To all Residents in funded care and their Families,
I would like to start by thanking you for participating in all of the measures we have been taking and helping us to prevent any cases of COVID-19 in our Villages. These are uncharted waters, our staff are working tirelessly to keep your families safe and their effort is commendable. Our efforts are working and to date we have had no cases of COVID-19 in any of our Villages.
As we work closely with our health authorities we have been asked to continue to move seniors from the hospital to care to keep those beds available for those that need them. All new residents are required to go into a 14 day self-isolation for the protection of all residents and staff in the Village. We have also been directed by our provincial health officer to ensure that all items being moved into a resident suite must first be cleaned and sanitized. This means our staff must move all items from the exterior of our Village, sanitize them, then deliver them to the suite. This includes all soft items being washed and all hard items going through proper sanitization. We ask that all new residents and their families limit the items they are bringing into the suite to expedite the cleaning process and to keep our staff focused on exceptional care.
On Friday, we asked that families reduce the frequency of deliveries to limit exposure to residents and staff. As of today we have been advised by the Provincial Health Officer to no longer accept any gifts, packages, or deliveries of any item in Long Term Care in BC and Supportive Living in Alberta as each item that comes into our building from an outside source introduces risk. We know that these packages for many families was your way of reaching out to your loved ones, especially during the religious holidays happening over this season.
We are doing our best to help you connect with loved ones in alternate ways. To facilitate this, we have sent out a fleet of tablets so that you can have a virtual visit. Many of these tablets have arrived at our Villages and many are still on their way in the mail system. Please contact your Village to arrange one of these visits once they arrive.
We do not take these measures easily, we know this may change your plans to deliver care packages for the holiday, but for the health of all we must come together to keep COVID-19 out of our Villages.
Warm Regards,
Celeste Mullin
Vice President