Friendship Village Senior Services’ Update and Response to COVID-19 as of Friday, May 29th, 2020
Dear Friends, Residents and Families of Friendship Village:
It’s a beautiful day at Friendship Villages on this Friday, May 29th, 2020.
A couple of things and then some exciting news:
Our Sunset Hills skilled nursing facility has had no additional residents or staff test positive for COVID-19. Of the 6 Residents who have been cared-for on the COVID Care Center, graduations will begin today and go through the next few days and they will be back in their normal accommodations. Almost all of the staff who had been affected will have returned to work over the next few days, as well. Large-scale testing is still being conducted and we will be waiting for those results. Help us to pray that everyone turns out negative.
Our Chesterfield skilled nursing facility tested the final three Residents who had not participated in the mass-testing last Friday and one came back positive, even while their roommate came back negative. This Resident will enter the COVID Care Center for their recovery period and the other two that have been in that unit will graduate soon. Almost all of the staff who had been affected by COVID-19 have returned to work, as well. We continue to work with the State on periodic, repeat testing.
Now, the best news:
We are excited to be able to begin allowing visitors to Independent Living Residents on campus for OUTSIDE/OUTDOOR visits with Residents beginning Saturday, May 30th. Visits with Assisted Living and Skilled Nursing facilities must still be coordinated in advance with those administrations.
Visitors are still prohibited from coming indoors to visit.
To still maintain COVID-19 preventive measures, we ask that you and your visitors:
· Wear your mask
· Maintain social distancing
· Do not make physical contact
· Residents use hand-sanitizer when coming back inside
· Residents allow the door screeners to take their temperature at least once each day if visiting outside
Our Residents have done very well with the preventive measures they have been following for more than two months and we feel that we can safely lift this restriction if the preventive measures listed above continue to be followed.
We’re excited! We hope you are, too!
We continue to work on being able to modify other restrictions in the coming days, but those are not now.
Residents will have also received a letter in their mail, recently, regarding the limited re-activation of some on-campus activities, internal to the campus, that will begin to allow some additional socialization, exercise, and activities. We are excited for these to begin, soon, but still following prevention protocols.
Gift-Giving in Appreciation of our Staff is Open on our FriendshipVillageSTL.com website:
Many family members and Residents have inquired as to how to donate a gift of appreciation for the staff for their service during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Our website at FriendshipVillageSTL.com now has an easy-to-use tab to use in making contributions for the staff and we thank all of you for considering a gift. As funds are collected, we will identify the best use of those funds in order to do the most that can be done for our employees. Every gift is appreciated, large and small.
Our teams have received many generous contributions from YOU! We are working excitedly on ways to express your support and appreciation to the staff as soon as we possibly can. There have already been some pizzas and sandwiches, delightfully enjoyed, funded by our donors, and there will be more to come. We can always give them more!
As always, all of us thank you all for your continued prayers as we continually ask our Lord Jesus Christ to enable us to do our best to fend-off the COVID-19 coronavirus and to maintain the safety and protection of our Residents and staff.