Live Update to Residents-June 15, 2020
Daily Live updates to residents on our in-house TV970 keep us informed and connected. Today’s update featured Debra Jacobsen, Administrator Resident Services; Will Blackwell, Vice President Health Services; Tracy De Vera, Recreation Therapist; and Lynn McClintock, Director Pastoral Care.
The following updates were shared during the live briefing on TV970.
Debra Jacobsen
As of today, the COVID-19 data for Virginia includes:
• 476,573 people have been tested for COVID-19. Positive cases total 54,886.
• The rolling seven-day positivity rate in Virginia is 7.5%, Henrico is 8.5%, and Richmond is 10.7%.
• 902 people are currently hospitalized.
• There have been 1,552 deaths associated with COVID-19.
• 7,230 people have recovered.
Social Distancing
Social distancing is defined as interventions or measures intended to prevent the spread of contagious diseases by maintaining a physical distance between people and reducing the number of times people come into close contact with each other. Expectations at Westminster Canterbury Richmond include:
• Maintain at least six feet between you and others everywhere you go.
• Limit group sizes to six or fewer in spaces on campus. Lounges and other available spaces for small groups have signage posted.
• Limit groups in outdoor spaces to 10 or fewer, except in cases like Tunes on Tuesday where staff have spaced the seating to allow for more people with appropriate social distancing.
As you venture outside of Westminster Canterbury, it is recommended to avoid crowded areas and limit your time outside the community to only those things you consider essential. As we continue to reengage with one another and reopen ourselves to the outside community, we rely on you all to partner with us and hold to the practices that have helped us be successful so far.
At Westminster Canterbury, we have placed markers on the floor and posted signs reminding residents to social distance in the areas where residents may be in the same location at the same time, such as the front desk or salons. Many of you have asked Resident Services what you should do when spending time in areas outside of the public areas. The same precautions apply. Putting six feet between you and others, including your friends and families, helps you avoid the chance of being exposed to illness.
Thank you for your patience and compliance with these recommendations as we strive to keep everyone healthy.
Bank
BB&T will continue to offer drive-through services at their branches. Lobby banking is only by appointment. For communities such as Westminster Canterbury, they remain closed for the near future. If you need to access your safety deposit box, call the Lakeside Branch and speak with Peggy. Peggy comes to Westminster Canterbury every other week to service the ATM machine and has been taking appointments from residents who need to access their boxes. We will keep you updated.
Tunes on Tuesday
Tunes on Tuesday is cancelled this week due to the rain forecast.
John returns tomorrow and will be giving more details about Independent Living Visitation.
Will Blackwell
Mary Morton Parsons Health Center Updates
Westminster Canterbury is taking a proactive approach to preparing Parsons Health Center for reengaging. Although we have not received guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and Virginia Department of Health (VDH) on reopening, CMS says these factors should inform decisions about relaxing restrictions in nursing homes (https://www.cms.gov/files/document/qso-20-30-nh.pdf):
• Case Status in the Community: State-based criteria to determine the level of community transmission and guides progression from one phase to another. For example, a decline in the number of new cases, hospitalizations or deaths.
• Case status in nursing home: Absence of any new nursing home onset of COVID-19 case (resident or staff), such as resident acquiring COVID-19 in the nursing home.
• Access to adequate staffing: No staffing shortages and the facility is not under a contingency staffing plan.
• Access to adequate testing: We must have completed testing on Parsons Health Center residents and employees. Westminster Canterbury negotiated COVID-19 testing with our lab partner LabCorp. The lab has been processing the testing results within 48 to 72 hours. Parsons Health Center completed all baseline testing on residents in our center on May 27, 2020. We test all new admissions, and they remain on droplet precautions for a 14-day quarantine when coming from the hospital or the community outside of Westminster Canterbury. We began testing Parsons Health Center employees the first week of June, including nursing staff as well as employees in Rehab, Dining, Housekeeping and Laundry, Engineering, Security and Westminster Canterbury Richmond at Home. This will help us to be prepared when clear guidance is given by CMS and VDH.
• Universal source control: Residents and visitors wear a cloth face covering or facemask.
• Access to adequate Personal Protective Equipment: All staff wear all appropriate PPE when indicated. Staff wear cloth face coverings and maintain social distance when possible.
• Local hospital capacity: Ability for the local hospital to accept transfers from nursing homes.
Tracy De Vera
Assisted Living Recreation
Our Recreation Coordinators in Assisted Living – Tracey DeVera, Sara Merchant, Lynne Cook and Tina Shearer – have been busy with residents in The Gables, Monticello, Avalon and Pavilion during the pandemic.
