Netherlands: Nursing home uses glassed cart to keep elderly in touch with relatives

W/S Visitor getting into "Come-visit" mobile box near nursing home, Vlaardingen
W/S Employee closing box's door
M/S Visitor inside box
W/S Employee pushing box
M/S Visitor greeting his mother as she laughs
M/S Visitor and his mother putting hand on glass
W/S Visitor getting out of nursing home
SOT, Cor van Leijden, nursing home visitor: "This is the first time I use this cart and it is a very nice way to meet my mother again. The distance is much closer, you don't give each other a hand or a hug but it is much better than outside from the window. Yes, it's a very good idea to come next to your relatives."
W/S Van Leijden getting out of nursing home
SOT, Cor van Leijden, nursing home visitor: "You see her reaction, I came out of the elevator and she started laughing like 'Hey what is this?.' Yeah she was very, very surprised."
W/S Worker carrying package
SOT, Tanja Verwaal, nursing home employee (Dutch): "For these people this is a very difficult time because they don't have caregivers around anymore, and now suddenly they can see closely a caregiver. They are mainly very happy and surprised, but some are also confused because they really like hugging people and there is a glass in front of them. Anyway, the predominant feeling is very pleasant."
W/S Worker moving mobile box
W/S Worker
C/U Machine working on a door
SOT, Nick van Balen, "Come-visit" box inventor: "We've been with our company in the nursing homes for maintenance for years and we heard on the 20th of March that they were like restricting the visits on the elderly homes we thought those people… The one of the few things that have left is social contact with their loved ones, right? So we decided to build a device which could be brought into the houses of the people and where they could visit their loved ones or get a visit from their loved ones in a comfort place."
C/U "Come-to-visit" design and measurements
SOT, Nick van Balen, "Come-visit" box inventor: "A lot of attention was brought to the cart so a lot of calls and a lot of orders, so we had to make quick progress because people were… Also it was pre-mother's day (May 10 in The Netherlands) and everybody wanted to see their mothers in nursing homes, so we had so many orders like "Can it be done before Sunday?" and everybody asked the same question so it was like "All right". The guys in the workshop worked (inaudible) really and yeah, with that fast progress and a lot of team-work we could deliver on time, we could deliver as expected."
M/S Employee cutting wood
SOT, Nick van Balen, "Come-visit" box inventor: "If we stop delivering these carts it will mean that the coronavirus is gone and that would be awesome. It's a thing that everyone wants, but as long as it is there we want to provide a solution for people who are not able to visit their loved ones."
M/S Employee cutting wood
W/S Workshop
C/U Sign reading (Dutch): "Unfortunately from March 20, visiting residents is not allowed."
SCRIPT
A nursing home in the Dutch city of Vlaardingen has been using a glassed cart for family visits which were suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Footage filmed on Tuesday shows a relative visiting his mother as well as the workshop where the so-called "Come-visit" cart is being made.
"This is the first time I use this cart and it is a very nice way to meet my mother again. The distance is much closer, you don't give each other a hand or a hug but it is much better than outside from the window. Yes, it's a very good idea to come next to your relatives," said Cor van Leijden who visited his mother.
Nick van Balen who came up with the cart said his company delivered more than 30 such mobile boxes in less than two months.
"If we stop delivering these carts it will mean that the coronavirus is gone and that would be awesome. It's a thing that everyone wants, but as long as it is there, we want to provide a solution for people who are not able to visit their loved ones," said van Balen.
Visiting family members in nursing homes in the Netherlands was suspended since March 20 as part of efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19.