Hello Everyone!
The Sun is shining and the heat has arrived just in time for the weekend! Tenants and residents are enjoying the gorgeous weather by taking advantage of outside visits and just enjoying the natural Vitamin D!
We hope you are all staying safe and healthy! It is so important to follow the directions to keep yourself and everyone else safe. With warmer weather, remember to stay hydrated.
Current BC Provincial Medical Health Orders can be found here and new provincial travel restrictions can be found here. Current Medical Health Orders have Travel restrictions for non-essential travel in B.C. in place to stop the spread of COVID-19 through MAY 25, 2021. Please stay local and travel only when needed.
Please understand there are still risks associated with this and our guidelines and protocols are in place to do all we can to keep our community safe. We ask families and friends to practice safety and caution in order to keep all of our residents and team members safe and healthy during this time.
We are happy to report today we have no new resident or staff displaying any symptoms of COVID-19 here at Rosemary Heights Seniors Village.
CHANGES IN LONG TERM CARE
We are pleased to announce a change coming to our community and the transition to change to a Special Care Dementia Unit for responsive behavior residents. It is called a Behavior Support Transition Neighborhood (BSTN).
Sometimes a person is not able to communicate and they might use behaviors to tell us what they want or need. These behaviors can include hitting, kicking, yelling out and/or cursing. We call these responsive behaviors. If these behaviors become a safety concern for the person or others, they might need to move into this separated neighborhood within our care home.
The unit is intended to meet the special needs of our residents with more specialized recreation programs, clinical programing and increased staffing again to support the needs of this specific client population.
Over the next month or so, we will be working with the Health Authority to prepare for the roll out of the program and the admission of new clients to the unit. If you have any inquiries or questions, please feel reach to our Director of Care, Aisa Nacorda or myself (Maggie-GM).
Summary of the “In Building” social visitation guidelines:
We will continue to have a Screener/Greeter at the front doors which all visitors must come to and be pre-screened, temperature taken and sign in. You will also be provided a sanitization kit that contains a medical graded cleaning wipe and ask that help do your part & clean high touch areas before you leave from your visit. If you do not have a medical grade mask one will be provided for you. The guidelines state you can have 2 adults and 1 child (18yrs or younger) at a time in your suite following all guidelines. When the visit is over, they must sign out and go directly out. Please remind your family and friends that in order to keep everyone safe, we will continue to keep track of all visitors in the building.
For the safety of all of our residents & staff, and to minimize the possible risk of exposure we are requesting that visits occur in your loved one’s suite/room only, please do not access common areas, any patio areas, dining areas or walk hallways. No food or beverage are to be consumed by any visitor during the in person visit within Rosemary Heights (however residents can).
As a reminder, the vaccine is not 100% effective, and there are new variants going around that may not be prevented by current vaccines. Please remind your loved ones not to relax the practices of hand hygiene, physical distancing, and other safety measures that will keep them safe and healthy.
HOW TO BOOK A VISIT:
To request visit times/dates email this address rhsv-familyvisits@retirementconcepts.com for visitation.
DO
DO NOT
X Remove your mask at any time
X Please do not touch your mask (sanitize hands if so)
X Do not drink or eat during your visit
X Drop in without an appointment
Our team members first & main priority is the wellbeing & care of our residents that reside at Rosemary Heights.
Family/friends can bring in food/beverage only for the resident you are visiting and visitors are advised not to partake in consuming any food or beverage during your visit, keep your mask on at all times. This is also printed on the sign in waiver form a visitor signs every time you come in for a visit, if you are unable to adhere to appropriate precautions, you will be excluded from visiting.
Outings
Residential Care: If you would like to take a resident out, you must still schedule this in advance. Please give the Nurses on the floor as much notice as possible, preferably 24hrs prior, so they can ensure your loved one is ready.
Independent/Assisted Living: You do not need to schedule an outing for our IL/AL residents because they are able to meet you out front or at the door. Please arrange this directly with the resident. If you need to come up to the suite to assist the resident prior to the outing, then a scheduled visit is required.
We strongly recommend all residents follow the current Public Health Officer (PHO) order on gatherings and events.
Essential Visitors: Please know that if you are already an essential visitor you will continue to be at the request of your family member. Please note that all visitors are required to wear a medical mask when coming to visit their loved one. Cloth masks are no longer acceptable.
