Carrollton COVID-19 Status Update

Update 10/7/20

Essential Caregiver Visits Begin

Beginning today, 10/7/2020, Villagio of Carrollton will allow Essential Caregiver visits. We will be reaching out to the primary contact(s) for each resident via email to communicate more specific and detailed information, instructions, and training on what the new protocols are and how to schedule a visit. We will continue outdoor visits. Please know we are working very hard to ensure the well-being of everyone who lives and works at our community. Together, we will get through this.

Update 9/25/20

New State Guidelines for Potential Family Visitations Announced

Texas Health and Human Services has recently created guidelines for indoor visitation at assisted living and memory care communities that do not have COVID-19 cases.  The new visitation guidelines went into effect September 24^th with the reopening being optional, and those communities that do not have the resources to reopen safely will not be mandated to do so.  Villagio of Carrollton is in the process of obtaining Phase 1 visitation approval.  As soon as this is complete, we will begin implementing indoor visitation for essential caregivers.  At that time, those on file as being the primary contact(s) for the resident will be emailed very specific and detailed information, instructions, and training on what the new protocols are and how to schedule a visit.  The primary contact person for the resident may or may not be one of the two designated essential caregivers, and that decision will be left to the resident, family and/or POA of the resident.  Communities must have proper protocols in place, and the two essential caregivers must complete required training prior to planned and scheduled visits.  They must also provide proof of negative COVID-19 test results prior to the initial visit. Visits will be a limited duration with sanitation protocols put in place with each visit.  All visitors will be screened using the Visitor Screening log.  We will continue outdoor visits.  Please know we are working very hard to ensure the well-being of everyone who lives and works at our community. Together, we will get through this.

Update 9/17/20

New State Guidelines for Potential Family Visitations Announced

Texas Health and Human Services has recently created guidelines for family visitation at assisted living and memory care communities that do not have COVID-19 cases.  The new visitation guidelines are scheduled to go into effect September 24^th with a limited number of designated family members.  Communities must have proper protocols in place, and family members must complete required training prior to planned and scheduled visits.  The designated family members must provide proof of negative COVID-19 test results prior to the initial visit. Visits will be a limited duration with sanitation protocols put in place with each visit.

Villagio in conjunction with Cappella Living Solutions is currently working to put protocols in place to be in compliance while implementing these visitation policies.  We may need to delay this start date for our communities to ensure the safety of our residents and associates.  More information will be forthcoming as we are ready and able to put this into practice.

Villagio continues to operate under the CDC restricted status and is taking every precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19. A newly formed Health and Happiness committee is evaluating how we can better balance crucial required health protocols with the mental well-being and happiness of residents. We will have more updates soon.

Update 6/4/20

Updates on Safe Visits

Per directives from the Governor of Texas, our community will not be making any specific changes to visitation until at least the end of the month. We are making plans for safe visits and excursions as soon as state officials allow.

Update 5/29/20

New Procedures for Health and Happiness Visits

We are excited to share some good news. As many states are moving from “Stay at Home” to “Safer at Home” restrictions, Christian Living Communities-Cappella’s leadership team has been working to distill directives and evaluate procedures in order to strike a balance between the crucial need to maintain the physical health of residents with mental health that leads to happiness.

We have developed new procedures pertaining to in-person visits via a plexiglass divider, self-isolation after essential appointments, residents who are able, to drive themselves to essential appointments, and excursions, which vary by community based on virus activity within the community, state regulations, and level of care. In all levels of living, state directives supersede new procedures. Information on what we are preparing for residents and families was shared at our May 28th Family Town Hall Webinar which you can view here.
This is an unprecedented time, and every decision we make is with the health and happiness of residents, families, and team members in mind. We are diligently planning, resourcing materials, and training staff on the new operational procedures. We appreciate your patience and understanding as it will take some time to implement these new guidelines. Please contact us at info@villagioliving.com with any questions.

While we are overjoyed that residents can enjoy greater freedoms and in-person family visits, we are still facing a virus that disproportionately affects older adults. We ask that everyone continue to do all they can to stay healthy and be mindful of the risk of exposure to this virus. Residents must stay well for our community to be well.

Thank you for your continued support as we celebrate residents and families as they make new memories!

Q: What is being done to protect residents and staff?

A: We continue to implement rigorous virus sanitizing protocols daily.  The county health department continues to direct our actions. Residents’ temperatures are taken twice daily and the team is vigilantly monitoring all signs and symptoms for everyone who lives and works at Villagio of Carrollton .

Q: Is Villagio of Carrollton Safe?

A: The COVID-19 Pandemic is a world-wide health crisis. While no place at this time is immune to the virus, we continue extraordinary precautions with the guidance of local health officials and the CDC.

Q: What are the ‘rules’ your respective communities follow to detect, contain and isolate COVID-19?

A: The health and safety of our residents and team members is our top priority and we will continue to practice all federal, and local mandated measures as well as our organizational procedures to limit exposure of COVID-19 in our communities.

Q: Who is allowed to visit your communities?

