WoodGreen Community Services has developed The Bed Bug Resource Manual: A Guide to Preventing, Treating and Coping with Bed Bugs (PDF), a valuable addition to the policy and best practice literature we have available. It is especially interesting to us because it provides background on the city’s response to the bed bug epidemic.
WoodGreen’s Bed Bug Resource Manual outlines background information on events that preceded the Toronto Bed Bug Project and makes policy recommendations. (We have just reviewed the Toronto Medical Officer of Health’s Staff Report on the Toronto Bed Bug Project.)
We get a sense of the urgency created by the spread of bed bugs in Toronto and their impact on vulnerable citizens in the foreword by Rima Zavys, Director, Homelessness & Housing Help Services and Mental Health & Developmental Services—Ms. Zavys is also the Co-Chair of the Toronto Bed Bug Project:
We knew that immediate action was necessary to reduce the levels of bed bug infestations we were hearing about in Toronto. We organized the Bed Bug Town Hall at WoodGreen Community Services on November 14, 2007. We felt something had to be done right away, and the 300 people who attended the Town Hall felt the same way.
The Town Hall was the product of discussions within various community groups on the front lines:
In 2007, a subcommittee of the Sherbourne Health Bus Community Advisory Panel began to meet to discuss the issue of bed bugs. The group was made up of shelter, housing and health care staff working in the downtown core and had representatives from Central Neighbourhood House, Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre, Sherbourne Health Centre, Street Health and WoodGreen Community Services. Working in conjunction with this committee, WoodGreen Community Services hosted a Town Hall meeting on November 14, 2007, on the topic of bedbugs.
In Toronto, then, the path to action began with social services agencies and non-profits.
The Manual contains the following Community Advocacy Recommendations:
- Conduct a survey to determine the extent of the problem among social housing providers, rooming houses, and shelters.
- Identify the resources needed to address the issue.
- Provide funds for bed bug outreach teams that would assist landlords and tenants in developing plans to address the issue.
- Fund housekeeping supports to assist low-income individuals in preparing for pest control treatment.
- Provide funds for social housing landlords to access the services of pest control companies.
- Establish a bed bug reporting centre so that the City can monitor the extent of the problem.
- Consider initiating a Bed-Bug furniture pick-up program.
- Expand on public education initiatives, particularly to tenants, occupants of multi-residential units and shelter users.
- Develop a website that is useful and interactive.
- Review the issue of bed bugs under Municipal Licensing.
Measure the problem, identify resources, develop useful materials, provide funds for access to pest control services, do something about bed bug trash, review the legal framework… If you read enough policy proposals, the recommendations are familiar and applicable to any city or community affected by bed bugs. Knowing what to do is the first step and we believe that it’s critical to correctly analyze the problems, but analysis must be followed by the actual work. And so it is very encouraging that Toronto is already acquiring experience and evidence through five pilot projects designed to evaluate strategies for bed bug prevention and control.
More things we like about the Manual, which collected fact sheets and policy documents from other organizations:
- a “Say No to Bed Bugs: Make our Apartment Building a Bed Bugs Free Environment” sample tenant notice (appendix 1)
- a useful section on the risks faced by home support workers and community outreach and shelter staff and the prevention strategies they should use (p. 13) plus a checklist and additional recommendations for those workers (appendix 2)
- a necessary reminder of the need for community education and continual monitoring (p. 15):
Once units have been treated with an integrated pest management approach, there should be protocols for on-going monitoring for the presence of bed bugs in order to determine the need for further treatment. If monitoring is carried out routinely, it is more likely that infestations can be eliminated or controlled. The monitoring process should be written and made available to all those involved.
Right! Especially given the propensity of bed bugs to just play dead. Emphasis added.
And we already mentioned the great photographs. I’m encouraged by this work. It can help people and social service groups well beyond Toronto.
Updated to add: Also, if you are new to our site or you work at a shelter, group home or social services agency, you really should download the Guidelines for Prevention and Management of Bed Bugs in Shelters and Group Living Facilities from the NYS IPM Program at Cornell. For more policy documents, check our Resources page.
These pages may be of related interest:
I am excited today about the Toronto Bed Bug Project Update. So much help is needed, and solutions will take so much work and coordination. And yet, how exciting that the problem is being addressed. It’s huge.
Fiorito’s column was great.
Yes indeedie! As always.
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