NO visitors will be permitted at Rosemary Heights if an active outbreak is in progress.
Recreation Program
We are happy to assist with virtual visits via FaceTime, Skype, and zoom, and we can arrange for phone calls with your loved ones.
We will continue to offer scheduled video calls for those families who live out of town or are unable to come in for any reason. Please connect with Jaylene Smillie in our recreation department by emailing jsmillie@retirementconcepts.com or by calling 778-545-5000 ext. 1007.
We are looking forward to beautifying the garden patios once all the pressure washing is over this week, tenants and residents have started working up the pots and garden beds in preparation of planting some lovely flowers for the summer season!
Maintenance
This week, May 17-21, the building, & patio areas will be pressure washed, we have notified all the residents to remove all items off their balconies (in Assisted Living) and staff on Long term care will ensure all windows are closed.
Dining Programs
Our Spring-Summer Menu has now launched so our residents & tenants will be enjoying seasonal produce and delicious new Entrée items such as barbeque options, Waldorf salad, Eggplant Parmigiana & butter chicken just to name a few!
Hair Salon
The hair salon is open! Please contact Rhonda to set an appointment, phone number is 604-626-5449 and her email address is pace_rhonda@hotmail.com.
Deliveries
**Delivery hours are between 9am- 3pm, 7 days a week**
All deliveries will be received at the lobby entrance vestibule. This includes medication deliveries from pharmacies, other gifts and mail. All items will be sanitized and delivered directly to the residents’ suite.
Please do not drop off items after hours, it may be left outside until the designated time listed, if you do, you will be taking your chances & we will not be responsible for anything that is left after hours.
We celebrated our RHSV Nursing Team this past week, & we appreciate all the hard work they do to care for our seniors and support their teams not only throughout these unforeseen times but always. THANK YOU for ALL that they do!
We ask that families share this information with all parties you believe will be in contact with your loved one. We have all worked so hard together over the last year, please remain diligent in your current practice to help keep our home a safe place.
If you have any questions or general inquiries, please do not hesitate to reach out. You can contact Maggie, General Manager at mamirani@retirementconcetps.com or call 778-545-5001.
Use gratitude to counter stress & uncertainty
Something that I am trying to focus on this year and sharing with our team and now with our extended family is mental health and what we can do to help ease these uncertain feelings.
Taking care of our mental health during a pandemic isn’t easy. Since the outbreak began, we’ve all been feeling — understandably — a lot more stressed. One study found that 57% of people are experiencing greater anxiety, and 53% of us are more emotionally exhausted. These
kinds of emotions tend to arise when we lose some form of stability in our lives. Right now, we just don’t know what comes next. Living in a constant state of uncertainty can feel like running a race with no finish line or completing a puzzle without a reference picture. Everything seems unclear, and the worst seems possible.
Of course, this not a fun state of mind to be in. So what can we possibly do to help minimize the impacts of uncertainty on our wellbeing? While it may not address the root cause, research shows that gratitude can help balance us out.
“Gratitude is an emotion that grounds us and is a great way to balance out the negative mindset that uncertainty engenders,” said Dr. Guy Winch, author of the book Emotional First Aid. When we express gratitude, our brain releases dopamine and serotonin — two
hormones that make us feel lighter and happier inside. If we want to take care of our minds during this pandemic, understanding how to trigger this feeling is an important tool to have at our disposal.
Tune in next week, when we talk about before you can trigger it, let’s understand why gratitude is so important.
Resources
We take care of those that have been entrusted to us, and we also need to take care of each other. Your Mental health is an important part of your physical health and personal well-being. With so much happening, it’s normal to feel worried and overwhelmed. Below is some resource that help support you.
BC – Healthlink BC – 310Mental Health Support at 310-6789 (no area code needed) for emotional support, information and resources specific to mental health. – https://www.healthlinkbc.ca/mental-health.
https://www.fraserhealth.ca/health-topics-a-to-z/mental-health-and-substance-use/mental-health-resources-to-support-you-during-covid-19#.YKWmw6hKiUk
Wishing you all a fantastic rest of week and enjoy the long weekend (Victoria Day is Monday, May 24th).
– Your team at Rosemary Heights Seniors Village (RHSV)