January 8, 2021
Dear Health & Transition Services Families,
We received the vaccination schedule for long term care from the Government of Manitoba today and Health & Transition Services residents were not included in the first round of vaccinations. I want to assure you that we have very open lines of communication with the Department of Health and Seniors Care and are advocating for your family members to be added to this first round. Additionally, we have been communicating through the Department of Families and also participated in an interview with CBC on vaccine priority. We are still feeling optimistic that Health & Transition Services will be added to this first round of vaccinations.
To ensure we are as ready as possible in advance, a Vaccine Working Group has been formed and is planning and preparing to obtain consent. Please see the current vaccine fact sheets from Manitoba Public Health HERE, and write down any questions you may have. Informed consent for the COVID-19 vaccine will involve a direct conversation about health history along with answering any questions you may have if you are the one who makes decisions for your loved one. The COVID-19 vaccine is the most important and effective tool in ensuring the ongoing safety and health of your loved one, and our goal is to have 100% of the people we support who are eligible vaccinated as soon as possible.
Currently we have no active cases of COVID-19 within our program and our outbreak status is tentatively scheduled to end at midnight on January 16. With the information about the current cases of COVID-19 in Manitoba since the holidays, we are working very hard to continue to support staff to wear their PPE properly and consistently and are hoping that we will see those numbers go down again soon.
Most of us have found some delight in cooking, baking or trying new restaurants during this pandemic and our Nutrition Services team has been busy creating a whole new menu for your loved ones. The new menu launches January 11 and features more variety, brighter flavours, lots of new options and they also brought back some old comforts too. We look forward to the reviews!
We continue to work hard to ensure that everyone has fun and interesting things to do and to look forward to – including family visits! Stay tuned for updates about the opening of our outdoor shelter and changes to our visitation guidelines.
As always, your support, courage and compassion for our whole St.Amant community means so much to all of us.
Be well,
Sarah Mankelow
Director, Health & Transition Services