Learn About Safe Caregiving for Vaccinated People during Free AARP Webinar May 14

Learn what family caregivers and their loved ones who have been vaccinated can and can’t do safely during a free webinar presented by AARP Hawaiʻi and Mountain-Pacific Quality Health on Friday, May 14 at 9 am.

“I’m Vaccinated Against COVID-19. Now What? Are We Back to Normal?,” is the first in a series of “House Calls” webinars to help family caregivers take better care of their loved ones at home and in skilled nursing or assisted living facilities.

Stevi Sy of Mountain-Pacific Quality Health will lead the May 14th webinar centered around ways to connect with vaccinated loved ones at home or in a nursing home or assisted living community homes while still being cautious about COVID-19 and other contagious illnesses.

Go to aarp.org/nearyou or the AARP Hawai`i Facebook page and click on Upcoming Events to register for the webinar and see the other free virtual events offered by AARP. The webinars are free and open to all family caregivers. You do not have to be an AARP member to attend.

The House Calls webinars can be seen on the second Friday of the month through September. They all start at 9 am.

Other webinars in the series are:

June 11: “Infection Control: Slowing the Spread of COVID-19” with Dr. Aida Wen, University of Hawaiʻi John A. Burns School of Medicine’s Associate Professor of Geriatric Medicine.

July 9: “Protecting Yourself and Loved Ones – The New Normal” with Jill Hult of Mountain-Pacific Quality Health. She is a registered nurse and licensed nursing home administrator who will talk about simple strategies to keep infections from spreading.

Aug. 13: “Cleaning and Disinfecting in a COVID-19 World” – with Kelley O’Leary, a registered nurse and infection control specialist with the Hawaiʻi Department of Health, who will speak about the proper use of common household cleaning products to maximize effectiveness.

Sept. 10:  “Is It Safe To Socialize and Travel?” with Jill Hult and Wyoming Long-Term Care Ombudsman Patty Hall about how to socialize and travel, while balancing risks and expectations with safety and quality of life.

The webinar series was created through the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) Project Firstline, which offers interactive infection prevention and control curriculum for healthcare and public health workers and family caregivers. 

The CDC is working with more than a dozen healthcare, public health and academic partners, as well as 64 state, territorial and local health departments on Project Firstline’s objective of slowing and stopping the spread of infectious disease by helping family caregivers understand how to keep their loved ones protected to reduce healthcare costs and hospital readmissions.

“We all need to know infection control basics and understand how to prevent infection during day-to-day activities and individual interactions,” said Crystal Morse of Mountain-Pacific Quality Health. “Infection prevention (IP) processes, procedures and tools can be used to empower all individuals within our communities to take necessary IP precautions.”

Learn more by exploring CDC’s Project Firstline factsheet, Facebook page, Twitter. For more information, including how to participate in Project Firstline, contact Crystal Morse at cmorse@mpqhf.org.