'People don't realize how hard it is': Caretakers have a difficult time getting tests for loved ones
A Windsor Heights woman spent almost two weeks trying to get her 77-year-old mother a COVID-19 test.
Molly Topf's mother has Parkinson's and needed the test to get into a long-term care facility. She said she feels the state is letting people like her mother down.
"Nobody knows and it's really sad that there's so many elderly folks struggling," Topf said.
She said her mother is struggling to get a test because she has no symptoms. Topf is her mother's caretaker and said they need to put her into a care facility for a trip in August, but the facility requires a negative test.
Topf said they were on their own to get a test and their provider sent them to TestIowa.
"I think that they need to put something out there that makes it easier for elderly and those who are handicapped and physically limited to take the COVID testing," Topf said.
She said it went beyond TestIowa. She called about 10 facilities, but none could get her mother in since she had no symptoms.
Finally, on Wednesday, after more than a week of waiting, her mother's doctor called in a test. Topf said with her mother's disabilities and need for transportation planning is already complicated enough. She worries about people like her mother who don't have someone fighting for them.
"It's very hard as a care provider to try to get what we need and I think ... I think I wonder if it's like a missing link. Like people don't realize how hard it is," Topf said.