Frankfort Assisted Living Facility Creates Conversational Cubicle for Outdoor Visits

Residents at assisted living facilities have not had visitors for the last six months due to COVID-19.

One facility, Frankfort Pines, thought of a unique way for residents to still visit with family and friends outside.

“We were finding that our residents were really missing seeing their families,” said owner Pam Kelly. “We were looking around and there were all these different ideas people would come up with like using shower curtains and other means to be able to see their family.”

Kelly found a plexiglass and wood divider online that a California facility built to place outside.

“I thought hey, that might work!” Kelly said.

Her husband, Steve, and a local craftsman built the divider in August. Kelly named it the “Conversational Cubicle.”

“It allowed our residents to converse with their families not having to wear a mask,” Kelly said. “It’s being used almost every single day throughout the day.”

Both residents and visitors have taken a liking to the cubicle and even celebrated a few birthday parties socially distanced.

Susan Rastelli visits her mother Regina Manzaroli at Frankfort Pines and was having a hard time with the visits through Regina’s bedroom window.

“My mom has arthritis and when we would talk through her bedroom window, she had to stand up and then she couldn’t stand very long and so our visits were short,” Rastelli said. “This way she can sit, we can take as long as we like and see each other.”

Kelly said the Conversational Cubicle has boosted morale in the facility.

“It just makes them feel they have a connection, that they haven’t been forgotten,” Kelly said. “That’s what you get from a lot of these residents, they think they’ve been forgotten and they haven’t.”