Using Personal Protective Equipment in Home and Community Care During COVID-19

Guidelines for Wearing Personal Protective Equipment During Home Visits

At Circle of Care, we require for all our Personal Support Workers and Homemakers to wear medical masks during all home visits. They are also required to wear additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) if they are within an environment that has been exposed to COVID-19 or other identified infectious diseases. We also insist that staff, clients, and families self assess and self identify if they are experiencing ANY symptomatology prior to home visits.

Guidelines for additional infection protection:

Our Personal Support Workers have been trained on a number of measures to reduce the transmission and spread of respiratory infections such as COVID-19. These measures include hand and respiratory hygiene, self-monitoring and assessment, and social distancing. Our Personal Support Workers have also been trained on the proper use of both surgical masks and gloves during home visits (i.e, disposal, frequency of use).

The Ministry of Health and Public Health Ontario provides regular updates that are reviewed and discussed daily by our COVID-19 Prevention Working Group. If we are at any point given new directions regarding PPE or other infection prevention measures, we will educate and equip our employees and clients accordingly.