{"id":26299,"date":"2020-04-03T17:19:29","date_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:19:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=26299"},"modified":"2020-04-03T17:19:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T21:19:34","slug":"chats-takes-caregiver-support-groups-to-virtual-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/chats-takes-caregiver-support-groups-to-virtual-world\/","title":{"rendered":"CHATS takes caregiver support groups to virtual world"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Home visits, group support, and meals on wheels are just\nsome of the vital services that have been provided by Community & Home\nAssistance to Seniors (CHATS) to some of the most vulnerable residents of York\nRegion and South Simcoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, in response to the\nCOVID-19 pandemic, CHATS is changing the way they are delivering the most\nessential services to those who need them most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEarly on, we recognized the\nneed to suspend some of our group-related activities, our group wellness\nprograms, our diversity programs, and some of our caregiver support groups,\nmainly because they were held in larger groups and in public spaces,\u201d says\nCHATS CEO Christina Bisanz of early brainstorming sessions. \u201cThen, of course,\npublic spaces became less and less available as things were being shut down,\nwhether by municipalities or other public organizations. It just made sense we\nweren\u2019t trying to run a group program so immediately we started to think, how\ndo we make sure we maintain connectivity with those clients for whom those\ngroup activities, whether they were socially isolated seniors or for family\ncaregivers who really appreciated the opportunity to have some support groups\nand education sessions \u2013 it was very important for us to identify how we can\nmake sure that we still maintain connectivity and outreach for those people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The obvious answer was\nexploring how they could employ technologies like Skype and putting increased\nemphasis on their telephone reassurance programs to involve seniors who might\nnot have previously been part of the reassurance program, but might now fall\nunder that umbrella due to self-isolation measures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe started our trying to be\nas nimble and flexible as possible, to be looking at different ways of\ndelivering our programs while people were in social isolation and keeping that\nsocial distance,\u201d Ms. BIsanz continues. \u201cFrom there, we identified programs that\nwere, for us, classified as essential programs, which included our in-home\nsupports such as assisted living, personal care and other supports that we\nprovide to older adults through our PSWs, transportation services, which\nincludes drives for life-saving medical treatments like kidney dialysis and\ngrocery and pharmacy delivery, and our Meals on Wheels program, which is really\nabout food security.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They suspended their personal\nsocial and wellness programs, face-to-face visits and caregiver support groups,\nas well as most of their adult day programs. CHATS currently runs seven\nprograms, all of which are suspended, but they are maintaining a program in\nAurora for clients who are at higher risk by staying home alone during the day,\nalbeit with significantly lower numbers in order to maintain social distancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the areas that we recognized that we needed to\nrespond to very quickly was how we could not only deliver our meals on wheels,\nbut also look at providing access to grocery shopping or picking up grocery\norders and pharmacy deliveries,\u201d says Ms. Bisanz. \u201cWe have enhanced our Meals\non Wheels programs to include a variety of other options. At this point, we\u2019re\nfocusing on older adults who are on their own and don\u2019t have any other support,\nwhether it is family members living at home, or access to the neighbours. For\nthose older adults, we\u2019re providing local grocery shopping in one of three\nways. We can either take them to and from the store where the driver will drop\nthem off and pick them up when they are done shopping, or if the driver is\nneeded to help with picking up groceries, the driver will go into the store\nwith the older adult. If the senior orders online, we will pick up the food and\ndeliver it. For those who are truly unable to go out or order online, we will\ntake their list and shop and deliver the groceries or pharmacy pickup for\nthem.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This presents its own challenges for the CHATS team and\nthe volunteers who make their programs possible. At the start of the crisis,\nCHATS suspended volunteer activities where volunteers would have any direct\ncontact with clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They are instead relying on their paid drivers for\ndeliveries and pickups where they would normally have volunteers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, as CHATS moves their services to the digital world,\nthey are going back to their volunteers as needs change to see who would like\nto still be involved, including possibly helming a desk for their telephone\nreassurance calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For volunteers who would still like to drive, CHATS is\nstill looking at how to make that possible while also ensuring driver safety. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have received a number of very kind requests for the\npublic for people in the community to volunteer and at this point we have more\nvolunteers than we have people who are requesting delivery, but we know that\nthe longer this lasts and people start to run out of supplies at home, that\nthat will change,\u201d says Ms. Bisanz. \u201cIf anybody is interested in volunteering,\nthen we just like them to contact the CHATS office and our volunteer\ncoordinator will take them through an intake process and then when they are\nneeded, we will contact them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re hoping that through our other ways of reaching our\nsenior clients through our telephone and virtual social and group support\nprogramming that we will continue to be able to help people feel that CHATS is\nstill here, they are still very much a part of what we do and that we\u2019re\nthinking of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more on CHATS services, including how to contribute\nto their ongoing Emergency Appeal for donations to enable them to keep services\nflowing, visit chats.on.ca.<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Home visits, group support, and meals on wheels are just some of the vital services that have been provided by Community & Home Assistance to Seniors (CHATS) to some of the most vulnerable residents of York Region and South Simcoe. But, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, CHATS is changing the way they are delivering […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6Qb","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 07:04:44","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26299"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26299\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}