New pilot program brings COVID-19 vaccines --and hope --to the door for hundreds of Toronto seniors

Thestar.com
Feb. 24, 2021
May Warren

As millions of Ontario seniors wonder when it will be their turn for the COVID-19 vaccine, residents of one east Toronto apartment building found the shots arriving at their doors, Tuesday.

A pilot program is rolling out over the next three days, with the hope that it can be used as a model for getting vaccines to those who need them most, when more become available.

The residents of Jack Layton Seniors Housing, a publicly funded non-profit seniors building, were the first to get the delivery service.

“I think the main reason we wanted to do this is to try to figure out how best to deliver vaccines to seniors” 80 and older, said Dr. Jeff Powis, medical director of infection prevention and control at Michael Garron Hospital.

“This is a bit of a trial run to see what we could do differently,” he said, starting with the highest risk apartments with a lot of older people, and then “very quickly moving out to other buildings that are predominantly seniors.”

Family physicians Tarin Arenson and Dominik Nowak along with personal support worker Mimi Werekagegnhu are shown outside a resident's apartment during an effort Tuesday to vaccinate seniors living in the east Toronto building.

The program, green-lit by Toronto Public Health and the province, is run by three Ontario Health Teams: East Toronto Health Partners (ETHP), Mid-West Toronto OHT and North York Toronto Health Partners. The teams are made up of health-care workers, including from hospitals like Michael Garron, and the University Health Network, and community organizations such as WoodGreen Community Services, which runs the Jack Layton building.

The vaccinations will continue over the next few days at St. Matthew’s Bracondale House on St. Clair Avenue West and a Toronto Community Housing building on Bathurst Street, with the goal of reaching about 500 seniors and health-care workers.

Those buildings were selected because, although not long-term care or retirement homes, they are still considered high risk, with many people over 80. There are 179 units at Jack Layton and within that three “cluster units” that have common living and dining areas, with full-time staff support, said WoodGreen’s President and CEO Anne Babcock.

That’s on top of regular shared spaces such as elevators and with many residents “barely exiting their units” since the first lockdowns began almost a year ago, she said.

“Just the fear factor is huge,” Babcock added, noting the organization was able to build on partnerships they already had with health-care workers, from other programs like a door-to-door flu vaccine campaign done in the fall. The Toronto Community Housing Corporation did similar flu shot programs and is also offering door-to-door testing at some buildings.

Those 80 and over are the next vaccine priority, after residents and staff in long-term care and retirement homes, hospital patients on their way to these places, front-line health-care workers, and Indigenous adults in northern remote and higher-risk communities.

Caroline Teston gives the thumbs up as the COVID-19 vaccine was given to seniors living in an east Toronto building on Tuesday, part of a pilot program rolling out this week with the hope it can be used as a model for getting vaccines to those who need them most.

Staff, residents and caregivers in retirement homes and other “congregate care settings” for seniors are also a top priority, so even those under 80 at the seniors buildings are eligible.

The 80 and up group in the wider community will start being vaccinated next month, according to provincial vaccine taskforce head, Retired Gen. Rick Hillier.

Details on how they’ll book appointments and where they’ll get shots (there are nine mass vaccination sites planned in Toronto) are still fuzzy. The province is also building a web portal for scheduling, using the same software as California, along with a call centre.

But Toronto Public Health has said mobile clinics will also be a part of the response. For Dr. Brian Hodges, executive vice-president and chief medical officer at University Health Network, they’re key.

“You go to this building and I could count on one hand the number of people that actually could physically have gotten on transit and gone to one of the big downtown (vaccine) clinics,” said Hodges, who was at Jack Layton Seniors Housing Tuesday morning.

Ideally, this would mean a co-ordinated strategy with mobile teams to vaccinate, “in every congregate setting, every seniors building, and perhaps even community centres and other sites,” he said.

On Tuesday morning Hodges spoke with seniors, going door-to-door, after a lobby clinic with a long line up and “vaccine stations” offered the jabs to the most keen.

Many had questions.

“They’re usually not against the vaccine, they’re just a bit worried,” he said.

“That, by the way, is my view of why the mobile approach is going to be so important going forward and we can’t just rest entirely on the amazing but high-volume downtown clinics.”

Powis said about 140 people were given shots, about 70-75 per cent of residents. Already his team has reported early lessons, like the importance of “piggybacking” on trusted relationships with organizations like WoodGreen, convenience, and the time and space to ask questions and make an informed decision.

Consent was collected in real time, but the residents had advance notice and information, provided by WoodGreen.

“The overwhelming thing we heard most commonly was they were so excited to get the vaccine because this was maybe just opening a little bit of a window,” Powis said.

“Thinking that, ‘oh, I could see my grand-kids, or I could see my daughter,’ thinking that maybe this was the start of being able to do the things that made them happy before.”

Powis said it’s important to be thinking “one step ahead” not only for this age group, but for others further down the line.

“Going to a busy line-up of many people getting the vaccine would be quite intimidating” for many seniors, he said and navigating a web-based portal will also be tricky.

“I do think we’re going to have to go seek them out,” he added.

Hodges, who’s been documenting vaccination efforts on Twitter, said collaboration has also been essential. And the “gratitude” the teams get from seniors is “heartwarming.”

“There’s been so much negativity about seniors and long-term care and death and all the tragedies, and there’s also a lot of hope and I want people to see that,” he said.