For almost 100 years, the Plattduetsche Home Society has been one of Long Island’s safest, most serene retirement communities. Even during the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in New York, our residents enjoyed a safe senior living experience. From limiting unessential entry to organizing a Mothers’ Day drive-by caravan, learn about how we created a safe, comfortable environment at a challenging time.
Building and Maintaining Safe Senior Living During COVID-19
As soon as COVID-19 became a concern, the Plattduetsche Home Society responded to safety concerns with action. We created new protocols, which closely followed State Department of Health guidelines, to maintain a safe senior living experience for all.
Limiting Visitation
Immediately, we closed down the entire facility, both the Adult Home and Enriched Housing, to all visitors, except essential health care providers.
We then made several critical adjustments to create a safe senior living experience.
- “Zoom Rooms” were created to facilitate safe and private family communication.
- Our staff members provided increased assistance with residents’ phone calls.
- When care packages were not allowed, we fulfilled our seniors’ shopping requests.
- Our staff helped organize drive-by caravans for holidays, including Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
Restricting Medical and Service Personnel Entry
The Plattduetsche Home Society used proactive strategies to prevent the spread of COVID-19, including:
- Relying more on the services of our in-house physicians
- Utilizing tele-med technologies instead of arranging transportation to outside physicians, therapy sessions and medical facilities, except in emergency situations
By limiting outside access to our retirement home, our contact tracing program was better able to protect our community from COVID-19.
Social Distancing
To maintain a safe senior living community during COVID-19, the Plattduetsche Home Society followed CDC guidelines. In addition, we completely separated the residents of our two facilities. We also modified our activities and dining to incorporate practical social distancing while still engaging residents.
Dining
We adjusted our dining policies to reflect new safety guidelines issued by New York State. For breakfast, lunch and dinner, our traditional “family-style” meals changed to individually plated meals. We also limited the number of residents per table and spaced each of them further apart. But at the same time, we upgraded our kitchen and made sure to create groups with social connections in mind.
Activities
Despite more restrictive safety precautions, all our residents still had plenty of opportunities for enrichment and enjoyment. Even though we temporarily closed the pool and exercise rooms, every one of our seniors had the option to participate in other leisure activities, including outdoor/indoor cornhole games in the afternoon.
Safe Senior Living Will Stay the Norm
Now that vaccines are approved and available, we continue to focus on providing the safest, most comfortable senior living community on Long Island. Currently, we are working with the State Department of Health to open access to more amenities to safely enhance our seniors’ experience.
Take a Virtual Tour of our Beautiful Community
Located in Franklin Square, the Plattduetsche Home Society is a serene retirement community situated in a picturesque park-like setting. Available to seniors over the age of 65, our housing complex features independent apartment living and supportive senior living.
To take a closer look, request a virtual tour today!
