Sheryl Zimmerman, PhD, a member of the executive committee for the IMPACT Patient and Caregiver Relevant Outcomes Core, was recently quoted in a New York Times opinion piece about the impact of isolation on nursing home residents during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We’ve lost part of the long-term care work force by restricting families,” said Zimmerman, who is also co-director of the Program on Aging, Disability and Long-Term Care at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the School of Social Work. “Sure, the risk of spreading COVID-19 (or any other infectious disease) is less when visitors are restricted, but the consequence of social detachment may be greater, and this is a serious risk: we’ve known for more than 40 years that isolation increases death.”