A Year of Innovation and Resilience

‘Tis the season to be jolly and Safehaven has many achievements to be cheerful about, however, our end of year has been significantly impacted by the commencement of the fifth wave with the Omicron variant. The year has been eventful, and I would like to take the opportunity to look back at the year and recognize all that we have accomplished as we enter 2022.

This year was notable for being the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic—and Safehaven rose above and beyond the challenges to support the congregate care community in Toronto. With our commitment to innovation and resilience, Safehaven’s Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) program has been implemented across sectors continually adapting and responding to the daily changes in the landscape of the pandemic. We have been taking on a stronger advocacy role, reaching out and protecting the most vulnerable in our community as well as advancing vaccine equity in our sector.

Infection Prevention and Control to Protect the Vulnerable Populations

While facing a global pandemic, everything around us is affected—and we felt the impact especially as we house and support some of the most vulnerable members of our community. At the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot of confusion due to the lack of direction and recommendations for the care of vulnerable populations. Recognizing this and our expertise in both youth and adult care, Safehaven immediate stepped up to protect our clients.

At first, we started implementing what would be considered basic infection prevention and control practices. During this time, we saw a lot of people closing in, but Safehaven turned out and embraced our expertise, while innovating and creating more resources for other sectors. Safehaven implemented a gold-standard community-based Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) program that protects vulnerable populations across Ontario. Safehaven’s IPAC program led over 70 agencies across 600 sites to provide education, mask fit testing, outbreak management, site infection and vaccines for first and second-dose vaccinations for individuals and families with complex care needs. As a result, we have been instrumental in protecting and educating over 10,000+ individuals through the program. Building on this success, Safehaven is currently working to develop an annualized and responsive Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) program for implementation in congregate care settings across the developmental services (DS) sector.

COVID-19 Vaccine Accessibility Task Force Contributions

At the beginning of 2021, sector leaders in Toronto came together to discuss a strategic approach to community IPAC in a COVID-19 context. Given our model of care for children and adults with medically complex care needs, we emerged as a clear leader in the sector to lead and advance the IPAC work for our community. Our unique hybrid of clinical and community care resulted in Safehaven being selected as Toronto Region’s IPAC Champion Lead. As vaccinations began, we advocated for equitable access among persons with disabilities and medical complexities. I am involved with the City of Toronto’s COVID-19 Vaccine Accessibility Task Force and the Provincial Network on vaccination advocating for access and equity in the COVID-19 vaccine to support our sector.

Vaccine Clinics at Safehaven

Throughout this pandemic we have seen new variants of the virus emerge. One thing that has remained constant is the importance of vaccines. As Safehaven advocated for vaccine equity, we were pleased to hold accessible community vaccine clinics for individuals with developmental disabilities and their caregivers, healthcare workers including our staff, and members of the community. We wanted to make sure that accessibility was not a barrier for those within the developmental services sector to get their vaccines. We have continued to support the community with holding multiple immunization clinics and continue to do so. As well, our homebound program, with our academic health science partners, has been great to ensuring vulnerable individuals can obtain their vaccine at home.

Recognizing Leadership in the Community

It was an honor that Safehaven was named in this year’s Ontario Budget. This is a true testament to our strong partnership in the transitional care for our clients with medically complex care needs. We continue to collaborate with the government in providing community-driven care for persons with medical complexities and disabilities.

Safehaven was awarded the 2021 Member Leadership Award from the Ontario Agencies Supporting Individuals with Special Needs (OASIS). OASIS is a provincial organization that supports 190+ agencies who work with special needs individuals in providing education, leadership, communication and government relations to advance the care and services for individuals with special needs. This award recognizes organizations that demonstrate excellence, innovation, and leadership in the DS sector.

Safehaven was awarded the 2021 Children’s Healthcare Canada Organizational Leadership Award. Children’s Healthcare Canada recognizes regional not-for-profit organizations for demonstrating leadership which inspire change and innovation in healthcare for children and youth. This award reflects on all the hard work that we have done over the past year – especially through our Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) program which has helped us assist countless organizations and agencies across our sector as well as others.

The Future of Safehaven

Safehaven is dedicated to creating a more inclusive world for people with complex care needs. One of our top priorities for the new year is working on affordable housing and advancing our models of care to create more integrated and seamless care for our clients and families. We will continue our advocating on behalf of our clients and the broader sector, so health, accessibility, and complex care are considered when discussing the need for everyone to have sustainable housing. As we enter the new year, we will be launching our new strategic plan for 2022-2027 that will increase our focus on key priorities and our vision that ensure everyone belongs regardless of their challenges and support them to live a life with dignity and respect.