Words of Encouragement Across Campus
Thank you to these two wonderful dietary staff at Menno Apartments, Monica Neufeld (left) and Rhonda Yager (right) for sharing words of encouragement on the Menno campus!
UPDATE: Isolation Period for Primrose Gardens, Terrace West & Terrace East
Menno Place Memo
To: All Residents, Staff & Families of Menno Place
Re: UPDATE: COVID-19 Exposure in Primrose Gardens & Terrace West Independent Living Apartments
Date: Monday, August 24th, 2020 1:30pm
On Friday, August 21st, Menno Place notified residents, family, and friends of a COVID-19 exposure in Primrose Gardens and Terrace West Independent Living Apartments. Read the Aug. 21 Memo here.
The exposed residents and their families have all been contacted and advised. Residents were swabbed on Saturday and all results have come back negative for COVID-19. We are cautiously optimistic as false negatives are possible among the elderly. We are monitoring symptoms and the situation closely.
Thank you for your prayerful support and for honouring our request to halt visits and deliveries on the Menno Place campus over the weekend.
At this time, we are asking ALL residents of Primrose Gardens, Terrace West AND Terrace East to abide by an isolation period until the morning of August 30th.
This means:
- Staying in your apartment.
- Meals will be delivered to your apartment.
- All hair appointments have been cancelled.
As Terrace East Assisted Living Apartments are connected to Terrace West Independent Living Apartments, we are asking those residents to also abide by this isolation period out of an abundance of caution.
Residents of Primrose Gardens, Terrace West, and Terrace East may continue to go to important medical appointments off-campus.
Registered Visitors of Primrose Gardens, Terrace West, and Terrace East must refrain from visiting or making deliveries to the campus until the morning of August 30th unless absolutely necessary.
Families and friends of residents in these facilities must wait until the morning of August 30th to resume outdoor visits.
To make arrangements for essential medical appointments, please contact Manager of Community Enrichment for Menno Place Apartments, Cheryl Dawes, at cheryl.dawes@mennoplace.ca or 604-851-4020. Essential grocery deliveries can be made with the receptionists.
Pavilion Independent Living residents may continue to have registered visitors and outdoor visits. Menno Home and Hospital Safe Social Visits will also continue as before.
We are grateful for the many messages of encouragement (like this one) that we received over the weekend:
“Thank you so much for all your careful work during these challenging times. I am praying for you. I have complete confidence that you are doing everything possible to keep the residents safe.”
Thank you for your cooperation and love for the residents and staff of Menno Place. We will continue to send necessary updates to the situation.
Karen Biggs
CEO, Menno Place
Have you found our Family & Friends website? For information and updates, go to: www.MennoPlaceLife.com
For information and discussion with others whose loved one lives at Menno Place, please ask to join the Menno Place Family & Friends Facebook Group.
FAQ’s:
How do I make essential grocery deliveries to my loved one until August 30th?
Essential grocery deliveries can be made 9am to 11:30am 7 days a week (on weekends, a phone number for dietary staff is posted on the outside door. Call and the dietary team will come to receive the groceries from you). Please remember to keep groceries “essential” until August 30th as to not overrun the receptionists. Primrose Garden grocery deliveries can be made at the main door with Brenda. Terrace East and Terrace West deliveries can be made at the Terrace East main door with Claire. If you use Save On or another grocery delivery service, deliveries also need to be during the hours mentioned above. Deliveries for Terrace East & West have to be made at the Terrace East main entrance.
My loved one lives in the Terrace East Assisted Living Apartments. If there was no COVID-19 exposure in Terrace East, why are they being asked to abide by the isolation period until the morning of August 30th?
Out of an abundance of caution. The Terrace East building is connected to Terrace West.
When will the rotating dining room schedule resume in Primrose Gardens, Terrace West and Terrace East?
Meals in the dining rooms in these buildings will resume after August 30th if there is no change to the situation. Residents will receive their invitations as before.
I have a Safe Social Visit booked with my loved one in Menno Home or Hospital. Should I reschedule my visit until after August 30th?
There has been no exposure to residents in Menno Home or Hospital. The Safe Social Visit sites are also in separate buildings from the exposure. You may keep your appointment if you are comfortable doing so.
If it is more than 24 hours before your appointment, you can reschedule quickly and easily by clicking on the ‘Change/Cancel’ button at the bottom of your appointment confirmation email. Please keep in mind that Safe Social Visits are on a rotating schedule through our units, and it may be several weeks until a time slot for your loved one’s unit becomes available again.
If you would like to cancel or reschedule and it is less than 24 hours before your appointment, please contact Life Enrichment Coordinator, Garry Janzen at garry.janzen@mennoplace.ca or 604-851-1332.
My loved one does not live in the exposed buildings. Why are you notifying me?
Out of an abundance of caution. It is important to us that you are aware of all COVID-19 related news.
MEMO: FHA Home Support Worker Tests Positive for COVID-19
Menno Place Memo
To: All Residents, Staff & Families of Menno Place
Re: Use an Abundance of Caution on Campus — FHA Home Support Worker Tests Positive for COVID-19
Date: Friday, August 21, 2020 6:30pm
On Friday, August 21st, 2020 Menno Place was notified that a FHA Home Support Worker tested positive for COVID-19.
There is no cause for alarm at this time. We are informing you out of an abundance of caution. NO Menno Place staff or residents have tested positive for COVID-19 at this time.
Over the weekend, we encourage residents of Primrose Gardens and Terrace West to stay in their suites as much as possible, to wear masks whenever they are in indoor or outdoor public spaces, and to continue to wash or sanitize their hands regularly.
