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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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COVID in the HOUSE of OLD

COVID in the House of Old is a storytelling exhibit that tells nine stories as shared by residents, family members and staff pertaining to the horrific events that unfolded during COVID across Canada within long-term care homes. Who can ever forget the pictures of military personnel who were deployed to save seniors stranded in COVID-ridden long-term care homes where frail elderly residents appeared dehydrated, unfed, and covered in urine and feces. In fact, 82% of the first wave deaths due to COVID were residents of long-term care homes. Residents were locked away from the world and health care workers were left unsupported during the pandemic. Read more here.

COVID in the HOUSE of OLD calls on all Canadians to act and specifically calls on the provincial and federal government to transform long-term care homes into a caring, positive option for seniors and a rewarding place to work. A petition is part of the exhibit and within the petition are 7 recommendations for action. One of these recommendations calls on the government to fund a Canada-wide pilot project of 24 new model LTC facilities, consisting of small, home-like units, constructed to limit the spread of infectious disease!

Take a look at the report, sign the petition, and do your part to make sure this never happens again!

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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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First Green House Homes Outside the U.S. Open in Australia

A Green House Dining Room (copied with permission)

ACH Group in Australia recently opened Healthia, the first full implementation of the Green House Care model outside of the United States.

Susan Ryan, CEO of the Centre for Innovation, said “Working with the ACH Group to implement the Green House model has shown the world that small, intentional care communities can work everywhere.”

In its news release, it noted that the Green House Project (GHP) has worked with providers across the United States to build small-home alternatives to traditional nursing homes. With private rooms and bathrooms, ample outdoor space, and a person-directed care philosophy, these homes of no more than 10 to 12 residents have redefined the standard for empowering and high-quality eldercare.  Click here to read more

The GHP is one of several innovative models that transform long-term care homes from ‘institutions to homes’; other models include  but are not limited to: Eden Alternative, the Butterfly Approach, and Hogeweyk.

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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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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CARP Ottawa calls for change in long-term care now from Institutions to Homes

Media Release July 31st, 2023 

ChangeLTCNow

Most of Ontario’s long-term care homes (LTCHs) are still being operated as institutions. This despite four decades of systemic weaknesses that were brought to light because of the horrific tragedies of the pandemic.

We are calling on the Ford government to mandate and fund the ongoing transition of LTCHs from institutions to homes so that residents can live in dignity and with the respect they deserve.

Positive changes in models of care already exist in the province. For the last five years, CARP Ottawa and other like-minded organizations in Ontario have been working hard to highlight those positive changes. The models include: The Eden Alternative, The Butterfly Approach, Hogeweyk Villages, and the Green House Project. Other homes, such as the municipal homes in Toronto, have opted to use a hybrid model. They all use the same philosophy of care.

More awareness is needed. Residents deserve to live with respect and dignity.  Georgie’s compelling story, described in the video shows how The Butterfly Approach enabled her to come to life again, even though living with dementia. The other describes ‘The Eden Alternative model – how its philosophies care for the whole person and create a home – and how it values its staff, resulting in a remarkable 95% staff retention rate.  View the videos here:

https://changeltcnow.ca/video/ChangeLTCNow-MeaningfulCareMatters-v6.mp4

https://changeltcnow.ca/video/ChangeLTCNow-SueEllen-v4.mp4

There are many long-term care home operators in Ontario, other provinces and internationally, that have already transformed their institutions to homes.  The Quebec government has just announced it will be transforming all its nursing homes using similar approaches. These shifts result in significantly better outcomes for residents, staff, and families, both pre and during COVID-19.

The fundamental principle in Ontario’s Fixing Long-term Care Act 2021 – to provide a place where residents may live with dignity and security, safety and comfort and have their physical, psychological, social, spiritual, and cultural needs adequately met – is not being applied.

If we don’t begin to fix the long-term care home system now, after two years of horrific tragedies, they will be forgotten again for decades or until another pandemic hits.

For contact information re interviews with family caregivers, experts and staff, call:

Kathy Wright – 613-808-8978,
Chair, CARP Ottawa’s Working Group on Long-term Care
or
Marg Eisner – 519-771-1129,
Member, Working Group on Long-term Care.

www.carp.ca – a New Vision for Aging is Canada’s largest advocacy association for older Canadians promoting equitable access to health care, financial security, and freedom from ageism. There are more than 300,000 members nationwide.

We urge you to share this with your friends, families and contacts as well as with your MPPs (for easy reference the link to the MPPs – click here 

 

 

 

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