Health And Safety Precautions For Taharah In The

Health And Safety Precautions For Taharah In The Coronavirus Age Presented by

This Webinar Contains 5 Parts 1. Technical notes 2. Expert panel presentation 3. Review of recommendations 4. PPE demonstration 5. Questions 2

Technical Notes Using Zoom • Mute • Chat • Screen share • Help • Recording • Link 3

About Kavod v’Nichum • North American educational organization • Information and resources about Jewish practices around death and mourning • Especially focused on taharah and shmirah • 20 years old • Learn more at our web site – www. Jewish-Funerals. org • Sign up for our live on-line courses and our conference • Donations are always welcome 4

Shabbat Parah …A Red Cow Without Blemish - Bemidbar 19: 2 …Who touches the corpse of any human being shall be unclean for seven days - Bemidbar 19: 11 5

An Amazing Diverse Community • Over 300 participants on this webinar • Over 100 Chevra Kadisha groups represented • Taharah teams from Oahu, Hawaii, to Liverpool, England, from Vancouver, BC to San Jose, Costa Rica, from Santa Fe, NM, to Portland, ME • Some who do shmirah, others who do taharah • Some who are leaders and others who are trainers • This webinar is for all of us 6

Ellie Barbarash Kohenet Ellie Barbarash, MS, certified professional environmental auditor for health and safety and education, and coordinator for the health professionals 7

Dr. Joel Ackelsberg - medical epidemiologist for the New York City Bureau of Communicable Disease, Department of Health 8

Elayne Phillips Elayne Kornblatt Phillips, RN, MPH, Ph. D, FAAN - Former Director of Research, International Healthcare Worker Safety Center, University of Virginia 9

Why Hold This Webinar? • • Lack of good information Lots of misinformation Fear of the unknown Much that we do not yet know • • We will do our best to be a trusted source of information Disclaimer: the situation is fluid and rapidly changing We will keep you up to date We will try to answer questions as best we can 10

Update On COVID-19 11

A guide to understanding potential health risks and injuries while performing the holy work of the Chevrah Kadisha https: //www. Jewish-Funerals. org/Product/Health-and-Safety. Precautions-for-Taharah

Assumptions • Do not assume that you will know cause of death • As always, do assume that every meit/ah has some disease and therefore use standard precautions – it could be COVID-19 13

Routes of Transmission • • Airborne and Aerosolized Bloodborne Contact Droplet 14

Standard Precautions Gloves • Discipline • Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) • 15

Face Coverings Face shields prevent splash droplets from touching your face Can reinforce the discipline of not touching your face

Minimize Splashing Minimize splashing by: • Asking the funeral director to remove medical devices before the taharah • Pouring and handling water gently, not splashing • Modifying the washing and dressing if there are large quantities of blood present 17

Using PPE Effectively • Review with your taharah team pages 11 and 12 in the Health and Safety booklet regarding PPE and taharah room discipline • Practice donning (putting on) and doffing (taking off) PPE We’ll do a demo at the end of this presentation 18

Policies If taharah team members are sick, they should not do a taharah If taharah team members’ health is compromised, they should consider not doing the taharah 19

Cleaning Funeral Home Surfaces • Discuss with your funeral home how they clean surfaces such as the taharah table. • A 10% bleach solution has been shown to kill most pathogens. 20

Being Prepared It is difficult to predict what will happen in the future, but be prepared for: Supply shortages of PPE Increased deaths and increased requests for taharot Decreased availability of funeral home staff due to staff sickness Decreased availability of taharah team members due to taharah team members who may be sick 21

Community Education • Chevra Kadisha members have a role in helping their community by providing information and support, especially for vulnerable community members • Community education helps minimize fear 22

Recommendations 1. Study the Health and Safety Precautions in Taharah book 2. Realize we lack complete information 3. Understand modes of transmission 4. Use standard precautions 5. We suggest using face coverings 6. Practice putting on and taking off protective gear 7. Establish policies 8. Clean surfaces 9. Be aware of possible shortages 10. Help others www. Jewish-Funerals. org/infection www. Jewish-Funerals. org/corona-virus-safety-precaution-recommendations 23

Demonstration of Personal Protective Equipment 24

Questions? www. Jewish-funerals. org/Infection 25