The spread of the COVID-19 Coronavirus has come to impact many lives in Canada, regardless of whether or not the disease is actually present in the area.

One group of people who will face that impact is those who live with special needs.Many health facilities across the province were recently given restrictions for visitors, and that includes places like the Wheatland Regional Centre in Rosetown. Saskatchewan’s Chief Medical Health Officer recently ordered that visitors to long term care homes, hospitals, personal care homes and group homes are restricted to ‘essential visitors’ only.

It's a decision that Denni Ernst, who helps run the Wheatland Centre, also had to make.

"At this time, we've actually completely shut down operations for the two week window that's been suggested. Our group home is isolated and the day program is shut down. Our main priority is just keeping all of our participants, staff, and associated family healthy, and we're just kinda monitoring things as they go."

Ernst explained a few of the challenges of caring for people with special needs at a time like this. One factor, is that many of the participants at the Regional Centre are non-verbal, which makes it difficult to properly communicate with them. Many of them often don't understand the need for isolation, and how it applies to them. 

"We really just try to keep things as normal as possible for them, make sure they feel safe, monitoring for symptoms, ensuring that if they need medical attention, that it is warranted so we don't end up overloading the system, testing where required, and really following up on the individuals that need attention at this time."

Ernst said that the best thing the public can do to help is to have no visitors at this time, adding that, while they like having visitors at the Regional Centre, this is a matter concerning everyone's safety. 

If anyone does wish to visit, or donate supplies to the Centre, Ernst asks that they call ahead first.