Category: Innovative Models

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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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For-profit and not-for-profit long term care homes

A Green House dining room (copied with permission)

As noted in our previous blog post, the debate about having for-profit and not-for-profit long term care homes continues.  The issue is that quality of life for those living in LTC homes has more to do with care delivery than the type of ownership.

In an article that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on July 24th, 2024, James Schlegel provides an opinion piece in defense of mission-driven, for-profit long-term care in Ontario.  Click here to read more .

Many proven innovative models in long-term care have been successfully implemented in some homes (albeit too few) in both for-profit and not-for profit homes in Ontario.  These include municipal homes in the Peel Region (the first in the province to implement the Butterfly Approach), Jarlette homes (family-run for-profit), the Glebe Centre in Ottawa, and Osgoode Care Centre in Osgoode.

Get involved and advocate to change long-term care homes in Ontario from ‘institutions to homes’ by writing to MPP or city councillor.

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Public Dementia Village opens in Comox, B.C.

 


Canada’s first privately operated community designed specifically for people with dementia, Langley Village

The Views, Canada’s first public, non-profit long-term care home modelled after a dementia village is opening in July, 2024.

The village has been designed for 156 residents and is divided into 13 households.  Each mini-neighbourhood has 12 residential suites and a common living area with a kitchen, laundry room, dining area and living space.

“These villages are safe, community-focused and allow residents to feel a sense of belonging while getting the care and support they need,” says B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix.

Providence Living created this site for seniors living with or without dementia and for younger adults in need of long-term care.

This is another example of transformative change taking place in our long-term care home system – from Institutions to Homes.

To read more, click here

 

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French Government invests $22M for a Dementia Village

Canada’s first community designed specifically for people with dementia, Langley Village

Everyone living at Landais Alzheimer, in south-west France, has dementia.   “Each of the single-storey chalets houses about eight residents, with a communal kitchen, sitting and dining room.  While villagers pay a contribution, the running costs, similar to an average care home, are mainly covered by the regional French government.  This project has a research component which means that outcomes will be tracked right from the beginning, providing meaningful date for future long-term care home ‘villages’ on whatever scale is possible.

 Click here to learn more.

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Doing more for persons with dementia in long-term care

A Green House dining room (copied with permission)

On January 22, 2024, the Ottawa Citizen published a letter to the editor submitted by CARP Ottawa in response to an article by Kate Heartfield on the need for better ways to improve care for dementia patients need for better ways to care for persons with dementia.  Read letter here

 

 

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Osgoode Care Centre is now an Eden Alternative long-term care home

 

The Osgoode Care Centre in rural south Ottawa is a non-profit, independent long-term care home.Photo credit Matthew Kupfer (CBC)

 

As captured in CBC reporter’s Matthew Kupfer’s recent article, the Osgoode Care Centre in south Ottawa is putting the ‘home’ in long term care.  Starting several years ago, the Centre began to implement the Eden Alternative care model.

Like other innovative models such as the Green House and the Butterfly Approach, the Eden Alternative model focuses on changing the ‘institution’ to a ‘home’ and the focus is on the resident rather than ‘tasks’.  Not without its challenges, this Centre along with several other long-term care homes in Ontario, have demonstrated that ‘where there is a will, there’s a way’ to make this kind of transformative change happen.

For the full article, click here 

Please share this good news story with your city councillor, your MP, and friends and family, and encourage them to take whatever action they can so that ‘homey’ becomes the norm in Ontario’s long-term care homes and not the ‘exception’.

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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: Small Homes, Big Change!

On December 6th, 2023, Family Councils Ontario and CARP Ottawa welcomed Alex Spanko, Director of Communications and Marketing at the Green House Project to present Green House principles and practical strategies to long-term care advocates, staff, and family councils. This presentation seeks to encourage the development of Green House homes and person-directed living practices in Canada.

Watch the webinar recording here:

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Webinar: Colour It Your Way!

 

 

One of the three Colour It Your Way long-term care homes in Grey County

 

On October 25th, CARP Ottawa’s Advocacy Group on Long-term Care and Family Councils Ontario, co-hosted a webinar featuring Jennifer Cornell, Director of Long Term Care, Grey Gables, Lee Manor, and Rockwood Terrace Care Communities, Grey County.  Jennifer shared the story of Grey County’s Long-Term Care culture change journey through the power of creating a shared purpose.  Their ‘Colour It Your Way’ journey was 10 years in the making and has become an ongoing journey.

Their journey addressed many aspects including vision, purpose, care approach, leadership coaching, staff support and training, and the list goes on.  Jennifer also spoke with enthusiasm about a new redevelopment project for their long-term care homes and looking into smaller size of units.  Click here  to learn more.

Changing ‘institutions’ to ‘homes’ is happening in Ontario, Canada, and beyond.  Please join us as Champions for Change in Long-term Care Now by forwarding this post with your contacts, MP, MPP, and city councillor.

 

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