A: The community is scheduling video calls and window visits ( with visitors remaining outside and residents inside. )

For all licensed neighborhoods – assisted living andmemory support are on ‘restricted status.’ We are adhering to visitation guidelines established by the state health department, CDC and Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Visitation to assisted living community, or memory support community is limited to:

• ‘Essential Need Only’ visits. Essential need visits include support care and family visits in resident mental health and end-of-life situations.
• Visits must be brief.

Q: How are visitors being screened?

A:  We screen everyone entering the building everyday immediately, including team members and essential care providers. Screening includes:

• Fever screening, we take temperatures of everyone, including team members
• Cough and/or shortness of breath
• Sore throat
• Any travel outside of country or state
• Identifying if they have visited another senior living community
• Questions on purpose of visit
• Once screening is complete, visitors must wash hands before visiting residents and after leaving the community

Q: What are residents doing to stay positive and connected

A: Maintaining a positive attitude is crucial. Positivity begets positivity. We encourage our team member to stay positive and imbue residents with positivity. We are also encouraging residents to:

• Continue to be social and actively engaged at safe social distances – for example hallway BINGO, hallway exercising and trivia
• Communicate with loved ones through texts, emails and social media. We’re encouraging community members to post photos on Facebook and tag everyone they want to see the photo
• We’re leveraging technology (FaceTime, Zoom, Skype, Facebook, Instagram, emails and text) to connect residents with loved ones outside the community and with each other. Examples include:
  • Virtual visits
  • Bible study
  • Playing and listening to music performances
  • Message board photos
  • Reading books to children via Skype
• For residents who don’t know how to use/unable to use technologies, families can sign up for a team member to assist their loved one to use virtual visit technologies.
• We’re encouraging folks to drop off a favorite pre-packaged food item or card. These will be wiped with EPA-approved disinfectant wipes before being delivered. We’re also encouraging:
• Writing notes to each other, to family and team members
• Enlist internal and external groups/committees – church, book clubs, knitters to do a card shower for residents and team members
• Continuing Pen Pals programs – letters and notes back and forth between students and residents
• Musical performances/poetry outside resident windows

Q: Can you describe your training protocols?

A: CLC/CLS already conducts extensive yearly training for all team members in managing infections and preventing the spread of infectious diseases. These protocols are multi-disciplinary and prescriptive to prevention, containment and how to stop the spread of the disease should it occur.

All communities are following a special set of coronavirus-specific policies and procedures modeled after our very successful flu and norovirus protocols. Training and protocols include:

• Provide training for all employees on infection control standards
• Report and act quickly if any symptoms are reported in the community
• Start isolation procedures immediately if COVID-19 is suspected
• Notify State and/or Local Health Department which coordinates with CDC to transport resident or team member to hospital for testing
• Follow state report guidelines for any confirmed cases

Q: What is done if a team member or resident shows symptoms?

A: If a team member has any symptoms, they are required to stay home and report symptoms to their doctor to determine if they meet COVID-19 test standards. If a resident exhibits symptoms, we are contacting the local health department and their doctor to determine the best plan for testing.

You can view the last organizational Town Hall Webinar pre-recorded on November 19th here.

Leadership reviewed upcoming holiday restrictions.

View a status update letter from Christian Living Communities-Cappella Living Solutions Interim CEO Camille Burke here:

June 17, 2020

Dear Residents, Team Members, Families, Supporters and Friends:

We have collectively traveled a long road together as our world navigates the COVID-19 pandemic. From efforts in early March of preparing, implementing, and ensuring communication of our undeterred commitment to the health and welfare of everyone who lives and works in our communities; to now, navigating our “new normal” of continuing virus mitigation and restrictions; we have made every decision with our mission in mind, of dignity, love, respect, and compassion for each individual.

The decisions that had to be made were difficult. Living within the required restrictions has been, at times, heart-breaking for everyone. Our continued commitment is to do all that we can for everyone’s health and well-being; this includes efforts to promote mental and emotional health.

For the last four weeks, our team has been working to balance health and happiness. An organizational leadership committee, which includes residents, has worked towards finding creative ways to adhere to required restriction yet allow for more personal connections and personal freedoms for older adults.

We are now entering another phase, where each community will determine how and when protocols and procedures will change for them based on their county and state directives. As we have all seen, across the nation, the decisions are shifting from federal directives to local control. That is the same for all 23 communities in our CLC-Cappella family. Our leadership will continue to guide and support all community teams in navigating the ever-changing government and oversight directives as well as resident and family desires.

The journey will continue as we know that the COVID-19 virus will be with all of us for some time. Every day we will work hard with residents, families, and associates in mind, asking what we can do and how we can do it better. We will not stop asking those questions, and we will not stop until this journey is done.

With sincere appreciation and everlasting hope,

Camille M. Burke
Interim Chief Executive Officer

Center for Disease Control and Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-nCoV/index.html

State of Texas: https://hhs.texas.gov/services/health/coronavirus-covid-19

Denton County: https://gis-covid19-dentoncounty.hub.arcgis.com/