Prevention Plan for the COVID-19 Virus Update 3: March 27, 2020
Weare sharing this update with our residents, clients, families, members, staffand our community about the steps currently being taken at KinVillage in lightof the COVID-19 threat.
The measures we are taking continue to strongly focuson prevention and follow the guidance we regularly receive, primarily from the ProvincialHealth Officer and Fraser Health. Themost recent restrictions reflect the increased emphasis on social distancingand maintaining the recommended 2 meters between individuals.
Highlights as of today:
Visitors
- Entrance to WestCourt (our Care Home) and South Court (Assisted Living Residence) continues tobe restricted. As these are homes to ourmost at-risk residents, no visitors are allowed. Anexception may be made for one essential adult visitor who passes screening, tovisit a resident who is actively dying.
- Visitors to Vidal and North Courts (home toindependent living and seniors’ supportive housing residents) are allowed thoughreminded to not visit if they are experiencing respiratory symptoms and/or havetravelled recently.
Other preventative measures to keep everyone safe
The Community Centre and all of its programs remains closed.
The Day Program for Older Adults remains closed.
The twice daily enhanced cleaning of frequent/high touch surfaces (e.g. door handles, railings, elevator buttons etc.) initiated in all four residential buildings March 9th continues to be a high priority. Reminders located in all of our residential buildings and numerous hand sanitizing stations encourage everyone to practicing meticulous hand hygiene and coughing etiquette, two of the most important ways we can all contribute to “stopping the spread”.
In Assisted Living:
Effective March 26th, noon and evening meals are now being served to residents in their suites. This supports social distancing as the South Court dining room unfortunately does not provide space sufficient to enable adequate social distancing.
Residents are strongly advised to not leave the building, limiting outings to those that are essential (e.g. medical appointments). Residents who must leave South Court are actively screened upon return. (This is also in place in the Care Home.)
Admissions of new residents from the community and moves to long-term care homes have been temporarily suspended, except in circumstances of intolerable risk.
The resident lounges in both Vidal and North Courts were closed effective March 26th.
Volunteers are not working at KinVillage until further notice.
Entry to each of South and West Courts is now via a single entrance. Anyone entering either building is subject to an active screening process by staff before being allowed in. Staff are also subject to active screening when they leave work and are constantly self-monitoring themselves for symptoms.
Residents of the Care Home and Assisted Living Residence are regularly monitored for any symptoms indicating possible infection. Testing is done promptly and, per our standard infection prevention and control practices, residents who have symptoms remain in their suites until results indicate they do not have an infection.
Some positive news
- There are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 atKinVillage.
- Wellness programs continue for residents. These are being adapted to support socialdistancing (with smaller groups in large enough spaces) and to make effectiveuse of technology. Our staff continue toencourage all Care Home and Assisted Living residents to safely participate inprograms that support their physical, mental, and psychological health.
- Care Home and Assisted Living staff areincreasingly focused on encouraging and enabling connections between residentsand their loved ones who are unable to visit. Phoning, skyping, and facetiming are available; we expect “WhatsApp”will be available in the Care Home early next week. Family members who are interested inconnecting with residents via Skype, Facetime and/or WhatsApp are asked toplease contact Bettina Salini, KinVillage’s Director of Wellness, at bsalini@kinvillage.org or 604-943-0155 ext 250. Any and all ideas of how we can help support thesevital connections between residents and their families are most welcome.
- Care Home residents continue to appreciate themore relaxed dining environment now that additional space is available in theDay Program and Family rooms.
- Our dedicated staff are healthy and here innumbers! Our daily staff complements are as per normal. We are very pleased to have increased ourrecreation staffing beyond the usual levels in order to ensure wellnessprograms are available to all residents and to support social connectionsbetween residents and families.
Information Sources & Communication
Care Home - Resident Families: If you have not already added your e-mail address to our contactfile, please call 604- 943-0155 ext. 221. In the event of a COVID-19 outbreak, KinVillagewill provide a daily information release via e-mail and via internal postings.
Care Home - ResidentInformation - For regular inquiries about resident care,please continue to contact nursing staff. If there is a change in a resident’shealth status, the Primary Contact will be notified by the nurse, as per ournormal procedure.
Care Home - Issues or Concerns
Directorof Care - Nadine Brown (604-943-0155 ext 226) nbrown@kinvillage.org
AssistedLiving
Generalconcerns:
Director of Housing - Carol Howard (604-943-4805 ext 401) choward@kinvillage.org
Clinicalconcerns:
Assisted Living Nurse (604-943-4805 ext 412)
DayProgram for Older Adults
LPN (604-943-0155ext 237)
General Concerns
Director of Health Services – Cynthia Langenberg, 604-943-0155 ext32, clangenberg@kinvillage.org
CEO – Donna Ellis, 604-306-2775, dellis@kinvillage.org
Sources of AdditionalInformation:
We recommend the following links for current,accurate updates on the extent of the COVID-19 situation in our province.
www.News.gov.bc.ca – MinistryUpdates
www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/coronavirus-(novel)
www.healthlink.bc.ca - HealthLinkBC