One word: cautious. Our phased reopening plan is called Pathway Forward. The timeline will vary by location and be based on health and safety direction from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), local and state public health officials, and our own internal experts.

The White House national plan calls for reopening the country in three phases, with senior living in the third phase. Most states are in phase one or two of that plan. With the guidance of local public health officials, we will strategically and safely reopen our dining rooms, fitness centers, activity spaces, and beauty salons. We will also implement a phased visitation plan.

CDC guidance utilizes a Red-Yellow-Green structure.

In the Red phase, either the senior living community or the surrounding area is experiencing a high incidence of COVID-19, and is likely under stay-at-home restrictions.

The Yellow phase has moderate incidence in the surrounding area plus the community itself has either never had active COVID-19 cases or has not had an active case for at least 14 days. Yellow typically coincides with the local municipality’s initial reopening.

The Green phase is marked by low incidence in the surrounding area and the community itself has either never had active COVID-19 cases or has not had an active case for at least 28 days. The Green phase is well into the future with an unknown timeline.

Our foremost goal is to reunite you with your family members! We recognize daily how difficult this lack of contact has been for and understand your desire to have closer contact with your loved ones.

As we move into the Yellow phase, we will begin to allow outdoor, physically distanced family visits by appointment and with universal masking. It’s perfect timing with fine summer weather and research suggesting that the lowest likelihood of disease transmission is outdoors. Many of our communities will begin to offer these visits in early to mid-June.
Please contact your loved one’s specific community for detailed information.

We look forward to the next step in the Yellow phase, when we will be able to offer indoor family visits in a designated area or pod. These prearranged visits will require safe physical distancing and universal masking. We don’t have a date yet for this step.

Our “White Glove Green Clean Program” was developed through extensive research by our COVID-19 Environmental Safety Team, leaders with great experience in infection control in senior living communities.

We built on our strong foundation of existing protocols, as we’ve always been committed to delivering an industry-defining standard of cleanliness and sanitation.

This new program includes: increased cleaning schedules for high-traffic surfaces and all other areas, detailed resident room cleaning, use of Puroxcide (an EPA-approved disinfectant for COVID-19) for all surfaces, use of both foggers and electrostatic sprayers for enhanced coverage and protection, and hand sanitizer available throughout the community.

Juniper made a commitment to COVID-19 testing of residents and associates in early April, before it was required. We continue to test weekly or biweekly, as testing provides critical information enabling us to isolate and group staff and residents to prevent disease spread.

Juniper has also gone above and beyond in acquiring required PPE – early and consistently, avoiding the shortages that have plagued many healthcare facilities. We stocked our communities, established minimum stores of PPE to have on hand, and established three supply depots with additional stock.

We continue to require universal masking in our communities. All staff and essential visitors must be screened and have normal temperatures. We will continue to either stop COVID-19 at the door or minimize its spread within a given community.

Juniper has always focused on fostering an active body, engaged mind, and fulfilled spirit. That has not changed. Our communities continue to have Genesis Rehab partners providing therapy, our REfresh mindfulness programming, and we recently added a “Get Happy” dance program to boost physical and emotional wellness.

We provide personalized one-on-one connections programming with residents, utilize virtual visits for friends and family connections, and our hallway activities to provide a degree of safe socialization. For residents of faith, we continue to connect them with their local places of worship virtually and through mailing

Routine screening, temperature checks, and testing of associates will continue as we move from Red to Yellow and early stage Green reopening. We will gradually move from 12 – 16 hour shifts to the 8-hour shifts we utilized pre-pandemic.

We quickly transformed our offerings into virtual and hallway activities, which our residents have truly enjoyed. These will continue in the Yellow phase, joined by indoor and outdoor walking and fitness groups, small group activities (10 or fewer participants), and outdoor church events, lawn concerts, and so forth – all with proper social distance and masking. Fitness centers and other larger group venues will remain closed until we are in the Green.

We know that dining rooms are a place of connection as well as nourishment. During the pandemic, dining has been room service only. We’ve worked hard to provide fun and variety through festive cart offerings like create your own ice cream sundae, happy hour, and Taco Tuesday.

In the first part of the Yellow phase, we will explore dining service for one meal only in our normal dining areas and other spaces to distance residents to one person per table. Once we feel comfortable this is safe and successful, we will open for breakfast with the same restrictions.

We anticipate the Green phase will continue to require physical distancing, no guest dining, but allow up to 25 residents in the dining rooms open for all three meals. At all stages, both residents and team members will be required to adhere to universal masking.

We are not able to accept individuals with active COVID-19. We are currently accepting move-ins with proper COVID-19 testing and after a careful assessment process. If a prospective resident has tested negative or is recovered, they can be admitted with a 14-day self- isolation period. This period of time may be shortened if two post-move-in tests are also negative. We have a specific move-in process and package which includes additional support during the 14-day self-isolation period. We also facilitate both virtual and socially distant visits with family during this period.