Santé Manitouwadge Health UPDATE Re: LTC Visits
MANITOUWADGE, ON – Thunder Bay Region is in the ORANGE zone and this does include Santé
Manitouwadge Health (SMH). These LTC guidelines will be followed in all
patient/resident areas of the facility.
LTC homes are responsible for supporting residents in receiving visitors while mitigating the risk of exposure to COVID-19, and for establishing and implementing visiting practices that comply with Directive #3 and the Minister’s Directive and align with the guidance in this policy.
Types of visitors
LTC home staff, volunteers and placement students are not considered visitors as their access to the home is determined by the licensee.
Essential visitors
Under Directive #3, essential visitors are defined as a person performing essential support services or a person visiting a very ill or palliative resident.
A CAREGIVER is a type of essential visitor who is designated by the resident and/or their substitute decision-maker and is visiting to provide direct care to the resident (for example, supporting feeding, mobility, personal hygiene, cognitive stimulation, communication, meaningful connection, relational continuity and assistance in decisionmaking).
- Examples of caregivers include family members who provide meaningful connection, a privately hired caregiver, paid companions and translators.
- Caregivers must be at least 18 years of age.
Support workers are those performing essential support services for the home or for a resident of the home. An example is maintenance workers who are not staff of the home, and may also include health care professionals not employed at the home.
Essential visitors
Visits for essential visitors are permitted as follows:
- any number of support workers may visit a home
- A maximum of 1 caregiver per resident may visit at a time
- A resident and/or their substitute decision-maker may change a designation in response to a change in the:
- resident’s care needs that is reflected in the plan of care
- availability of a designated caregiver, either temporary (for example, illness or permanent)
Access to homes
All visitors to the home are required to follow public health measures (for example, active screening, physical distancing, hand hygiene, masking for source control) for the duration of their visit in the home.
Homes are also required to comply with the Minister’s directive. The Minister’s directive requires long-term care home licensees to:
- ensure staff, students and volunteers working in the home regularly take a COVID-19 test as outlined in the Directive
- ensure all caregivers and all support workers that they have received a negative COVID-19 test result, and verbally attest to not subsequently having tested positive (unless requiring immediate access in an emergency situation or a palliative situation) as outlined in the Directive
Thank you for helping keep our patients and residents safe.
Further information and the complete documents can be found at:
- https://www.ontario.ca/page/covid-19-visiting-long-term-care-homes#section-3
- https://www.ontario.ca/page/covid-19-visiting-long-term-care-homes#section
