孤寂感－長期照顧機構因應防疫措施下的另一課題

Loneliness－An Issue for Long-Term Care Institutions’Response to Epidemic Prevention Measures

嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎(COVID-19)已經造成全球大規模感染，並成為台灣第五類法定傳染病，長期照顧機構群居特質與多數機構住民年齡偏高且合併慢性疾病，倘若發生感染將造成嚴重後果。有鑑於防範COVID-19社區感染，一直是台灣衛生醫療單位共同努力的方向，本文將提出COVID-19的傳播特色，統整長照機構住民易感染COVID-19的高危險因子及國內衛生福利機構（住宿型）因應COVID-19感染管制措施指引之重點，並針對社交隔離防疫措施對機構住民帶來的影響提出反思，給予預防或降低機構住民孤寂感的活動安排建議，期望本文能提供國內長照機構管理者及相關工作人員面對COVID-19時參考。

COVID-19 has caused large-scale global infection and become the notifiable infectious disease of Category Five in Taiwan. As the characteristics of people living in long-term care institutions and most institutional residents are advanced age and chronic diseases, the occurrence of this epidemic in those institutions results in serious consequences. Since the prevention of COVID-19 community infections has been the direction of the joint efforts of Taiwan’s health and medical units, this article proposed the transmission characteristics of COVID-19, summarized the COVID-19 high-risk factors for residents in long-term care institutions, and provided guidelines on COVID-19 infection control measures of the health and welfare institutions (residential type) in Taiwan. This study further reflected on the impact of social quarantine and pandemic prevention measures on institutional residents, and provided suggestions for the arrangement of activities to prevent or reduce the sense of loneliness among institutional residents. It is expected that this article can provide a reference for the managers and relevant staffs of long-term care institutions in Taiwan in the face of COVID-19.