Springvale Manor Rest Home has a decontamination room used by staff starting and ending their shifts. Photo / Bevan Conley
Springvale Manor Rest Home has a decontamination room used by staff starting and ending their shifts. Photo / Bevan Conley
Using a decontamination room, getting an iTunes account and offering residents probiotic yoghurt are efforts by one Whanganui rest home to keep residents healthy in the face of Covid-19.
Springvale Manor Rest Home has upped its staffing ratio, increased its music therapy and added local honey, lemons and probiotic yoghurtto residents' menus, acting manager Agnes Rado-Williamson said.
It's not the only rest home going the extra distance to keep residents healthy and prevent boredom during an extended lockdown.
At Masonic Court Rest Home staff agreed to work 12-hour shifts and four-day weeks during the level 4 lockdown, manager Victoria Morris said.
Clinical nurse leader Leanne Milner suggested it as a way to minimise the number of people coming into the facility, Morris said. Staff managed it, but breathed a sigh of relief when normal shifts resumed on April 27.
"We sat down at the beginning of this and explained what was required. I am just really proud of the team. This wouldn't have happened without everyone's dedication and hard work."
Rado-Williamson was equally proud of the 28 staff at Springvale Manor, who have bonded over the difficulties.
"Morale is actually pretty high. I would have to say that we are kind of enjoying the fact there are less visitors and we can focus on the residents," she said.
Daily life has been different in the rest homes since the pandemic took hold. Most went into lockdown before level 4 began on March 26.
At Masonic Court Rest Home staff worked 12-hour shifts during the level 4 lockdown. Photo / File
At Masonic Court staff have their temperatures taken before they begin a shift and are sent home if they are unwell. Sanitising hands between assisting residents has become second nature.
At Springvale there is a decontamination room where staff wash their hands and get into protective gear as their shift begins, then remove it after work. Spraying shoes and putting on aprons, head covers, sleeve covers and goggles all takes time, and they get extra pay to cover it. There are 19 sanitiser dispensers throughout the home.
Residents can walk in the grounds of the homes but not leave the premises. Extra diversional therapy has been added, with "boredom buster boards" listing activity ideas at Enliven rest homes.
Springvale Manor Rest Home has a decontamination room used by staff starting and ending their shifts. Photo / Bevan Conley
At Springvale Manor, where all the residents have some degree of dementia, the iTunes account provides extra musical therapy.
"Entertaining them is very, very important. Dementia people can't always express what they want but they can feel everything," Rado-Williamson said.
Residents are kept in touch with their loved ones by video calls and phone calls, and at Masonic Court visitors have also been able to talk to them from outside the windows this week.
Visiting is only allowed if a resident is near-death, and then only by one person in full protective gear.
Tradespeople and other visitors have to decontaminate themselves and avoid contact with everyone. Cleaners are working extra hours to sanitise frequently touched items like handrails and doorknobs.
New residents must be kept in quarantine and cared for by staff in full protective gear for 14 days. This is a touchy subject, Rado-Williamson said. Most rest homes would prefer all new residents to be tested for Covid-19.
Masonic Court has agreed to keep beds open for new residents, taking patients from Whanganui Hospital in order to keep beds free for Covid-19 cases.
Rest home managers have been working long hours, aware of a huge responsibility to keep vulnerable residents from the virus. Morris said she is glad she has a supportive family - her son does the grocery shopping, which restricts her contact with possible disease sources.
The rest home situation isn't going to change any time soon, with no definite date for moving to level 2 restrictions. The rest homes will follow Health Ministry guidelines, and their managers are minded to be extra careful.
"We know that if [Covid-19] comes inside, without procedures in place, it would be almost impossible to stop," Rado-Williamson said.
