Keeping you Posted on what is happening at Glenwood Home and Village

19th May, 2020

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Dear Family and Friends of Glenwood. Being firmly established in Alert Level 2 we are now inviting visitors in to Glenwood. However there continues to be quite strong parameters around Alert 2 precautionary measures for residential care. Anyone planning to visit the home is encouraged to ring first. We have strict visiting times and can allow only one visitor per resident and have to limit visits to two times per week and 30 minutes per visit. Each visitor whether a professional or a family member signs a declaration about their health and their contacts over recent days and has their temperature taken. Those who come from out of town will be asked to wear a mask e.g. Christchurch, Ashburton or Waimate. We are delighted to welcome visitors back in, but our residents are discouraged from leaving the property yet, except for a simple sight-seeing trip around town, but remaining seated in the van. Warm Wishes to you all. Veronica 

23rd April 2020

Dear Visitors, Family members and Friends,

We are living in extreme times with a situation none of us have ever faced before. Our elderly folk are our most precious and most vulnerable people in this global pandemic of Coronavirus and we must all do all we can to not spread it and to not bring it into Aged Care Facilities.

The most difficult situation we face is that it is often a silent disease. A person next to you may not have symptoms, yet may be a carrier. We are all advised by our Prime Minister and Ministry of Health bulletins to maintain a social distance of 2 meters from other people. When visiting your loved one, we do ask as that you keep your distance and respect this two-meter rule.

If you have any illness, we ask you to stay away until 2 full days of being clear of that illness. However, if you have a cough, fever, fatigue, shortness of breath or a sore throat, that you ring the Health Line on 0800 358 5453 to discuss your symptoms and if necessary, to be screened for the virus.

New Zealanders have responded so positively to the Alert 4 lockdown and with wonderful outcomes, but at Alert Level 3, our elderly remain the most at-risk population. Hence, our Ministry of Health Guidelines are to continue to severely restrict visiting to only essential people. Level 3 must not be considered as a time when we let our defenses down but continue to be diligent in protecting ourselves and thus, by our efforts to protect those who are more vulnerable.

• all visitors by approval/appointment only

• restricted visiting hours

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Therefore, we would ask that from now on you ring the facility before coming in, so we are able to inform you of any constraints on your visit, and to inform you of our visiting hours and other precautions we may put in place.

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You will be delighted to know that Glenwood has a “Messenger” account, so you can video chat with your loved one. Please ring Gillian or Alice to make a time that would suit your plans and your family member/loved one’s schedule. You will need to connect with us on Messenger in the first instance.

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Feel free to ring me if you desire further information. 03 686 1090

Veronica Ligteringen (Facility Manager)

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16th April 2020

Greetings from Glenwood staff and residents.

We are delighted to see the numbers of new cases come down, but our hearts go out to the rest homes and hospitals who have been hit by COVID19. Our prayers and thoughts are with you and your residents and their families. We pray for the stop of its steady march across the world and are very grateful to live in New Zealand, where such a bold decision has been made with such good effect at this time. Our staff are still diligently adhering to the guidelines and staying within their bubbles. We are moving with the developments and guidance from the MOH. We look forward to the time when residents can be re-united with their families and are very touched by the creative ways families are connecting with their loved ones. God Bless. Veronica

9th April 2020

It is now 2 weeks since the country went into lockdown. Most New Zealanders are responsibly complying with the lock down rules and we at Glenwood, like every Aged Residential Care Facility, are diligently responding to the changing conditions and expectations for our industry. Our residents are our blessed privelege and priority and the Glenwood Team happily embrace this challenge. Each of us keeps to our "bubble" because our "bubbles" are shared with the wider "BUBBLE" that is Glenwood. Entry into Glenwood is only for essential matters and everyone who comes in is screened and submits to our directives regarding minimising the risk to our residents. Very sadly, we have had two beloved residents pass away over the last week and they will be sadly missed. Our prayers rest with the families as they navigate their grief in this unusual time. There are no cases of COVID19, although we have had swabs done when a resident or two spiked temperatures. This is more of a precaution, not due to any concerns that the virus had entered the facility. So, overall it is a more positive outlook for the nation as this day showed an obvious slowing of the spread of the virus and points to a good outcome from our combined efforts. A big thank you goes out to all the staff who are so diligently staying safe and providing such positive love and care to our residents and sending a huge HULLO to all the families of residents. Please do keep ringing to say HI, sending emails, dropping off special treats and sending your love to the residents. Let's pray the nations efforts are successful and normal visiting can be resumed. 

