Creating Joy During a Challenging Time

Sligo – Country Springs Personal Care, part of the Clarview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center campus, remains committed to serving our residents, staff, and family members during this difficult time. They have been following Covid-19 and have been taking a proactive approach to keep their residents, staff, and families safe and educated as this unfolds.
Country Springs Personal Care, is a not-for-profit community located in Sligo, PA, and has been adhering to the numerous preventative measures to protect residents residing in nursing facilities set forth by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), US Department of Health and Human Services, PA Department of Human Services, along with other federal, state, and local authorities. A few of those measures are to restrict visitation for all non-essential visitors; with some very limited exceptions, implementing active screening for all essential people entering the building and limiting group gatherings in all Skilled Nursing Facilities (SNF) across the Commonwealth to protect the susceptible senior population. Country Springs is following this guidance and will maintain open communication to all through this challenging time.
Although visitations are restricted, family members are still getting to see their family members from the window outside of their communities. Other than utilizing technologies such as FaceTime and Skype, these are currently the only ways families can see each other.
This past Tuesday was not only St. Patrick’s Day, but also Nancy Matthew’s birthday, who currently resides at Country Springs. The current restrictions did not stop Nancy’s family from creating a special birthday for her. Nancy’s daughter, granddaughter and great-granddaughters came to her window to sing her happy birthday. While this is a challenging time for many people across the country and world, especially for those who cannot visit with their family members face-to-face, families such as Nancy’s are showing their love and compassion while finding ways to stay connected. Country Springs has had family members call and then drop off care packages of goodies and old photo albums. The residents have enjoyed looking through their old photos and calling their family members and reminiscing as they look at them.
Our campus’ dedicated nursing, dining and activity professionals have been busy ensuring our residents are engaged and still able to communicate with family members via phone, Skype, and other means. “This current pandemic is truly an unfortunate situation for our residents, but we are trying to be creative to ensure daily life enrichments opportunities for our residents. We are devoted to see our residents SMILE.” states Mindy Gatesman, Personal Care Home Administrator at Country Springs.
Country Spring and Clarview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center would like to invite the community to participate in our SMILE Project. “As a not-for-profit organization, Country Springs is blessed to have many volunteers, entertainment groups, and churches that add smiles and life enrichment of our resident,” shares Mrs. Gatesman. Country Springs and Clarview Nursing and Rehabilitation is inviting the community to help with this endeavor. With many students now at home from school, students of all ages can share their talents. This could be an educational opportunity for the school aged children. They can record themselves as they practice for their spring musical performances; musicals; record themselves as they demonstrate their science project; reading their favorite stories; make greeting cards; write a story or letter.
This campus is asking church groups who are still holding small group bible studies and/or churches to recording their Sunday church message. Those all could be recorded and shared with residents. There are many other opportunities which the community can help brighten a day and bring a SMILE to the residents.
“Our facility continues to diligently stay abreast of all the changes and guidance regarding the Coronavirus. We take our commitment to care for our residents very seriously and continue to work closely with all the appropriate agencies on a daily basis,” states Mrs. Gatesman.
Additional inquiries can be directed to the Administrator by calling 814-745-3276.