In this episode of Eldercare Illuminated, Torchlight’s Eldercare Practice Leader, Lenore Tracey, answers questions about the limitations on visiting nursing homes and assisted living facilities as well as the importance of social distancing for caregivers and seniors during the coronavirus pandemic.

Guest host Stefanie Boucher usually presents Torchlight’s Exceptional Parenting Podcast, when she’s not writing about the challenges of raising children and navigating education issues for children with and without disabilities. Today, she looks for ways to explain social distancing and how to convince a stubborn loved one that visiting the grandparents is just a bad idea.

As promised in this episode, we’re including links to a couple of graphical representations and expert explanations of how social distancing works:

This BBC video explains social distancing using dominoes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/51989370

A coronavirus transmission animation, from New Zealand’s online magazine, The Spinoff: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Covid-19-Transmission-graphic-01.gif

An in-depth scientific article in the leading medical journal, The Lancet, “Scientific and ethical basis for social-distancing interventions against COVID-19,” Joseph A Lewnard, Nathan C Lo, Published: March 23, 2020: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30190-0/fulltext

Johns Hopkins Medicine explains the importance of social distancing, self-quarantine, isolation, and “flattening the curve”: https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/coronavirus-social-distancing-and-self-quarantine

Check the CDC’s website, https://coronavirus.gov, for the most current information and recommendations.