Oral Presentation 5
Improving Quality Indicators - Increasing Purpose in Life

Wednesday, November 29, 2017
10:30 - 11:15 am
Queens Quay/ Bay
This session will showcase a series of projects including:

"It's Given Me A New Life!": Reducing Social Isolation in Long Term Care
Despite the benefits of congregate living in long term care, many residents experience a diminished sense of purpose and social isolation. Traditional busy activity calendars provide limited opportunities for contribution or the development of meaningful social relationships. Although some residents adapt, many remain isolated resulting in high rates of social isolation and loneliness. To address the above concerns an innovative peer support intervention was developed called the Java Mentorship Program. In this weekly program, volunteers, family and residents form a supportive team, receive education and training and provide mentorship and visitation in pairs to residents that are socially isolated. The presenter will share results of a study conducted on this program, review implementation processes and lessons learned. Participants will go home with a strategy on how to implement peer mentoring within their organization. 

Speaker: Kristine Theurer

Application and Validation of a New Volunteer-based Activity Engagement Program for Long-Term Care


PLEASE is an innovative, person-centered care program that engages long-term care (LTC) residents in volunteer-facilitated leisure activities. This program was initially implemented and piloted on an LTC unit at Baycrest Health Sciences to evaluate its impact on residents’ activity engagement and quality of life (QOL). Although the preliminary findings indicated that PLEASE positively impacted both domains, several program- and research-specific barriers emerged. In this follow-up study, we aimed to determine the program’s feasibility and scalability by replicating it on a second LTC unit after addressing some barriers. This observational, mixed-methods, repeated-measures evaluation compared behaviours, overall engagement, and QOL of resident groups at baseline and during program implementation using a modified observation tool. The results indicated that the program significantly increased activity engagement and QOL, while highlighting its feasibility and scalability. Future studies should examine PLEASE’s impact on individual resident's health outcomes, while comparing it to other volunteer-based social engagement programs.

The purpose of life - is a life with purpose


In the Fall of 2015, we began our journey to impact how we approach daily support and care of residents in long-term care. Through an innovative approach that enhances quality of life, Jarlette Health Services committed to a culture change journey with the DementiAbility program.  At each location we believe in creating an environment that focuses on abilities rather than impairment, and promotes success for our residents living with dementia. Our staff prepare and stage the environment around the individuals in our care to ensure that experiences are both meaningful and rewarding every day. By placing emphasis on the abilities that are often left intact as dementia progresses and combining them with individualized interests and experiences, our professional and trained staff are able to create opportunities for residents to demonstrate skill, and experience the positive emotions that are frequently associated with participation in engaging and fulfilling activity.


 

This session was generously sponsored by: