Its residents are a high risk population to the Coronavirus disease and lodge manager Kerry Trottier said the facility is basically in lock down as it navigates its way through the pandemic and strictly adheres to provincial directives, which lately have been updated on an almost daily basis.
“We haven’t allowed visitors for about three weeks now and our residents are staying put, too. So, we’ve done a really good job of no one coming in and no one going out,” Trottier said last week.
When the pandemic hit the province, Trottier said staff immediately started to “buckle down on everything.” The fact that many of the residents’ regular appointments in the community were cancelled, helped enormously in keeping people on site.
“The decision was made for them by their doctors and their specialists, so probably 85 per cent were just cancelled by their doctors. But we do have residents who have life-sustaining treatments and things that need to be done to keep them healthy.”
Residents who require dialysis, iron treatments or other much needed health supports are still able to leave the lodge. With the Town of St. Paul Action Bus no longer running, a spouse of one of the residents requiring dialysis treatment now also drives other dialysis patients for their treatments, Trottier said as an example of how they are coping with urgent medical needs.
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On March 27, the order came from the province to enact social distancing in senior’s facilities made it necessary to adapt once again. To accommodate the requirement of limiting two residents to a table at one time, the lodge was able to secure additional tables and chairs and with some re-arranging of the common areas, was able to bring in enough seating to adhere to the mandated social distancing, but also allow the lodge to maintain its regular two sittings for meals.
Yes, Trottier said, flexibility on behalf of both residents and staff is key to riding out this pandemic and she’s happy to say that everyone has been pitching in to do what is necessary to keep everyone safe.
“It was pretty stressful but I feel like we’ve kind of got into a rhythm now and my staff, oh my gosh, they are so fantastic, they are just rolling with everything. We have meetings and now this (new directive) has come in and we have to figure out how to do this. It’s just done.”
Staff are under a strict health screening process, filling out a questionnaire daily and having their temperatures taken each time they enter the lodge.
Trottier said it also became necessary to “draw the line” on accepting deliveries to residents from family members and others. She said the lodge had to stop the revolving door of personal deliveries coming to the lodge. Only essential services from grocery stores and pharmacy deliveries directly from those outlets are being received at the door at specific times by the staff.
“Our grocery stores and pharmacies – my hat goes off to them. They are going above and beyond.”
All activities have been cancelled such as bingo, cards and birthday celebrations. However, the residents are not isolated in their rooms.
“The people that usually come out of their rooms are out and they walk the hallways. It doesn’t mean they can’t gather. In the social room they can come and talk but they are six feet apart,” Trottier said. “There is still lots of activity going on but it’s not going on in groups anymore.”
Little things, like the lodge’s head cook bringing out her guitar to sing to the residents or setting up an old-fashioned popcorn maker and delivering bags of popcorn to each room go a long way to breaking up the day.
“The whole building smelled like popcorn and it was heavenly. We are trying to do think of things that help them pass the time. They are missing big group activities, they are missing church, they are missing mass, they are missing bingo; oh, how they are missing bingo!”
While the separation from family and friends has been difficult for residents, Trottier said they are coping.
“They are doing great. For the most part, they get it. We’ve had lots of resident meetings and they really have the attitude of ‘let’s do our part, let’s stay healthy, let’s stay in our little bubble. Let’s do this so we can go out and enjoy life when the sun comes out and it’s spring’.”
