Highlights from this Week
- Travel in the Community (Vehicle) – Safety Tips
- Reminder- Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Survey Due July 1st
- New Staff
- Delivering Meals to Ukrainian Refugees
- Highlighting PRIDE
- Champions of Care Nominations
Travel in the Community – Vehicle
It is important to keep some safety tips in mind when travelling by car. Click below for general tips when parking your vehicle and/or returning to your vehicle.
News & Information
Reminder: Complete the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Survey
If you haven’t already done so, please complete the survey by July 1. We want to hear from you in order to evaluate our DEI initiatives and understand how we can make improvements going forward
Welcome to Circle of Care
We are pleased to welcome the following new PSWs to Circle of Care:
- Cathy Robellon
- Germary Gallo
- Jonalyn Basio
- Mary Cris Timoteo
- Melody Cajanding
- Rebekah Webster
- Vanessa Bilan
- Abdulla Rhma Amira
Delivering Meals to Ukrainian Refugees
In late May, Circle of Care used some of our funding from UJA (United Jewish Appeal) to help bring meals to Ukrainian refugees through our Meals on Wheels program. These clients range from 21 – 73 years old and were referred to us from JIAS (Jewish Immigrant Aid Services).
“I think it was the right thing for Circle of Care to do, to reach out to JIAS to see how we could support this population,“ says Lisa Rae, Director of Volunteers and MOW Services.
Currently, there are 11 clients who identify with this vulnerable population, and we are hoping to gain more funding to help support more Ukrainian refugees in the future.
Coming Up Soon…
JUNE
June is Pride Month, National Indigenous Month, Seniors Month, Italian Heritage Month, Filipino Heritage Month & Portuguese Heritage Month
June 27: Canadian Multiculturalism Day
June 30: Deadline to complete the DEI Survey
JULY
July 1: Canada Day – Statutory Holiday
Highlighting PRIDE
Displaying Our Commitment to Care for Everyone
This year, we created Pride-themed pins for all staff to wear during Pride Month. Here are photos of some of our staff proudly displaying their pins! Thank you to PSW Chan Alas-As, Doug Elliot, and Mercedes Catolico for sharing your photos with us!
The pins will be available at our office all year round. If you’d like to have one, you can pick them up from the front desk!
Staying Active, Connected, and Safe.
June is Seniors’ Month in Ontario, an opportunity to celebrate seniors and highlight the important contributions they make to our community. This year’s theme is ‘staying active, connected, and safe.’
Over the past year, our Volunteer Resources team has spearheaded and led many programs for older adults in the community, helping them stay active, connected and safe. To learn more, click the link below.
Champions of Care Nominations
Congratulations to this week’s Champions of Care nominees:
- “Weeda Panjshiri takes initiative and responsibility to a high degree when responding to urgent and other requests for care as an Intake Coordinator. She promptly responds to information requests and problem solves difficult or complicated situations. Recently, she successfully resolved her first urgent meal request which is always stressful and involves coordination with several staff and services on a tight deadline. Weeda’s values of person-centered care and collaboration in her work make her a valuable asset to the Intake Team.” – Debra McLellan
- “Boris, the son of a client who recently passed away, left a voicemail message praising the efforts of both Marina Dalgetty and Yulia Ioffe. He stated that his mother was not an easy individual to care for, especially in her latter years and that both Marina and Yulia would take the time to listen and assist her to the best of their abilities. He was extremely grateful to all the staff at Circle of Care who assisted his mother.” – Sonia Ranieri
Ask Us Anything
PSW Submission: Our clients keep on changing. We have them for three weeks, and then the next week, they are gone from our schedule. How can we establish relationships and an expectation of the time of their care when we’re constantly being moved around? We start establishing a relationship with our client, and then suddenly they’re no longer on our schedule!
Our response: We understand that situations like this can be frustrating. It’s incredibly important and valuable for PSWs and clients to get to know each other and develop a professional relationship, as this leads to the best outcomes for the client and their care. We do our very best to provide our staff and clients with a regular schedule. There are many reasons why a client may be pulled from your schedule. Some examples of those reasons include the following:
- The client may have requested a different time for their visit,
- They may no longer need care (e.g. moved into long-term care, another neighbourhood, etc.),
- They are in the hospital and are therefore no longer receiving service from us,
- There may have been changes to the client’s schedule, such as an increase and decrease of hours that requires an adjustment to the existing schedule.
In addition, for our newer PSWs, it will take some time to build a permanent schedule because these staff members are typically first used to fill in for absences (planned and unplanned). As new clients come on board, we schedule them with our newer staff if their availability matches the client’s need.
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We invite you to submit your questions or feedback below. Please note that it may take us longer to provide some answers, so if you’ve asked a question that hasn’t been answered yet, we will get back to you in the coming weeks.