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All designated caregivers and essential visitors must continue to follow the protocols in place during their visits, including:

• Completing and passing active screening
• Maintaining physical distance
• Practicing hand hygiene
• Wearing a mask or face covering

Designated caregivers must attest to having a negative COVID-19 test within the previous 14 days, without a subsequent positive test.

Essential visitors are also required to wear additional personal protective equipment for interactions with residents who are self-isolating, suspected or confirmed to have COVID-19.

Designated Caregivers
A caregiver is a type of essential visitor who is designated by the resident and/or their substitute decision maker to provide direct care to the resident. Examples include support feeding, mobility, personal hygiene and assistance in decision making. A designated caregiver can be a family member, friend, private paid companion or caregiver. Designated caregivers must be at least 18 years of age. On September 8th, staff contacted all 430 families and/or residents to determine who they deemed a designated caregiver.

Each resident can have a maximum of two (2) designated caregivers visit the Lodge at a time. The designation should be made in writing to the Lodge, and can be changed at any time as required to reflect the resident’s needs. It is recommended these visits take place in the residents’ room or an outdoor space where physical distancing can be maintained.

As we say hello to September and hold on to the remaining days of summer, we want to share some updates about our Homes for your awareness.

Resident Outings 
Last week the Ontario Government announced that effective immediately, long-term care residents can once again leave their Homes for short-stay and temporary absences. The new directive allows residents to spend time away from their long-term care homes for both day trips or overnight absences. Outings are categorized in two ways:

1. Short-Stay Absences
   These include visits to see family or run errands, as well as outpatient medical visits or emergency room visits that extend over a single night, but where the person is not admitted as an in-patient. For these types of outings, residents will be given a medical mask to be worn at all times when outside of the Home, if tolerated. Residents will also be reminded of the importance of following all public health measures, including physical distancing and handwashing. When they return, residents must be actively screened but are not required to be tested or to self-isolate unless the Home determines the resident has typical or atypical signs and symptoms of COVID-19.
2. Temporary Absences
   Residents may also leave for 'temporary' absences of one or more nights. Temporary absences will be at the discretion of the Home and decided on a case-by-case basis based on safety factors like the risk associated with the absence (e.g., for a family weekend vs. a large gathering) and the ability of the home to help residents self-isolate upon return. For the protection of their neighbours, residents who leave on a temporary absence will be required to self-isolate for 14 days when they return to the Home. If a Home makes the decision to deny a temporary absence request, they must communicate their rationale in writing.

While we are pleased that this announcement allows for more flexibility of our residents and increased socialization with family and loved ones, our main priority remains ensuring the health and safety of our residents, staff and essential visitors. We continue to take a gradual and cautious approach as we work hard to put these new directives in place at both Homes. More information will be shared with you as available.

August is here – already! We hope this update finds you well and that you are enjoying the summer.

COVID-19 has proven to be an unprecedented public health crisis, particularly in the long-term care sector, and challenging on so many levels. In the weeks and months ahead, we will continue working closely and following the best advice from public health professionals to ensure we are as prepared as possible to prevent and contain future outbreaks.

One update we want to share with you is that a policy to safely welcome essential family caregivers back into our Homes is in the works. In keeping with other preventative measures and protocol, the criteria for essential family caregivers will be both specific and strict. We are consulting with and seeking advice from various stakeholders, including the Medical Office of Health, Public Health Services, AdvantAge Ontario and the City of Hamilton. 

Your support, patience and understanding over the last few months has meant so much to our staff team. We care for our residents and value the relationships we have built with residents’ loved ones. While we cannot wait to open our doors and welcome visitors back into our Homes, we are taking a slow, cautious approach to keep the virus out.  

As you may have seen, the Minister of Long-Term Care has appointed an independent commission into COVID-19 and LTC. The commission will investigate how COVID-19 spread within LTC homes; including the impact on residents, staff and families, and a review of the measures taken by the province to prevent, isolate and contain the spread. We are hopeful this review will lead to enhanced guidance that will ultimately better protect LTC residents and staff from any future outbreaks.

