Join us on May 14th from 12:00 to 1:00 to learn how the William Osler Health System became the first acute-care hospital worldwide to implemant the Butterfly model of care at their ACE unit, Brampton Civic Hospital.
To register click here
“Putting Dignity at the Centre of Long-term Care”
On Tuesday, March 18th, 2025, on CBC radio, The Current with Matt Galloway had a feature on “Putting Dignity at the Centre of Long-term Care”.
The broadcast includes interviews with a resident at Glebe Centre in Ottawa, Ontario and the resident’s daughter. Listen to this inspiring account of the importance of finding a residence that truly feels like home. Click here to listen to this broadcast (24 minutes).
‘There’s No Place Like Home’
A Green House Dining Room (copied with permission)
The National Institute on Aging released its recent report, “There’s No Place Like Home: Why Canada Must Prioritize Small Care Home Models in its Provision of Long-Term Care”.
“This report, There’s No Place Like Home, emphasizes the need for a transformative shift away from delivering care in large institutional care settings to smaller, more personalized, home-like environments that align with public preferences and improve care outcomes for residents and working conditions for staff. ”
Please join us in our advocacy efforts to transform Ontario’s long-term care homes from ‘institutions to homes’ by contacting your MPP and/or city councillor, writing a letter to the editor, etc to make this transformation happen.
Former Minister gives nod to innovative homes
In her recent book, A Physician in the Political Arena, Dr. Merrilee Fullerton
lays out her vision of what she had hoped for in reforming the long-term care home system in Ontario. Read more:
In Chapter 3 she writes, in part:
“Residents would have a dignified environment to live in. Physical, emotional and medical needs should be met…”
…”This underlines the importance of programs such as the Butterfly Model and the Eden Alternative Model that provide a more home-like setting with greater emphasis on emotional needs.”
Dr. Fullerton clearly saw the benefit of these innovative models of care that transformed their ‘institutions to homes’. Although at a snail’s pace, the numbers of these ‘homes’, in both the public and private sector in Ontario, continue to grow each year. We need to do more.
Click here to get involved. A draft letter is there for you to edit or send to your MPP or your local media. If we don’t begin to fix the long-term care system now, the residents will be forgotten yet again until another pandemic hits.
New model of care coming to long-term care home in Thunder Bay
Judy Walters, behavioural support and butterfly lead at Pioneer Ridge Long-Term Care and Senior Services, says it’s important to keep in mind that long-term care homes are where residents live, not just where people work, when looking at how to make the space a more familiar environment.
(Sarah Law/CBC)
The Butterfly approach which has already been adopted in long-term care homes elsewhere in Ontario is now coming to Pioneer Ridge where it will be the first in northwestern Ontario to adopt this model.
“Pioneer Ridge Long-Term Care and Senior Services, which houses 150 residents across four home areas on Tungsten St., will be integrating the new care model into its memory and dementia care section over the next 12 to 18 months”. Click here to read more
We need to see more long-term care homes in Ontario move in this direction to change long-term care homes from ‘institutions to homes’. Please consider contacting your MPP or municipal councillor to advocate for this long overdue and much needed transformation in Ontario’s long-term care home system.
Recording: Recognizing diversity in LTC homes: Serving the 2SLGBTQI community
On June 19th, 269 persons registered for the webinar, “Recognizing diversity in LTC homes”. The 185 participants learned how the Rekai Centre in Toronto is serving their 2SLGBTQI residents.
The full webinar can be viewed here.
Webinar: Shifting the Culture of Care in Peel region
Presenter: Monica Goodban
Since 2018, Peel Region has been on a journey to change the culture of care in our homes, first through the implementation of Meaningful Care Matters’ Butterfly Approach in select home areas, as well as through the expansion of emotion-based care philosophies through our service areas and with our system partners. Join FCO and CARP Ottawa as we welcome Monica Goodban to share the full story. Q&A to follow.
Webinar recording from Jan 17th, 2024
Webinar: Spreading the Love: The Jarlette Health Services Expansion!
Family Councils Ontario and CARP Ottawa welcomed Mary Connell on November 22nd from 12:00pm – 1:00pm to share about how Jarlette long-term care homes have rolled out the Butterfly approach, including the lessons learned, cost savings achieved and what current research is available.
