Longview Times

Internal medicine residents at CHRISTUS Good Shepherd Medical Center in Longview created cards and letters to send to nursing home residents who are unable to have visitors due to COVID-19.

Dr. Prithvi Muddana told CBS 19 the letters and cards represent hope.

“I wanted to give a voice to the most vulnerable people going through this experience and to me, that was our nursing home patients,” Muddana told the news agency. “I just want to make sure that they knew that there were people that are looking out for them, that they were not alone in this.”

Nursing homes have made changes to visitation policies due to seniors being the most vulnerable population to COVID-19. The internal medical residents wanted to help make sure the nursing home residents did not feel so alone, as having no visitors can lead to anxiety and depression.

"They're hearing so much information come out of different outlets everywhere,” Dr. Tiffany Egbe, the program director of internal medicine at the hospital, said. “If they can get a consistent message locally from us, I think that's very important and hopefully, it will improve their overall well-being."

Residents of Arabella Independent Living are among those who received letters from the doctors. Executive director Jeremy Burris praised them for the letters and cards, saying they lifted the residents' spirits, the news agency reported.

“For many of them, it was some of the first communication they've had outside of our staff since some of this began," Burris told CBS 19. “They were so touched that they would take the time at the hospital to send them a letter to encourage them in their in their difficult time.”

Burris said residents had varied reactions to the cards and letters — from smiling to crying.