Salem Home

of COVID has been a priority at Salem Home, where everyone is working tirelessly to care for and protect the residents. Oliveira reports, “We tried to have more opportunities for staff to talk with their direct supervisors, or the social worker. Our Pastoral Coordinator does go around the building and has small devotions with the staff. We have different relaxing activities that we offer for staff to do during breaks if they want a distraction. We sent a survey out to ask what they would be interested in, they responded, and we built on that.” With three physicians regularly visiting Salem Home, employees were also able to meet with them to discuss questions and concerns, which was another helpful resource. Keeping staff informed of constantly changing public health orders was a challenge which was met with perseverance. According to Janzen, “The public health orders were changing every day. Once we had it figured out and we had clarification, we would have town halls for the staff, so they knew what was going on and what Salem was doing about it.” Empathizing and understanding what employees might be feeling, especially as directions changed, was ongoing. “I can only imagine what the staff are feeling because they are in the front lines. So, we meet with them, and we talk about that so that they know that it’s scary for us, too. I don’t think we ever shied away from saying, ‘we feel the same way you do, but we just have to work through this’,” Janzen adds. In the early days of the pandemic, Salem Home implemented an emergency response group using WhatsApp as a communication tool. “Everybody was on that group that needed to be,” says Janzen, “so, if something happened in the building, we could actually make a decision on the spot whenever we needed to. We could respond to the staff almost immediately.” When the facility had an outbreak, resident care managers stepped up to help, making sure there was a manager working everyday, staying late so staff were not alone. Acting as runners,