COVID 19 UPDATE

What does it mean to care? Over 40 years ago, Russel B. Wells founded the Briton House Retirement Centre. He had a vision to create a place where residents would find exceptional service, community, physical, intellectual, and spiritual nourishment, and most importantly, care. This notion of care has become a cornerstone of our mission and evermore important today.

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Briton House has adapted its policies and procedures to protect its residents. In this process, we have experienced the beauty in our community coming together to care for our most vulnerable population. But Care takes a team. It takes our reception staff, screening every person who enters the building. It takes our healthcare staff, made up of doctors, nurses, and personal support workers, who work to ensure the health and safety of our residents. It takes our servers, who have ramped up logistics to provide room service to our entire building. It takes our maintenance, custodian, and housekeeping team who have adapted their procedures to disinfect and sanitize our spaces at an unprecedented level. It takes our social programmers, who have pivoted programming to continue to engage our residents in meaningful ways, while maintaining their safety. 

Care comes in many forms and requires many people. Our staff and community have worked tirelessly to ensure our residents are protected, healthy, and happy. They are heroes who exemplify the beauty of care and compassion. We have also received overwhelming support and encouragement from our neighbours and resident family members. We want to thank our community for its support and bravery. We look forward to opening our doors in brighter days ahead and welcoming you to experience what it truly means to care. 

From our family to yours, thank you.

Included below is a list of our Covid 19 updates, which have been released by our management team.
To those that follow the Briton House Retirement Centre on social media, we would like to assure you that the health and safety of our residents is our highest priority. As we deal with the outbreak of Covid 19 we have, and are, in direct contact with our residents and families regularly, ensuring that all are aware of the current guidelines and the latest directives from public health.

Included below is a list of our Covid 19 updates, which have been released by our management team. As you may be aware, we have enacted strict infection controls which includes the use of masks by all staff members since the beginning of this Health Crisis. In addition, we are sanitizing of our facility with our new Clorox Electrostatic 360 machine which atomizes disinfectant and then sticks to all surfaces. A short demonstration video is below. Common areas are being disinfected with this machine daily. All public area touch points like elevator buttons, door knobs etc. are being cleaned multiple times a day. We are distributing instructional videos to our management and staff on best practices for hand hygiene and mask protocols. We are constantly reminding our residents of proper hand hygiene and to practice physical distancing in our entire facility. We have removed all couches and love seats leaving only individual seating spaced appropriately. We are also in the process of launching a full Room Service Dinning system so that we can move towards essentially closing our dining room.

Thank you for your interest in The Briton House Retirement Facility and we will endeavor to keep our social media up to date. We trust you understand that, as protocols evolve, our first priority is the health and safety of our Residents and the dissemination of information to Residents, family and staff directly. We look forward to continuing to meet the needs of our North Toronto Community as we have for the last 44 years.

RegardsThe ManagementBriton House Retirement Centre

 

 

ESSENTIAL VISITOR GUIDELINES

 

Covid-19 /2020 – Essential Visitor Guidelines

Support workers and Caregivers are considered essential Caregivers and will have to follow the guidelines below. Each resident can designate up to 2 Caregivers which includes Private Duty Caregivers (not including support workers), as per government guidelines.

Mandatory Procedures:

  • Caregivers MUST be screened at the front desk upon entry into The Briton House
  • Caregivers MUST be tested for Covid-19 within 14 days of any visits and prove negative results
  • Each visit can accommodate a maximum of 1 Caregiver at a given time
  • The duration of the visit is a maximum of 30 minutes
  • Caregivers must bring a surgical mask
  • Caregivers must properly wear their mask at all times while in The Briton House
  • A staff supervisor will meet Caregivers at the reception desk once they have passed the
    screening and escort them to the designated visiting area
  • Caregivers providing emotional support/meaningful connection will visit in the second floor Atrium and on our patio (weather permitting)
  • When possible, Caregivers will be asked to take the stairs to the floor on which the visit takes place, as it helps maintains physical distance
  • Caregivers are not permitted to leave the designated visiting area for any reason
  • Once the visit is finished, Caregivers must leave directly through the North Tower main lobby doors on the ground floor
  • Caregivers are not to socialize with any other residents
  • The resident / family member being visited will meet Caregivers in the designated visiting area
  • We ask that Caregivers refrain from hugging and other forms of physical contact
  • We ask that Caregivers use the sanitizer available in the facility upon entrance and during the visit
  • If Caregivers bring gifts/supplies they must leave them at the reception desk to be sprayed and sanitized
  • Each designated visiting area will be sprayed and thoroughly sanitized between visits as per Covid-19 guidelines.
  • Caregivers are required to review and confirm, on a monthly basis, that they have watched 4 Public Health required videos from the Ontario Government, as well as reading the following documents: Briton House Visitor Policy and Public Health Ontario’s document entitled Recommended Steps: Putting on Personal protective Equipment (PPE). All available here on our website: https://www.britonhouse.com/safety-review/

Failure to adhere to The Briton House’ COVID protocols may result in the suspension of visiting privileges.

Infection Control Guidelines

 

Proper Use of Masks:

Clean hands with Hand Sanitizer at front desk before putting on your mask
The mask should cover your mouth and nose and should sit above your nose and under your chin. Squeeze the mask wire over the bridge of your nose. Do not pull the mask down at anytime
Avoid touching the mask while using it; if you do, clean your hands with sanitizer or soap and water.

Proper Handwashing Techniques:

Wet: Place hands under clean, running water.
Lather: Apply generous amounts of soap to the inside and back of your hands as well as your fingertips. Wash your hands for at least 20 seconds and don’t forget to wash under jewelry and fingernails.
Scrub: Rub hands together and move your fingertips around both hands.
Rinse: Return hands to the running water to wash away soap.
Dry: Completely dry hands (not rub) pat with a disposable paper towel

Social Distancing:

Physical distancing minimizes close contact with others. While visiting residents, please ensure to maintain physical distance.

Things you can do to keep practicing physical distancing are:
– avoiding crowded places
– keeping 2 meters apart when outside of your home
– avoid physical contact such as handshakes and hugs

 

 

OUR COVID 19 PRAYER

 

This is the day that the Lord has made;
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
Save us, we pray, O Lord!
O Lord, we pray, give us success!

Psalm 118:24-25 (ESV)

 

 

Here one of our staff demonstrates the Clorox Electrostatic Sprayer on one of our North Tower elevators. The charged antiseptic mist coats all surfaces and kills Covid 19, as wells as most other common pathogens.