Category: Butterfly Home

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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!

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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!

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Transformation to Butterfly model of care coming to long-term care home in Orangeville

Photo courtesy of Jarlette Health Services
Photo courtesy of Jarlette Health Services

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

 

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No matter which model is used, meaningful care matters!

266 people registered for the webinar led by Sally Knocker on “What does emotion-based care look like in practice?”  Sally, a consultant with Meaningful Care Matters, said that LTC homes need to create a sense of home, slow down the pace, and staff need to sit more with residents and share themselves.

The Butterfly model, an emotion-based model of care, is not just about the environment, but about creating a meaningful environment with pictures and memorabilia that is significant to the resident. The key is to find out what makes sense to the person’s well-being and allow them to express and be themselves.

Based on Kitwood’s flower of psychological needs, the Butterfly model embraces the following elements: a sense of identity, comfort, attachment, inclusion and occupation. Sally then added two more elements. The first was the need for freedom, being able to do the things that makes sense to the person. This requires staff to manage risk in a positive way so that the person feels both safe and free. The second was that fun needs to be foremost, as laughter enhances engagement with others.. Click on link to see more

 Participants rated the webinar very positively with a wish that all LTC homes could embrace this culture of care. Please make this a ballot box issue in the upcoming provincial election and ask the candidates if they will commit to including funding for emotion-based models of care in the budget process in the first year of their term if elected.

 

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Moving from Institutional to Emotion-based Care

 

Malton Village, Region of Peel

Over 125  persons attended a recent webinar on “Moving from Institutional to Emotion-based Care” co-hosted by Family Councils of Ontario (FCO) and C.A.R.P. (Canadian Association for Retired Persons) Ottawa Chapter.

The webinar featured Mary Connell who implemented the first Butterfly Model home in Ontario in Peel Region  and Gerry Kupferschmidt whose wife lives in a Butterfly Model unit at Sheridan Villa Long-term Care Home in Mississauga.

An emotion-based model of care is the heart of all the innovative models (Eden, Hogewey, Butterfly, and Green House) that have been implemented in some long-term care homes in Ontario and elsewhere in Canada.

To watch the webinar,  click here:

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