A Penetanguishene hospital’s new venture has many area residents on pins and needles.
As part of an initiative called Operation Sew, Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care has recruited volunteers to sew 600 reusable and washable isolation gowns that are now in short supply due to the current global pandemic.
Diane Desroches, Waypoint’s talent and volunteer services coordinator, said she’s been taken aback by the overwhelming response received after an initial call for help last week.
“I haven’t stopped answering emails since that moment,” Desroches said during a conversation with MidlandToday.
“It was amazing; I couldn’t type fast enough replying to people. We had about 150 people reach out. It’s great that they want to help us. This is a positive thing in this not so positive time.”
Initially, Desroches wasn’t sure what the response would be, but when the emails started rolling in she figured she might be able to recruit 100 people to sew six gowns each.
“Now, instead of making six gowns each, maybe they can do four,” she said, noting kits including everything needed to make the gowns will be going out Tuesday. “Some staff are volunteering to cut the material ahead of time.”
Desroches said they’re hoping for a two-week turnaround to get back all the completed kits that include fabric, thread, a pattern and elastic.
As well, she noted participants will be adhering to social distancing measures when it comes to both dropping off the materials and picking up the finished kits.
Desroches said Waypoint is facing the same challenges of other healthcare institutions in securing the necessary personal protection equipment (PPE) it needs to boost its inventory of necessary equipment.
And since Waypoint is a government institution, it can’t use ordinary fabric for its gowns, but rather must acquire material that meets official provincial health protocols.
“We had to order the proper fabric that would be to the standards of the PPE (protocol),” said Desroches, who credited Deb Nicholson, a supervisor with Waypoint’s rehabilitation area, with forwarding the original idea.
Desroches said it’s been truly inspiring, especially given that the call for help went out during National Volunteer Week.
“And a lot of places can’t have their volunteers right now because of COVID,” she said, noting volunteers from across the region, including Midland, Penetanguishene, Tiny and Tay residents, answered the call.
“People are at home, they have the time and they like to sew. People helping other people is really worth celebrating.”
And for facilities like Waypoint, staff will continue dealing with the aftershocks of COVID-19 even as the curve begins to flatten.
“People are sitting at home and realizing COVID is about your health, but it’s also about your mental health,” she said.
“For Waypoint, we’re a hospital dealing with mental health and when this is over we’re still going to be feeling the mental-health effects from the pandemic.”
