COVID-19 Infection Prevention in Community Service with the South Park Senior Center

Student Nurse: Jeremiah Nordstrom

Nurse Faculty: Hilary Jauregui, DNP, MN, RN

As the Covid-19 pandemic rages on, much of Seattle’s population stays home, but the SPSC continues to operate, as hunger never sleeps and many do not have a home to isolate in. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, as many as 140 meals are consumed. Tuesday lunch alone services as many as 60 individuals. Within the same community space, many nonprofits share offices and which results in hundreds of client interactions throughout the week.

The homeless population served by SPSC lives at an intersection of immunosuppressive risk factors from weather exposure, mental health disorders, substance abuse, poor education, poverty, poor access to sanitation, close-quarters-habitation, societal neglect, and sometimes, all of the above.

This elevated risk is exacerbated by an inability to, or absent desire to, socially distance from one another in violation of CDC guidelines during our shared crisis. Without intervention, this heightened risk is not only a risk to the homeless population, SPSC staff, and the larger community, but may act as a reservoir from which future outbreaks may spring forth after social isolation precautions have been relaxed.

This same social isolation has collapsed the panhandling economy, restricted outreach efforts, focused emergency services elsewhere, and largely left streets empty. Resultingly, many homeless people are being less cautious about their drug and alcohol abuse. Attempts to get them to observe social distancing has been described as “a never-ending battle” by staff serving this community. Individuals share cigarettes, needles, coffee and stand close to each other. We know many of them have underlying health issues that put them at higher risk, not to mention there are no hygiene facilities nearby. Most resources they used are closed, which leaves SPSC as the only bathrooms they have available, yet these same bathrooms are shared by all staff at the neighborhood center, so their use exposes all staff to infection.

The effort to mitigate these issues is threefold:

• Provide alternate location for urination/defecation/sanitation.
• Create transmission barriers to protect staff and clients during otherwise routine distribution of resources.
• Promote the acquisition of Census data for clientele so that future federal/state budgets may more accurately reflect community needs.

Read the full report here!