Meals will go back to being served in the apartment suites, and all hair appointments will be cancelled.
We ask that Registered Visitors of Primrose Gardens and Terrace West refrain from visiting or making deliveries to the campus this weekend unless absolutely necessary. Security will be on the premises to remind visitors.
We hope to have an update for you on Monday, August 24 or if Public Health advises us differently. Let’s continue to do as Dr. Henry asks and be kind, be calm, and be safe.
Karen Biggs
CEO, Menno Place
Have you found our Family & Friends website? For information and updates, go to: www.MennoPlaceLife.com
For information and discussion with others whose loved one lives at Menno Place, please ask to join the Menno Place Family & Friends Facebook Group.
New Outdoor Mask Policy on the Menno Place Campus
Outdoor visitors and residents are no longer required to wear a mask on the Menno Place campus if they are more than six feet away from another person OR by themselves outside.
We continue to ask that masks be worn inside.
Friends & Family Members received this communication on Wed, Aug 9:
————-
Thank you so much to all the family members and friends who are safely social distancing when you visit on our campus outside with your loved ones. We feel confident that we can relax our request for wearing masks while outside as people are getting more used to distancing and we are altering our signage.
As Dr. Bonnie Henry says, if you are unable to distance, please wear a mask.
We realize how difficult the summer heat is on frail elderly especially behind masks. We also know that it is challenging to hear without seeing lips and facial expressions. We continue to pray that the Lord keeps our seniors and staff safe from this horrid disease.
Independent and Assisted Living residents are still required to wear a mask in public indoor areas. Registered Visitors of Independent Living residents are still required to wear a mask while indoors.
We are also looking at plexiglass barriers which can be installed to make indoor Home and Hospital visits easier. More details to come.
Thank you for your patience while we work through the ever changing processes of balancing safety and quality of life. If you see seniors forgetting to distance on campus, please be kind and calm while gently reminding them. This is difficult for many to understand.
Karen Biggs BScN, RN, CHE, FCCHL
CEO, Menno Place
————–
Palliative Care Volunteers Return to Home and Hospital
Palliative Care Volunteers return to Menno Home and Hospital, Monday, August 17, 2020. These volunteers will follow protocols outlined to them by Menno Place. They have all participated in a COVID-19 orientation in order to return to safely sit with one palliative resident per shift. We are grateful for their return.
CAMPUS-WIDE NETWORK OUTAGE – AUG 20: 1600 – 1900
CAMPUS-WIDE NETWORK OUTAGE – AUGUST 20, 1600-1900 HOURS
There will be a campus-wide network outage on August 20th from 1600 – 1900 hours.
Access to all servers including but not limited to email, GoldCare, file sharing, access control, SharePoint, ProActivity will be affected.
Computers and iPads that are online at the beginning of the outage should remain able to access the Internet; computers that are not online at the beginning of the outage may not be able to access the Internet until services are restored.
So if you need Internet access, make sure you have access prior to 1600 hours.
Music Video Team Challenge 2020 – The Challengers!
Remember this amazing video from the W2 Hospital team?
Thanks to the following departments who submitted a music video for the team challenge!:
Recreation Team (featuring Dan Janzen) performing What A Wonderful World (Social Distancing Parody)
Human Resources Team performing You Are My Sunshine
Wellness Centre Team performing Super Trouper
Finance Team performing original pandemic poetry
Leadership Team performing Islands in the Stream (Social Distancing Parody)
Have some fun watching these great submissions. Thanks to Menno Hospital W2 for this challenge and providing some fun during these COVID times!
RECREATION TEAM
HUMAN RESOURCES TEAM
WELLNESS CENTRE TEAM
FINANCE TEAM
LEADERSHIP TEAM
Pandemic Pay Update
From Karen L. Biggs, CEO:
Most Menno Place frontline employees (excludes managers and other administrative positions) will be eligible to receive the federal government Temporary Pandemic Pay (TPP) for straight-time hours worked (Excludes overtime and paid leaves e.g. vacation, sick leave, education, etc.) in support of provincially-funded services for the period March 15 to July 4, 2020 as a onetime lump sum payment.
“Provincial funders are working with the Ministry of Finance to create a streamlined, coordinated approach to ensure eligible agencies have a clear process to follow and receive the funding for distribution to employees.”
It is the hope of the Fraser Health Authority to provide more detailed information to us by August 17, 2020 and presumably the funding will flow soon after that.
In the interim, TPP information is posted on www.gov.bc.ca/pandemicpay which will include some general updates periodically. I will keep you informed as I get further information from FHA.
Social Visits Begin at Menno Home and Menno Hospital
Yesterday was our first day of safe visits for families. Three visits took place in the Fireside Treasures Gift Shop for spouses in Hospital E1. These were emotional visits for the spouses and they were grateful to our staff for facilitating these safe visits.
We have three staff who will be facilitating the visits – Nikki and Hedy (Hospital); Isaiah (Home). Thank you to this team for making our visits possible.
Today, we will facilitate 7 visits for spouses of residents in Menno Home E2. These will take place in the Learning Center.
The Visitor Centers for Menno Home are:
W1 and W2 – Multi-Purpose Room
E1 and E2 – The Learning Center
The Visitor Center for Menno Hospital is:
Fireside Treasures Gift Shop
Thank you to all staff who are making it possible to reunite families through safe visits.
If you would like to read the information that is available to families, you can read it on the Family and Friends Website: www.MennoPlaceLife.com