This is a bi-weekly newsletter designed to create connections across the Long-Term Care and Assisted Living sector at Vancouver Coastal Health. It is an opportunity to share best practice and innovations, celebrate successes and get to know what our colleagues are doing at VCH, and beyond, to create the best possible experience for residents, families and staff at our homes. We want to build our COMMUNITY, so please share this newsletter widely and send us your stories!

The staff at Minoru have been wanting to put a little fun and joy back into the home.  With Halloween coming up, we decided to have a party complete with a costume contest.  Residents were the judges and cheered loudly for all of the costumes, including the creative Roho mattress. It was the first time in a while that we have had this kind of fun and hopefully we'll be able to have more of these fun events in the future. 

~ The Team at Minoru Residence

Meet the Cooper Place Team

Cooper Place is an Assisted Living home located in Downtown Vancouver with the philosophy of promoting aging in place, resident independence, dignity and self-direction. Huge kudos go to the hardworking team at Cooper Place for how they managed their recent outbreak.  TOGETHER, Cooper Place staff and residents managed to clear their outbreak while organizing both COVID booster and flu vaccination clinics at the same time.  Cooper Place leaders Wendy Wang and Victoria Snider, along with VCH Infection Control Practitioner Esther Thompson, shared the attached presentation with some of their keys to success, which includes: communication and compassion; partnerships; leadership and dedicated staff all chipping in; empathy, and strong relationships. Thank you, Cooper Place, for sharing your experience.

Resident COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Campaign. Thanks to the hard work, flexibility and collaboration across the LTC sector, on-site clinics for the third dose booster are now complete (as of October 29th).  Over 8300 booster doses will have been administered at 96 LTC and AL homes in the past two and a half weeks.  This is an incredible accomplishment and appreciation goes out to everyone who helped make this happen.  Special kudos goes out to all of the care homes, many of whom were asked to make last-minute date changes. 

Clients at independent living (IL) facilities are now eligible for the booster dose.  Any IL clients who have not registered in the Get Vaccinated provincial system should register as soon as possible.  Once registered, they will receive an invitation to book their booster shot.  https://www.getvaccinated.gov.bc.ca/s/

Staff COVID-19 Vaccine Campaign. Health care workers who were administered their two dose series at a short interval and are 6 months past their second dose are now eligible for a booster dose. Staff are advised to register with the Get Vaccinated provincial registration system so they can receive an invitation to book a booster appointment once they are eligible.

https://www.getvaccinated.gov.bc.ca/s/

Please note that staff vaccinated in the early months of the vaccination campaign may not be registered in the Get Vaccinated system and therefore will not automatically receive an invitation for a booster dose. We encourage all staff to register this way so they can book appointments and locations for their third doses that work for their schedules. The vaccine mandate for health-care workers and the vaccination passport will continue to require only two doses.

Learn about the LTC-QI (Long-Term Care Quality Initiative). As part of Island Health's Knowledge-to-Action Month, 3 of the LTC-QI's Regional Practice Leads (RPL) for Research & Knowledge Translation in Long-Term Care (including VCH's RPL, Sonia Hardern) will provide an overview of the development of the provincial initiative which focuses on translating research into practice to enhance the experience and outcomes for residents, families and staff in LTC.  The session is titled: Beyond Quality Improvement to a Learning Health System Framework in Long-Term Care and takes place on November 4th from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m.  To register for the session please visit: https://ltc-qi.eventbrite.ca/

Seasonal Illness Education Sessions. The VCH LTC Infection Control Practitioners will be holding education sessions over Zoom on the topic of: Seasonal Illness - Preventing and Containing Outbreaks of Respiratory and GI Illness in Long-Term Care.  See below for dates, times and Zoom information.

Interested in Becoming a Peer Researcher? A research team from the UBC Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences (CHEOS) is planning a research project on the topic of Mitigating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and pandemic response measures on the mental health and wellbeing of frontline health workers in long-term care: Fostering resilience in the health workforce.  This team is looking for frontline health workers to join their team as a peer researcher. In this role, the peer researcher will work with the research team to help refine the research questions and steer the general direction of inquiry.  The peer researcher will also advise on the design of data collection tools and activities, interpreting data anlysis reports and writing research outputs.  It is expected that this work will take approximately half a day per month and backfill support will be provided.  Anyone interested can email: sonia.hardern@vch.ca

LTC+ Acting on Pandemic Learning - November Webinar. The BC Patient Safety & Quality Council and Healthcare Excellence Canada's LTC+: Acting on Pandemic Learning Together November coaching session will feature the experiences of 3 initiatives happening throughout BC as a result of the LTC+ funding. This webinar takes place on November 29th from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. Click here to join the event: https://bcpsqc.ca/event/ltc-november-coaching-session/

Ibasho: A Place Where You Can Feel Yourself. Ibasho is a Japanese word that translates to “a place where you can feel like yourself,” and the concept is less about structured programming than a shift in societal perceptions about the value of older people. "At Ibasho we believe this is what every person should have as they age – a place to live in safety, comfort and dignity, where he or she is valued as a person full of history and experience."  Learn more about this innovative, integrative approach that is emerging in Asia and that positions seniors, including those with dementia, as leaders in their local communities.

https://ibasho.org/about-ibasho