Maintaining Autonomy During a Pandemic Lockdown

The Salvation Army Broadview Village is an organization that supports adults with developmental disability in group homes across the GTA. While Residents require support from staff to varying degrees for such things as personal hygiene, medication, and meals, the philosophy of the homes is to facilitate and support Resident autonomy and self-determination where able.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic began as a lockdown in March 2020 resulting in day program closures, Residents have found other ways to avert restrictions from limiting their ability to be an active participant of self-care. In March 2021, East Toronto Health Partners (ETHP), the Ontario Health Team serving East Toronto that Salvation Army Broadview Village is a part of, approved the funding of iPads for seven Residents to monitor themselves twice daily for symptoms of COVID-19, instead of staff doing this for them.

Fiona Lo, Broadview Village’s RN, designed a paper version of the Resident Self-Monitoring app first to have the Residents get used to the routine and questions. Once the Residents got the hang of it, the electronic version was launched. The Resident Self-Monitoring App is a COVID-19 self-screening activity with pictures and words suitable for some of Broadview Village’s Residents. It notifies designated individuals of entries that have been missed or deviate from the normal value in real time for immediate action. Jessica Harber is independent with the COVID-19 self screener which also includes a pulse oximeter to enter heart rate and oxygen saturation.

While this digital health micro-initiative contributed to the Residents self-care ability during a challenging time, Broadview Village anticipates building on this success to launch an App that can act as an Electronic Resident Record and also notify staff in real time of early warning signs of escalation or illness.

Miae Kim, RN
Director of Quality, Risk and Education
The Salvation Army Broadview Village