May 14th, 2020
Good day to you all,
I am hoping that everyone is getting ready for the long weekend coming up. Here is hoping we all get some nice weather and a BBQ in.
I would like to take this time to thank those families who have been so supportive and thankful to the team here during this incredibly difficult time. For the most part, families and friends of loved ones have been very understanding and willing to adhere to the requests we have made to refrain from visiting during this time.
As we move into the upcoming changes in access to services as outlined by the health minister, these access changes do not impact long term care. What this means for now is that we will not be lifting any of the restrictions currently to visiting or accessing the site. It will be during the time that restrictions are lifting outside of our Community that we must remain most diligent to ensure that we are protecting and keeping the virus out of the building. We will update you as soon as we know what this means for our Community, and the people who reside here. We certainly appreciate your efforts in assisting us in doing all we can to keep Summerland a COVID free building.
There have been some challenges in the recreation team over the last few days. We have another staff on leave and this now leaves us with only 2 recreation staff. That said, we do have a new recruit starting with us on the 19th. Her name is Kaitlin Goodman and we are very pleased to have her joining our recreation team. Please join me in welcoming Kaitlin to our team.
The Assisted living folks are still on restrictions for guests on the property. We are asking once again for some understanding about being on the property. We are spending a good deal of time coming out to the parking lot asking people to please leave the property. We are also experiencing some resistance when we ask people to leave. As I have stated, these measures are in place for the protection of both residents and our staff. The more time we have to be redirecting people, we are taking time away from the residents.
We cancelled one hallway happy hour this week due to a recreation staff’s illness. We will do our best with the staff that we have to ensure there are some activities taking place. Martin will be rolling out the gardening in very small groups at the raised flower beds after the long weekend.
The Long term care residents are settling in to their new surroundings (those who moved to another unit). There are a few folks that still have larger items secured in their previous rooms. We will be making arrangements with maintenance to bring those items over soon along with re-hanging of larger pictures, etc.
I wish you all a safe and happy long weekend. Thank you for all your support and kind words, it goes a long way to boosting the morale of staff and Management.
Thank you,
Christy Baker
General Manager