I am CNA in a long term care facility (nursing home).

The people I take care of are not allowed to leave their rooms.

They are not allowed to have visitors.

They can't have meals in the dining room.

There are no activities outside the rooms.

Most of them are not able.to use the internet to pass the time because their hands don't work well enough and they don't know how. Or even the TV remote.

Many can't even use a phone independently because of their hands or at all if they can't speak or hear well enough.

Many have different stages of dementia and are scared and confused and unsure of what is going on.

The ones with family members who sat with them for hours each day to help keep them calm no longer have this.

Spouses are no longer allowed in. A few have spouses who normally sit the whole day with them every day and eat meals with them. I hope those people are OK. Some of them live alone...

Mental health visits arent generally considered critical so are cancelled for the ones that go to them.

Yesterday the social worker was told she had to stay in her office and couldn't see them in person.

Even people on hospice can't have visitors.

If someone is "actively dying" they can have one designated visitor.

There are people to help excercize limbs and assist in short walks but in reality not much.. Its nothing compared to going back and forth to the dining room, or self propelling the wheelchair in the halls. Many of these people will lose these abilities to walk or propell themselves if this lasts a few weeks. And it looks like it will. It only takes s few days of inactivity to start to loose abilities. Its very hard to get them back sometimes.

It is all to keep them safe. Everyone is doing their best.
Its just hard to see happen to the people I know and care for.

Its chilling to think of how many people in nursing homes there are.

The one I work at is the best one I have been in - staffing wise.

And we are chronically short staffed lately.

Ive worked 5 shifts in the last 3 days.

Luckily my kids are big enough to watch themselves. Its not the same for many of my coworkers. And Michigans schools are closed.

At least one coworker didnt pass the screening so wasn't allowed in. Smokers cough most likely but it makes us more shorthanded to deal with this.

These are all precautions on a federal level from the CDC. It hasn't hit Michigan in a big way yet.

Its gonna be a long couple weeks, or however long this lasts..