Webinar: Sunnyside’s long-term care home has taken off!
On September 13th, we heard from Lindsay Marinovic and Julie Wheeler about the transformation that has taken off at Sunnyside. While it took two years to obtain accreditation, the Butterfly approach on two units was obtained in July 2022.
Lindsay and Julie provided information about the process they followed as well as lessons learned: change takes time; environmental change is not the most important thing; schedules and tasks were replaced with flexibility; staff are connecting with residents at an emotional level. Staff say they don’t want to feel they are on an assembly line and that the most important thing is getting to know the person, engaging in activities, building meaningful relationships in a long-term care home that looks and feels like home! Click here to learn more!
Transformation is happening and there are Homes in Ontario, Canada, and beyond who have changed their Institutions into Homes! Please join us as Champions for Change in Long-term Care Now by forwarding this post to your contacts, MP, MPP and city councillor.
From Institution to Home: It Can Be Done
Nora, a PSW, and Lionel, a resident in one of the many rooms with tranquil murals – photo is courtesy of the Glebe Centre
On February 22nd, 2023, Susan Zorz, Executive Director (Acting) of the Glebe Centre, a long term care home in Ottawa, gave an informative and animated presentation on how the Centre transformed its Bankwood Unit from ‘institution to home’ with the implementation of the butterfly model of care. The journey was longer than anticipated as Covid created a bit of havoc with their schedule but the Centre was steadfast in its determination to complete the process and attained its ‘butterfly’ accreditation status in November 2022. The Centre is strategically planning to bring this approach to its other units.
As Susan noted in her presentation about the cultural transformation, “The introduction of the Butterfly Model of Care requires changes in staff roles, training, day-today operations as well as to the physical design of the home…..”
Some key outcomes and improvements include decreasing use of psychotropic/sedative medications; reaching people’s emotional reactions and distress responses; people living with increased well-being; meaningful engagement; fewer falls through greater independence; and reduced staff turnover – less absenteeism.
To view this exciting presentation and learn more, please click here .
Ontario needs more homes where residents thrive in a place that looks and feels like home, not an institution.
Please help make this transformation a reality by forwarding this post to your contacts or by sharing on your Facebook, Twitter or Instagram accounts; or with your municipal or provincial representatives; or with your local community papers or other media contacts who might help promote this cause!
Hugs become OK in Sunnyside Home!
Congratulations to Sunnyside Home Long-Term Care home, the first home in Waterloo Region to be accredited in the “Butterfly” model of care, which creates a more homelike space for residents.
Connie Lacy, Director of Seniors’ Services at the Region of Waterloo, says that “It’s not about the task, it’s about the kind of care a family member would give.” Staff engage with residents in more human ways: having tea, offering a hand massage or painting fingernails”. Read more here.
Sunnyside has 49 beds within their LTC home converted into the Butterfly model of care. The home has seen a reduction in the use of antipsychotic medication, increased resident and staff satisfaction and improved quality of interactions.
Sunnyside long-term care home has joined nearly 20 other long-term care homes in Ontario in providing a model of care that promotes dignity and quality of life for our seniors. What about the long-term care homes in your area. Have they embraced an emotion-based model of care or are they still sitting on the fence? It can be done and is proving to be successful!
Transformation to Butterfly model of care coming to long-term care home in Orangeville
On July 6, 2022, Jarlette Health Services announced that it has begun a transformation to the Butterfly Approach to care at its Avalon long-term care home in Orangeville, Ontario.
It is embracing “the Butterfly Approach” to help create a more natural home and community setting. This includes fostering stronger interpersonal relationships between residents and team members, building daily routines around peoples’ needs and interests, and creating a living environment which more strongly resembles a private dwelling.
The care model, which has already been implemented in parts of Ontario, elsewhere in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, has a proven record of positive outcomes for residents, including improved physical and emotional health and well-being, reduced use of medication, and greater engagement by residents in daily life.
The Butterfly Approach will be implemented at other Jarlette Health Services communities in the months ahead.” Read more here Butterfly Approach to care in Avalon Care Centre