Outdoor and indoor visiting continues at both Homes as we see more residents being able to connect with their loved ones. We remain committed to taking the necessary precautions and doing whatever we can to ensure the safety and well-being of our residents, staff, family members and essential visitors.

A reminder that if you want to book a visit, change a visit time or ask questions about indoor/outdoor visiting, you can call 905-546-2424, Ext 6817 for Macassa Lodge or Ext 6818 for Wentworth Lodge. Please do not call the nurses, reception or others in the Lodges about your scheduled visits – they do not have access to share this information.

As always, our sincerest thanks for your continued support and ongoing cooperation in respecting the guidelines in place.

As a follow up to the last update, there is some new information regarding indoor visits we want to share. When outdoor visits resumed in long-term care homes on June 18, the Ministry indicated that this would be a phased approach to visiting resumption. As part of this approach, the Ministry announced that long-term care homes could expand outdoor visits with some changes to the overall guidelines starting July 15, as well as resume indoor visits starting July 22. View the up to date Ministry Guidelines

As always, our staff are working hard to prepare for visits and adhere to the many restrictions and precautions required. Our priority is to provide a safe environment and ensure we maintain the health and safety of residents, staff, family members and essential visitors.

Please note these key changes to visiting protocols, effective immediately:

Outdoor Visits

• Up to 2 visitors with a resident each week; prescheduled.
• No confirmation of a negative COVID-19 test is required.
• Personal mask or face covering for the nose and mouth is required and must be worn for the duration of the visit. Visitors must bring their own mask.

Indoor Visits

• Up to 2 visitors with a resident each week; prescheduled.
• Attestation of a negative COVID-19 test within 14 days of the visit is required.
• A medical procedure mask will be provided by the Lodge. It must be worn at all times while in the Lodge covering the nose, mouth and chin at all times.

Each resident may have one prescheduled 30-minute visit each week to promote fairness in access and allow for other programming within our staffing resources. Visits can include assisted phone calls, Facetime, indoor or outdoor visits.

Efforts will be made, based on available space and staffing, to support visits five days a week from 10 am until 4 pm (except between 12 noon to 1 pm to allow for resident meal times). Evening and weekend visits will be available on a limited basis, as needed. Requests for additional visits will be considered only if open spots are available and we have the resources to support the request.
 

As the province continues to slowly reopen and ease restrictions from the pandemic lockdown, we are happy to hear further details and directives from the Ministry of Long-Term Care that will support us in safely expanding visits in the Lodges.

Back in March, the provincial government announced swift and significant restrictions to visitation in LTC Homes with the intention of protecting seniors, knowing this population is most vulnerable and susceptible to the COVID-19 virus. Since that time, we have continued to work closely with the province and our local Public Health professionals to comply with ever changing orders, recommendations and mandated public health protocols. We are grateful and proud that our collective efforts have protected residents and staff and that to date, COVID-19 has not had the tragic impact we have seen in other LTC Homes across the province.

The enhanced precautions have been difficult for everyone and we appreciate your continued patience, understanding and support. We have had to make difficult decisions regarding visitation and know both professionally and personally that the forced separation from loved ones takes a toll on our residents and families. Our staff understand this too and have made great efforts to try and fill some of that void by supporting phone calls, virtual visits, sending pictures and spending some extra time with residents.

A big thank you to City of Hamilton staff who have been redeployed to assist with various clerical and operational tasks in the Lodges. The additional temporary staffing resources has given our own Lodge staff the capacity to help with family phone calls, meal assistance and friendly visits with residents. Through the province’s emergency order, we have also been able to streamline some of the documentation requirements under the LTC Homes Act, which has also helped us redirect some resources to resident care and engagement during this difficult time. However, as City services reopen, the extra staffing resources will return to their “real” jobs soon and the Ministry has just announced that the documentation standards will return to pre-COVID expectations. Suppose that is a comforting sign that we are returning to some kind of normal.

