Tag: COVID-19

New IPAC eLearning course released

Posted on April 12, 2022 by - News

"IPAC while supporting residents with bathing, dressing and grooming"

The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a spotlight on infection prevention and control (IPAC) in Ontario’s long-term care (LTC) homes. In Spring 2021, the Ontario CLRI at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA) released an IPAC resource page and eLearning series.

Now we have added to the eLearning series with a new course: IPAC While Supporting Residents with Personal Care: Bathing, Dressing, and Grooming.

 

 

“Our eLearning courses are based on situations that team members encounter in their work,” says Audra Thompson-Haile, Interim Director for the Ontario CLRI at the RIA. “This eLearning helps team members and essential care partners transfer IPAC knowledge to the care they provide.”

The new eLearning course focuses on using IPAC best practices while assisting residents with personal care, such as bathing, dressing and grooming. It will increase IPAC knowledge and skills while empowering learners to protect themselves, residents, their co-workers, and community members. 

With the IPAC resource page and eLearning series, learners will be able to apply their IPAC knowledge and skills to specific scenarios in LTC homes and situations encountered in the community.

eLearning courses now available

  • 1. Break the Chain of Transmission: IPAC Core Concepts and Practices (prerequisite for the other courses in the IPAC eLearning series) – Also in French!
    • Types of Transmission and the Chain of Transmission
    • Additional Precautions and Routine Practices in Long-term Care
    • Applying Best Practices for Hand Hygiene and PPE
  • 2. IPAC While Supporting Residents at Mealtime – Also in French!
  • 3. IPAC While Travelling To and From an LTC Home – Also in French!
  • 4. IPAC While Administering Medication
  • 5. IPAC While Supporting Residents with Personal Care: Peri-Care, Continence Care and Using the Toilet
  • 6. IPAC While Supporting Residents  with Personal Care: Bathing, Dressing, and Grooming

Visit the IPAC in LTC page

The IPAC in LTC courses and training materials have been developed by the Ontario CLRI at the RIA in collaboration with an expert panel of IPAC specialists working in LTC and an advisory panel of LTC team members, essential care partners, and The Ontario Caregiver Organization.

Show Some TLC for LTC

Posted on January 28, 2021 by - News, Research Institute for Aging

Show some TLC for LTC by watching and sharing these videos for LTC team members!

The Ontario CLRI at the RIA, Ontario Health (Central), OLTCA, AdvantAge Ontario, OARC and FCO have come together to spread awareness of LTC team members’ mental health in a series of videos from residents and families in LTC. The videos will be shared starting on  Bell Let’s Talk Day to leverage the focus on mental health and direct attention to the dedication and hard work of frontline team members in LTC, using the hashtag #TLCforLTC

LTC frontline team members are essential in effectively responding to the pandemic despite their personal and professional challenges related to stress, trauma, and health and wellness. “The mental and emotional stress they endure daily is indescribable,” says Julian Morelli, LTC resident family member featured in one of the videos created for the campaign.

Sharron Cooke, an LTC home resident describes team members as “…the heart and soul of my home.” LTC teams need mental health supports that help them cope during these difficult times and ensures they can be there for their residents.

Visit clri-ltc.ca/mentalhealth for mental health resources for LTC team members. You can find all the TLCforLTC videos on YouTube.

Industrial Design Grant to Study Long-Term Care Homes

Posted on November 30, 2020 by - Bruyère, Research

A new study on the design of long-term care homes within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic is launching. Chantal Trudel of Carleton University’s School of Industrial Design is working with investigators from the Bruyère Research Institute and the Ontario CLRI at Bruyère, including Amy Hsu, Frank Knoefel, Zsofia Orosz, Heidi Sveistrup, and Bruce Wallace. The study received nearly $40,000 in funding from the Foundation for Health Environments Research in the United States.

“Good design can and should balance infection prevention and control needs with residents’ quality of life and care needs. No resident wants to see their living space transform from the feeling of home to hospital,” wrote Amy Hsu, Bruyère Research Investigator,  in a recent piece on designing the future of long-term care and retirement homes.

This blog post was originally posted in and is shared with permission from Bruyère, one of three host centres of the Ontario CLRI.

Read the news article

Read more on Bruyère’s blog

 

Nurturing Intergenerational Connections in LTC Homes During COVID-19

Posted on June 1, 2020 by - Bruyère

June 1 is Intergenerational Day, celebrated in Canada since 2010*. Last year, it was officially declared in Ottawa (for the first time) by Mayor Jim Watson, thanks to the efforts of iGen Ottawa. Intergenerational Day celebrates the richness of intergenerational relationships.  It encourages connections between people of different age groups to reduce loneliness and social isolation, and encourages age-friendly communities.

 

As an organization with two long-term care homes that on any given day is serving over 1000 older adults, our Ottawa host centre Bruyère is happy to be participating in Intergenerational Day 2020. And this year, as we adjust to the new norm of physical distancing, the opportunity for social connection is more important than ever.

“Bringing older and younger people together provides the opportunity to build connections and strengthen communities. I have seen personally many times the significant joy that young children bring to older adults – it is beautiful to witness!” says Michelle Fleming, knowledge broker at the Ontario CLRI at Bruyère. “In an effort to improve quality of life for residents, many long-term care homes across Ontario have regular opportunities for intergenerational connections – through things like music programs with children and residents together, high school volunteers spending time one-on-one with residents and pen-pal programs. Prior to the pandemic, the team at Bruyère’s Saint-Louis Residence in Orleans had been in dialogue with iGen Ottawa about the development of an intergenerational garden. The vision was a grassroots initiative, involving children from local schools. We remain hopeful that this initiative will still be possible in the future. Initiatives bringing the generations together offer promise in reducing loneliness and social isolation across our communities.”

As a resource for long-term care homes, the Ontario CLRI at Bruyère has developed a resource summarizing some of the creative ways that long-term care homes can continue intergenerational initiatives  while respecting physical distancing.

Intergenerational Connections for LTC Homes (PDF)

Some of these creative initiatives are being rolled out at Bruyère:

  • Residents at Bruyère’s long-term care homes have been delighted by art made by community children. This art has been posted throughout the homes, provided to residents, put on place mats for resident’s meal trays, and made into banners at the main entrances of each of Bruyère’s campuses. Thank you to two local groups of kids – World Changing Kids and Kid Art with Heart –  for brightening peoples’ day with the colourful art.

 

  • Before the pandemic, the team at Bruyère’s Saint-Louis Residence, in collaboration with iGen Ottawa, was developing plans for an intergenerational garden. The garden will bring together children and older adults in an inclusive space to learn and grow.  Until we can meet physically, community children have placed painted rocks with messages of hope and encouragement in a ‘Gratitude Garden’ that graces the front entrance of the care home. This rock garden is just the beginning of our Intergenerational Garden and we look forward to seeing it grow in the years ahead.

 

We all have basic human needs to connect with other people and the COVID19 pandemic has reminded us of just how critical that need is. Creative strategies are needed to help keep our generations connected. Initiatives that bring generations together help to reduce loneliness and social isolation across our communities.

On this Intergenerational Day, we encourage you to explore what’s happening in your own community and see if there is an organization that is already working to support residents living in long-term care homes. Take the time to connect with the people in your life of all different ages. Paint some rocks and bring them to a local care home. These ‘little’ acts of kindness strengthen our communities and long-term care homes.

 

*IGen day has been celebrated in Canada since 2010 and was founded by i2i Intergenerational Society and five Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) funded student groups from Newfoundland, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba and British Columbia.