30/3/2020

New Zealand is in Day 5 of its lockdown as I write. It is imperative that the nation understands Alert 4 and the reasons for staying in our shelters for 4 weeks. We all need to comply with the measures in place to stop coronavirus in its tracks. Working in Aged Care our staff are being very diligent in keeping safe and in keeping up with hygiene, social distancing, playing it safe to support not only the country, but our Home at Glenwood in our efforts to keep this virus out. Please know we will be doing our very best throughout this period to keep our residents well. Many family members are keeping in touch with sending a wee parcel, a letter, an email or a phone call to residents who live in Glenwood. The residents are in good spirits and accepting the current situation well. Veronica

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26/3/2020

With Alert 4 now in place, Glenwood, like all rest homes is closed to visitors and the only people coming into the home are staff members or essential services. Your loved ones will continue to receive excellent care and we will continue to do our best to keep Glenwood free of the virus. We have received numerous assurances that using Personal Protective Equipment when working with anyone with an infectious disease is very effective in eliminating the spread of the virus from person to person. At all times at Glenwood, if someone shows signs of coming down with a cold or flu, we ask them to stay in their room to prevent the spread of infection. We will be doing exactly that this year as well. 

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If we have any concerns that a person's symptoms could be COVID19, we will immediately move to this action and involve the Public Health Mobile Bus to assess that person, who would not be mingling with other residents until given the all clear by Public Health. We will be working very closely with Public Health Unit if this does occur. 

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To be in enforced shut in mode is the best thing we can be doing for our frail elderly at this point. All employees coming in to work are screened and sign a declaration about overseas travel or visitors and not able to enter the workplace if they have any symptoms or a fever, nor if there are any other concerns related to Novel Coronavirus.

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The national shut in affects the village, who are unable to mingle with one another nor are they allowed to come into the home and like all others are advised to follow all precautions regarding prevention of getting or spreading the infection. 

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The rest home and the retirement village are considered essential services and employees are required to be at work unless they are sick. Certain cases where a person may not come to work for other reasons are discussed with managers. 

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23/3/2020

Today's announcements that NZ is moving into Stage 3 of the Pandemic Plan and that there is a plan to move to Stage 4 imminently, has prompted us to plan for this next phase for Glenwood, our residents and staff members.

This means we are planning for a Lockdown type of situation, starting on Wednesday, where only essential services may enter Glenwood. We are encouraging all families to maintain contact with their loved ones via phone and skype. We are setting up a skype account dedicated to this, and a notepad device. If you have a Skype account, the name is Activities Glenwood for your search.

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22/3/2020

MOH advice is to limit visitors to one adult visitor per resident per day. If this is difficult to manage, please ring Glenwood Home and discuss your situation with management. Children under 16 must stay away. Visitors will be screened and asked to observe social distancing of 2m and to use alcohol gel and other precautionary measures.

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Visiting hours at Glenwood from Monday 23rd, March 2020 will be per the schedule below and until further notice. 

1.00 p.m. to 3.00 p.m. 

5.30 p.m. to 7.00 p.m.

Stay Well, and look out for one another. 

Veronica

22/3/2020

With the recent developments with Coronavirus cases increasing in New Zealand, we will be updating this page regularly to keep family and friends informed about Glenwood. 

All Aged Cared facilities have been advised by the Ministry of Health to impose stronger restrictions on visitors. This is an unprecedented event with a Global Pandemic. The elderly are the most vulnerable to Novel Coronavirus. We ask all visitors to consider whether the visit to the Home is essential. If so, please call the facility or email Veronica on the email address below to discuss your request. All visitors will be by prearrangement from this point on. The strict visitor monitoring is bullet pointed below. Glenwood will be following MOH advice, while simultaneously recognising the rights and needs of our residents. Wishing you all good health and asking all readers to join the rest of New Zealand in uniting to stamp out Coronavirus. 

Facility managers need to be able to use their clinical judgement to determine who can access facilities.

The policies for managing restricted access advised for facilities are:

• all visitors by approval/appointment only

• restricted visiting hours

• no children under 16 should visit except in extenuating circumstances at the discretion of the provider

• external health care providers as pre-arranged

• allow essential health care associated visits, for example, chemo, renal dialysis

• palliative care visitors, including hospice as prearranged

• vetted key support people for residents with dementia

• volunteers to maintain essential services to be allowed.