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View from the Front Lines of a COVID-19 Outbreak
and four staff were COVID-19 positive. On Saturday, April 11, all resi-
dents were swabbed. Definitive results showed 40 out of 42 residents
had been infected. Tragically, six of them died. Fifty-seven workers
were also infected.
I am a family doctor. Cancellations caused by the pandemic left
me with some availability, so I didn’t hesitate to assist at PHM, thank-
ful for an opportunity to be useful. This chapter is my account of the
COVID-19 outbreak in that location, but it reveals public policy chal-
lenges with broad implications.1 For it is on the front lines of care that
health policy finds both inspiration and a testing ground.
A major problem for facilities like PHM was severe personnel
shortages. Even before COVID-19, PHM was short of staff. Most resi-
dents need assistance for feeding, bathing, and toileting. Most need
to be moved by mechanical lift from bed to wheelchair and back. As
described in the opening chapter of this section, providing appropri-
ate care at PHM requires a high degree of human touch, making pub-
lic health measures such as physical distancing almost impossible.
The personal care needs of residents put them and their caregivers at
heightened risk of transmitting infections. The complex medical con-
ditions of residents also put them at increased risk of severe illness
with COVID-19.2
With news of the outbreak, many staff were unable to continue
working. Some needed to self-isolate because they’d had contact with
positive cases before full personal protective equipment (PPE) was
introduced. Others had symptoms of COVID-19. They needed to be
tested and sent home. Those who worked in multiple institutions had
to select one location only, and several decided to leave PHM.
My first step that Sunday was to connect with Shelley, the
Executive Director of PHM. I arranged to go see how I could help.
The crisis was evident immediately. The site had 98 people listed on
staff. Full function required about 35 staff members in any 24-hour
period. That morning they were down to about 10 regular staff,
management included. There was a serious need for help to ensure
1. Elizabeth Lin et al, Addressing Gaps in the Health Care Services Used by Adults with
Developmental Disabilities in Ontario (Toronto: ICES, 2019).
2. Dalton Stevens & Scott D Landes, “Potential Impacts of COVID-19 on Individu-
als with Intellectual and Developmental Disability: A Call for Accurate Cause of
Death Reporting” (2020), online (pdf): Syracuse University Lerner Center for Pub-
lic Health Promotion <https://lernercenter.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/
Stevens_Landes.pdf>.
VULNERABLE
The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Titel
- VULNERABLE
- Untertitel
- The Law, Policy and Ethics of COVID-19
- Autoren
- Vanessa MacDonnell
- Jane Philpott
- Sophie Thériault
- Sridhar Venkatapuram
- Verlag
- Ottawa Press
- Datum
- 2020
- Sprache
- englisch
- Lizenz
- CC BY-NC-ND 4.0
- ISBN
- 9780776636429
- Abmessungen
- 15.2 x 22.8 cm
- Seiten
- 648
- Kategorien
- Coronavirus
- International