Friendship Village Senior Services’ Update and Response to COVID-19 as of Monday, May 11th, 2020
Dear Friends, Residents and Families of Friendship Village:
Well. That was something. And now we can fondly remember, the day after, on this beautiful Monday, May 11th, 2020.
The spectacular Mother’s Day parade that took place yesterday at Friendship Village in Sunset Hills was a sight to behold. There were somewhere between 200-300 cars, led by the entire Fenton Fire Department, slowing making their way around and through the entire campus while Residents sat along the sidewalks and waved, showed their posters and blew kisses. On top of that, the skilled nursing facility facilitated window visits with families and our assisted living facility help many balcony visits with families waving and yelling and waving posters from the parking lot. Many tears of joy were shed.
The Chesterfield campus also did great things with Mother’s Day gift bags, special dinners, shows in the quadrangle and concerts on the internal television channel. With quarantine about to end this week, we hope to have as much of a parade as possible, given the construction barriers, plus skilled nursing facility window visits very soon, and we can’t wait for all of that to be announced.
Our Residents, on both campuses, have been following the Stay-at-Home orders for many weeks, now. Cooped-up, separated from friends and family, unable to gather in dining rooms. We are so very proud of everyone’s high spirits and fortitude. Our daily morale calls to the Residents in quarantine are fun, enlightening, sometimes very intriguing, and, even funny now and then.
As of this morning, there are no COVID-positive residents or staff at Sunset Hills.
There are no COVID-positive Residents in the Chesterfield independent living areas and we look forward to the precautionary quarantine to end on Thursday, praying that all is well until then.
The Chesterfield Care Center is doing terrific work with the ongoing recovery of COVID-positive Residents, there. As you know, we are pursuing our path to get to ZERO COVID-positive Residents in-house. The number of recovered COVID Residents continues to climb. The number of those testing negative continues to climb. The number still being cared-for (3 today) in the COVID Care Center continues to shrink as Residents successfully graduate to recovery. The number still being treated in the hospital (4 today) continues to shrink as they are sent back to the Care Center. Today, no one is awaiting a test result. We continue on the path to ZERO and clear the Chesterfield campus completely. Please pray for God to deliver this outcome in the coming days.
Still, we know that some Residents couldn’t resist and snuck off campus to visit family during the Mother’s Day weekend and, while we highly discourage that, we can’t prevent it. We are requesting and requiring those who did sneak off campus to self-report to their Care Navigators to determine if they should now self-quarantine to ensure that no COVID-19 viruses were inadvertently brought back to the campus. One innocent and unwitting match can light a forest fire and we need to know where the potential is so that we can do what we need to do to protect the forest and everyone in it. We appreciate everyone’s understanding. Nobody wants to be the one that brought it in.
No Visitor Policy Still in Full Effect
As many would expect, all of the security and no-visitor policies remain in full effect at all locations as we continue to combat the coronavirus. We appreciate the cooperation and understanding of all involved, Residents and families alike.
Although the State of Missouri has begun lifting some stay at home orders, St. Louis County has not, and neither is Friendship Village. We plan to maintain our measures and vigilance, as we are currently, until a time when we feel there will be an opportunity to safely begin relaxing some of our measures, but that time is not now. Our No-Visitor Policy remains in effect until further notice. We appreciate your continued understanding and cooperation.
Gift-Giving in Appreciation of our Staff is Open on our FriendshipVillageSTL.com website:
It is National Nurses Week and National Nursing Home Week!
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.
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.