FW: Follow-Up & Slides from May 6 NC DHHS Webinar (DPH & DHSR)
Sent on Behalf of NC DHHS, DHSR
Dear Adult Care Home & Family Care Home Providers:
 
Thanks to all of you who joined our webinar earlier today. We understand that those who joined by phone were able to hear the whole presentation. Unfortunately, those who joined by computer had trouble hearing a number of the presenters. We are so sorry. Some days our wonderful technology can really throw us a curveball and today was one of those days.
 
The Department spent significant time preparing the webinar presentation and as many of you shared in the comments, the information being shared was really important. And it’s important that you have the ability to hear all of the information that was presented. Fortunately, despite the audio issues for those who joined by computer, the entire presentation was recorded and the North Carolina Area Health Education Centers (NC AHEC) Program Office is uploading the presentation to their website. They are still processing the uploading of the audio and video recordings and will share a link with us later today or in the morning once the recordings are uploaded. We’ll share that link with you when we receive it.
 
For those of you wanting a copy of the PowerPoint presentation, please find it here. If you have questions about the information from the webinar, please send your question to us at: DHSR.AdultCare.Questions@dhhs.nc.gov. We will take the questions we receive and compile them into a frequently asked questions document and then email that document out to you.
 
We appreciate everything each of you has done throughout this pandemic to protect the health and safety of North Carolina’s most vulnerable residents. We know this has been an incredibly difficult time in your facilities and that while conditions are improving, there are still a number of challenges. We know that you worry about the transmission of COVID into your facilities. We also know how important visitation is to our residents/clients/patients and appreciate everyone’s recognition that we are in a much different place today with respect to visitation in our facilities. While many months ago facilities were initially instructed to halt indoor visitation and there were very few opportunities for residents to see a visitor, that’s all changed. Today, we know what preventative measures work to halt the spread of the virus and we also have vaccines! 
 
Today’s webinar talked about some of the changes in visitation and activities based on vaccination status as well as provided some tips and strategies for developing and implementing a safe visitation plan that “opens the doors” so that residents can once again enjoy spending time with their loved ones. We know this is a real mind shift in responding to COVID in our facilities. But as we all know, visitation is critical to the well-being of our residents/clients/patients and facilities must implement visitation plans that allow visitation to the greatest extent safely possible. We hope the information in today’s webinar will help your facility identify new ways and strategies to maximize visitation opportunities for your residents.


Yours truly,
 
Emery E. Milliken
Deputy Director
Division of Health Service Regulation