Moving Upstream - Leeds, Grenville and Lanark District Health Unit

4. Healthy Environment
Health Goals
2. Childcare & residential care settings are hygienic.
Young children learn by sensory exploration including touching and tasting
surfaces. Their immune systems are still developing and infection can spread
easily in the child care setting without good infection control practices.
People who are in hospital or live in long-term care or retirement homes are
at higher risk for infections because they are in a group setting and often have
chronic health problems. Many respiratory and enteric infections are spread
through person-to-person contact. In Leeds, Grenville and Lanark, there are on
average 25 outbreaks in long-term care homes each year. Universal precautions
and outbreak management are critical to prevent the spread of infection.
The Health Unit will focus on the following program strategies to enhance
hygienic childcare and residential care settings:
Education, consultations and provision of resources on infection control
for childcare settings, long-term care and retirement homes.
Consultation during outbreaks of communicable diseases.
Information to childcare settings, and residents of long-term care and
retirement homes on infection control, and inspection of these settings to
monitor practices.
Tracking trends in communicable diseases using a variety of methods
including the Syndromic Surveillance System which tracks reasons for
visits to emergency departments at regional hospitals.
Information to the public using a variety of approaches.
36
Moving Upstream: 2013-2018 Strategic Plan
Leeds, Grenville & Lanark District Health Unit