We hope that this update finds you well and that you are managing with the summer heat and humidity. Both our homes are fully air-conditioned to ensure residents and staff can keep cool and find relief from this heat. While we are continuing to host outdoor visits, we have had to make some adjustments to our schedules based on recent heat advisories. Please be aware that scheduled outdoor visits may be canceled and replaced with a phone call where necessary to ensure the health and well-being of our residents, staff and family members during periods of extreme heat.

We appreciate your patience and support through this time; it has been wonderful to see residents connect with their loved ones during these visits. Since outside visits were initiated a few weeks ago, more than 540 outdoor visits have taken place across our homes.

We are just hovering over one week (already!) since scheduled outdoor visits resumed, both in our Homes and across the province. As of end of day Wednesday, 146 visits took place across both Homes. We are so happy to help facilitate these reunions with our residents and visitors, and expect the number of visits will only increase in the summer months and beyond.

In order to make these visits possible, there are strict protocols and restrictions in place – please adhere to them. We understand that having a physically distant visit with rules to follow is not ideal, but it’s necessary and worth it to visit with loved ones safely.

Beginning yesterday, visitors can schedule a supervised outdoor visit with a resident. We are taking a phased-in approach to resume visiting to ensure the health and safety of residents, staff and visitors. As always, we continue to follow Ministry directives and best practices from Public Health professionals. Read more about the Ministry of Long-Term Care’s visitor guidelines.

Our staff are working hard to schedule visits, set up outdoor spaces and ensure we have all the necessary health and safety protocols in place. In order to use our existing staff resources to support all residents equitably across visit formats, outdoor visits will likely take the place of the current weekly video and phone calls. Over the first few weeks, we will be looking for your feedback to help ensure meaningful visits. We recognize that these are unusual circumstances and thank you in advance for your patience and understanding.

We have been calling families to start scheduling visits. If you have questions or would like to book a scheduled visit, please call 905-546-2424 and dial ext. 6817 for Macassa Lodge or ext. 6818 for Wentworth Lodge. We are exploring an online option to book visits as well and hope to share more details about this soon.

We hope you are all staying well. We are so pleased - as we’re sure you are as well - about the recent provincial announcement that we are now at a stage where visiting in long-term care homes can gradually resume.  

We are working hard on plans to support these once weekly outdoor visits between residents and a single family member.  Our planning will include setting up appropriate outdoor spaces for visits, scheduling staff and making sure we have all the necessary health and safety protocols in place. As you can appreciate, there are strict rules and requirements that homes must follow before they can start welcoming visitors.

We will continue to follow the direction and best advice from both the Ministry of Health and our local Medical Officer of Health to determine when it is safe and feasible to move ahead with visits in our Homes. As we begin to offer outdoor visits there will be adjustments to the schedule of video calls in order to use our existing staff resources to support all residents equitably across visit formats. 

You can read more about the Ministry of Long-Term Care’s visitor guidelines that provide full details on the plans (i.e. three phases) to gradually resume visiting. We will update you shortly about the process to request and book the outside visits.

As you may have already seen reported in the news, the recent military report on five long-term care homes in Ontario has been shared publicly. Like you, we find these stories to be extremely disturbing and upsetting. We are heartbroken for any of the individuals who have had to deal with these horrible circumstances.

We continue to work tirelessly and to the best of our ability to protect your loved ones and provide the best possible care to keep them healthy and safe. Our staff remain committed to ensuring all residents have access to the highest level of care as we navigate these unprecedented times. We are grateful to our staff members and health system partners for their continued dedication and hard work under challenging circumstances over the past several months.

Since the first signs of COVID-19 in early March, we have been decisive and swift in following both directives and recommendations from the Ministry of Health, Public Health and Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health.