Many of the residents’ favorite activities have resumed with social distancing and on a smaller scale, but they make a huge impact on the residents’ lives. Bingo, a favorite activity in Monticello, Avalon, and Pavilion, has continued weekly. A popular social, Wine Time, resumed weekly in Avalon in the hallway on each floor.
The Gables and Monticello residents have had Memory Support programs such as Horticulture, Art and Music therapy. Two of our regular monthly musicians have performed for residents via FaceTime. Residents enjoy indoor bowling and golf played in the hallways in Monticello. Through Zoom and FaceTime, residents in Monticello exercise three days per week. The Gables, Pavilion and Avalon residents have continued exercise weekly with our Wellness team.
For relaxation, The Gables and Monticello residents enjoy going out on household patios for sun and fresh air and being in their beautiful garden. Gardening has been a fun activity. Pavilion and Avalon residents have enjoyed getting outside and going for walks around campus. To stay spiritually connected, The Gables residents have devotions with Pastoral Care.
During times of stricter precautions and restrictions, Recreation Coordinators have been able to assist residents in other ways, such as helping to deliver mail, running errands like helping residents buy stamps, help with technology needs, return and get new books, and whatever else we can do to adapt and assist them to do more things in their homes. Recreation Coordinators delivered groceries and flower arrangements and assisted with temperature checks when activities were cancelled due to the most recent quarantine in The Gables and Monticello.
Puzzle and word game packets and adult coloring pages were put together for the residents to do in their homes. Pavilion residents enjoyed trivia, jokes of the day, name that tune and room games, like scavenger hunts. Recreation Coordinators have helped make around 1,080 connections between residents and family members via phone, Zoom, FaceTime and Skype. The residents adapted well to utilizing these new formats and look forward to staying connected with family. In Monticello, a resident celebrated the birth of their first great- grandchild and watched a granddaughter’s Harvard graduation online.
This time may have changed how we are doing things, but the residents are still gaining experiences, making memories, having fun and staying connected as much as possible.
Lynn McClintock
There will be a Service of Thanksgiving for the Montague Chapel on July 2, at 10:30 a.m., on TV970. A YouTube link will be available for those who wish to watch it again or share with others.
Isaiah 43:16-21
This is what the LORD says—
he who made a way through the sea,
a path through the mighty waters,
who drew out the chariots and horses,
the army and reinforcements together,
and they lay there, never to rise again,
extinguished, snuffed out like a wick:
“Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland
The wild animals honor me,
the jackals and the owls,
because I provide water in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland,
to give drink to my people, my chosen,
the people I formed for myself
that they may proclaim my praise.
Prayer
God of love and grace who watches over us, who calls us to more faithful living, and into a whole new world, and a whole new life—we come before you now. With so much happening in the world, we feel growth pains and we are every day affected. Each time we come to you in prayer, we are different people. Like a teenager who looks in the mirror one morning to view his face and then the next morning—doesn’t even recognize himself because of how quickly he is growing up…every day we come to you with changed hearts—with new questions, new concerns, new views of the world, new news, new adjustments to the seismic shifts that are happening around us.
All around us, the world is changing—so fast—and yet sometimes we have the odd sensation of standing still. It’s such a strange feeling! Help us to take a deep breath, and to ease our minds in recognition that we are in a transformative, and holy place. You are doing a new thing, grant us the eyes and hearts—to perceive it. You have the whole world in your hands, and you will not let us go.
As the community of Westminster Canterbury, help us to see this time as an opportunity for deep growth. As we honor and value our past, reassure us that as we move forward, your hand is guiding us…as we cross through these waters, you are keeping us safe, as we thirst for understanding and comfort, your kind hand offers us cool water to drink and shade to help us through. Give us the wisdom to learn from our discomfort—to trust that it is in times of unbalance and holy chaos that you offer your still, small voice to make us new people.
Perhaps, O Lord, these troubling of the waters you call us to wade through is actually your gift of deep love and grace to us. Perhaps this is your call to us. If this is the Spirt calling, let us hear! If it is you who is pushing us to take a good look at who we are and who we have been—then grant unto us ears to hear and hearts to know who you are calling us to be. Give us the trust and strength to open ourselves to what you may be teaching us and the new world you are creating. In all the changes that happen around us and within us—we trust that you are working a new thing in us…so that when we look in the mirror at ourselves, may we see not just the changing “me,” but may we also see the timeless and loving countenance of the eternal “you” that lives within each of us.
For a time such as this, O Lord, may we heed your call to become new people.
Amen.