June 26, 2020
This week we have been busy working to resume our in-person services as quickly and safely as possible!
We have finalized our screening, cleaning, and hand hygiene protocols, as well as illness guidelines for families receiving services at home in rural Manitoba and in child care centres throughout the province. We are in the process of developing similar protocols for our classroom locations. We recognize that services will look different as we resume. We are aware that it will be extremely challenging to uphold the physical distancing practices while teaching. That means we will be working closely with your child; much closer than two metres apart. These protocols and guidelines were developed with the direction provided by Public Health and Dr. Brent Roussin, Chief Provincial Public Health Officer, as a way to keep everyone healthy while getting back to in-person services.
You will be receiving the protocols, at the same time that you receive your new monthly schedule. Depending on your service location, the protocols you receive may look slightly different from another child’s, as will your start date for resuming in-person services.
For families who have indicated they are ready to resume in-person services, but do not currently have a space for their child within their usual child care centre, we will be reaching out to you soon, to explore different options for resuming services for your child.
We are still working with certain child care centres to receive details for resuming in-person services. As soon as we have heard from these child care centres, we will connect directly with the affected families.
If your situation has recently changed, and you’ve regained a child care space, please reach out to Tiffany Pang so we can begin planning for your in-person services to resume. Tiffany can be reached at tpang@stamant.ca or you can leave her a message at (204) 256-4301 ext. 3481.
We met with Minnetonka school administration yesterday to finalize details around re-entry and resuming services at this location. We are working towards resuming services very shortly, likely the week of July 13.
For families supported at 440 River Road, we are developing plans for a new space within the building as well as a separate entrance for drop-off and pick-up. As I shared last week, the Long Term Care Facility portion of 440 River Road is still facing strict visitor restrictions and as such we are developing a plan that ensures we can resume our services in the safest way possible for every person supported at 440 River Road.
We will continue to provide updates on services at these two locations, as they are available.
The week of July 6, we will begin to welcome children back to the London Street and Wall Street classrooms. In order to do this safely, we will be staggering start dates and offering shorter sessions for the first two weeks. We will work with families to gradually increase hours as we adapt to the new cleaning and screening guidelines required for our classrooms.
Thank you for your continued flexibility and patience during this process. We are looking forward to reconnecting in person with you and your children very soon. We will continue to send updates each week, as we have new information.
Kerri Walters, PhD, C.Psych., BCBA-D Director, Autism Programs and Psychology Services