to come in and say goodbye.
"We did a lot of window visits and zoom calls, but it's just not the same," Phillips said.
Phillips said he's developed a deeper empathy for those family members forced apart from loved ones.
Things are starting to take a turn at Liberty Health and Wellness. About 75% of residents are vaccinated currently. Warren said that percentage should go up to nearly 90 after an upcoming vaccine clinic.
The facility also recently received guidance to slowly phase in family visits.
"Now that they're getting the physical face time with their families they feel hopeful and that is very refreshing, because it doesn't feel like we've had a lot of hope in the last year," Phillips said.
