{"id":70816,"date":"2020-11-03T13:48:33","date_gmt":"2020-11-03T18:48:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/?p=70816"},"modified":"2025-08-19T09:36:27","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T13:36:27","slug":"carleton-and-bruyere-researchers-receive-grant-to-help-long-term-care-homes-protect-themselves-from-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/2020\/carleton-and-bruyere-researchers-receive-grant-to-help-long-term-care-homes-protect-themselves-from-covid\/","title":{"rendered":"Carleton and Bruy\u00e8re Researchers Receive Grant to help Long-Term Care Homes Protect Themselves from COVID"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Carleton and Bruy\u00e8re Researchers Receive Grant to help Long-Term Care Homes Protect Themselves from COVID\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

Carleton University\u2019s Chantal Trudel<\/a>, a professor in the School of Industrial Design<\/a> and a team made up of Susan Braedley<\/a>, Amy Hsu, Dennis Kao<\/a>, Frank Knoefel, Sophie Orosz, Heidi Sveistrup, and Bruce Wallace\u2014received nearly $40,000 from the Foundation for Health Environments Research in the United States to study the design of Canadian long-term care homes (LTC) in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The work reflects Carleton\u2019s research commitment to supporting pandemic efforts and strategic initiatives in health, wellness and sustainability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The funds will be used to design LTC work and living spaces for the protection of residents and staff. Partners include the Bruy\u00e8re Research Institute and the Ontario Centres for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cUnlike hospitals, which are clinical in nature, LTC environments are residents\u2019 homes,\u201d said Trudel. She added this situation presents a challenge in designing for infection prevention and control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steve Crawford, chief executive officer of McCormick Care Group in London, Ont., is working with Trudel on design studies. He shares Trudel\u2019s concern. \u201cThere\u2019s a potential disconnect between making LTC safe in terms of infection prevention and control, and creating spaces that are comfortable and warm for residents and workers alike.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trudel\u2019s previous work in neonatal care showed that aspects of our environments may get in the way of health-care workers trying to complete their tasks safely. There is a critical problem health-care workers are experiencing\u2014a tension between trying to be as cautious as possible, while trying to finish the variety of tasks to serve patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team\u2019s goal is to identify and address these conflicts in LTC to prevent outbreaks, as workers do everyday tasks while wearing cumbersome personal protective equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team will also study how to assist residents who are living with dementia, which can be particularly challenging, according to team member Frank Knoefel from Bruy\u00e8re. \u201cIt may be hard for someone living with cognitive impairment to remember to wash their hands after coming in contact with high-touch surfaces or to remember physical distancing rules.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Normally Trudel and her team would visit LTC homes, but due to the pandemic the team will begin the work remotely with at least three LTC workers per facility, at four locations, to capture a range of living and working environments. Trudel\u2019s team will also review the plans of future LTC homes or those under renovation to co-create infection-prevention design strategies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The initial phase of the study will last a year. The team will create a COVID-friendly design plan for participating LTC homes that could also be used to prevent future respiratory outbreaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Media Contact
\n<\/strong>Steven Reid
\nMedia Relations Officer
\nCarleton University
\n613-265-6613
\nSteven.Reid3@carleton.ca<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Follow us on Twitter: www.twitter.com\/Cunewsroom<\/a>
\nCOVID 19 Updates: https:\/\/newsroom.carleton.ca\/coronavirus-covid-19\/messages\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carleton University\u2019s Chantal Trudel, a professor in the School of Industrial Design and a team made up of Susan Braedley, Amy Hsu, Dennis Kao, Frank Knoefel, Sophie Orosz, Heidi Sveistrup, and Bruce Wallace\u2014received nearly $40,000 from the Foundation for Health Environments Research in the United States to study the design of Canadian long-term care homes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":410,"featured_media":67662,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[97,186,141,139],"class_list":["post-70816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-releases","tag-community-engagement","tag-health","tag-industrial-design","tag-partnerships"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":"blueprint"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/410"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70816"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70832,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70816\/revisions\/70832"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}