Streamway Villa residents share their new year’s resolutions

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Streamway Villa residents rang in 2021 by sharing their new year’s resolutions on the Cobourg long-term care home’s Facebook page.

The idea to encourage residents to make new year’s resolutions came from Chelsea Tinney, one of Streamway Villa’s life enrichment aides.

Life enrichment co-ordinator Laurie Kracht says team members visited residents individually and asked them to share their new year’s resolutions.

Residents’ names, ages and new year’s resolutions were written on a whiteboard, and their photos were taken and put on the Streamway Villa Facebook page. 

Some of the new year’s resolutions include “travel more”, “eat more chocolate”, “go to the beach”, “to be very wealthy” and “eat more Cheezies and drink more beer”.

Residents also gave humorous responses when asked to supply their age, and there were a few who simply said “guess.”

The residents’ answers were off the cuff and unrehearsed, Laurie tells The OMNIway.

“We didn’t guide them in any way,” she says.

The Streamway Villa life enrichment team created the home’s Facebook page in 2020 as a way to engage with family members during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Team members regularly take photos of residents who have given consent and post them on the page to help keep families and friends updated on life at Streamway Villa.

Laurie credits Chelsea for coming up with ideas like this to share residents’ stories.

“Chelsea is really running with this,” she says.

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Virtual fundraiser nets $1,500 for Frost Manor residents’ council

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Support from families, local businesses and staff helped make the event successful, says LEC

Thanks to the support and generosity of residents’ families, family council and the local community, more than $1,500 was raised for Frost Manor’s residents’ council during the Lindsay, Ont. long-term care home’s annual Christmas fundraiser.

The success of the fundraiser was quite a feat for Frost Manor, since the event had to be hosted virtually.

Every holiday season the home hosts a Christmas crafts sale to raise money for the residents’ council. However, due to restrictions in place to keep everyone safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, the crafts sale was replaced with a gift-card raffle – an idea the family council came up with during a video meeting.

Family members donated gift cards to the fundraiser as did many businesses in the area, including Canadian Tire, Food Basics, Garry’s Garden Gallery, Boston Pizza, Domino’s Pizza and Home Hardware.

Raffle tickets were sold, and the gift cards were raffled off in a draw. All money raised has been put into the residents’ council fund.

“We didn’t purchase a single gift card, it was all donations,” Frost Manor life enrichment co-ordinator (LEC) Lyndsay Burton tells The OMNIway.

“And it was all done virtually. If we had to do any ticket pick-ups or drop-offs, they were socially distanced.”

Lyndsay says the “ticket ambassadors” – Frost Manor staff members who helped sell the raffle tickets – played a big part in making the fundraiser successful.

“With the lockdown, they weren’t able to sell to as many people as they normally would, but they were still able to sell to their family and friends,” she says.

The residents’ council fund helps pay for outings and in-house entertainment. Since such events could not be held for much of 2020 due to the pandemic, the council fund has been growing, Lyndsay says.

And the residents are eager to spend the money once they can, she adds.

“When (the pandemic) is over, we will have a big celebration.”

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Local community brings Christmas cheer to Forest Hill

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Letters, cards and a video of Girl Guides singing carols were sent to residents during the holidays

Although it was a different kind of Christmas at Forest Hill due to restrictions in place to keep residents and staff members safe during the COVID-19 pandemic, the local community helped make the holiday season brighter for the Ottawa-area long-term care home’s residents.

St. Gabriel School, which is located near Forest Hill in Kanata, encouraged students to design homemade Christmas cards for Forest Hill residents. Just before the Christmas break, the school dropped off a box full of cards, and there was one for each of Forest Hill’s residents, says Craig Forrest, the home’s life enrichment co-ordinator.

Students from another school, M.F. McHugh Education Centre in Ottawa, also made Christmas cards that were sent to Forest Hill residents.

“It really meant a lot to all the residents to get these homemade cards from the kids,” Craig tells The OMNIway.

A group of nursing students from the University of Ottawa took time to write letters to Forest Hill residents and send some Christmas cheer, and this gesture was also well-received, Craig says.

“(The nursing students) knew that our residents were going through a very difficult time, and they wanted to write Christmas greetings to them,” Craig says.

Every Christmas, a troop from the Girl Guides of Canada visits Forest Hill to sing carols for residents. With safety protocols in place, the Girl Guides were not able to visit this past holiday season, so instead members of the troop made videos of them singing.

The videos were compiled into a single video that was sent to Forest Hill. Staff members visited residents individually with a laptop computer to play the video for residents.

“It wasn’t the same (as a live performance), but at least the residents still got to experience the caroling, and they enjoyed that,” he says.

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Photo caption: Forest Hill resident Nancy Garmaise is pictured with a Christmas card she received during the holidays.

Having a certified doula will enhance the quality of end-of-life/palliative care at Country Haven, says manager

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RPN Rachel Gukert, who has a ‘passion’ for helping residents receiving palliative care and their families, recently completed her end-of-life doula training

Almonte Country Haven registered practical nurse (RPN) Rachel Gukert recently became a certified end-of-life doula, and her training and expertise counselling residents at the end-of-life stage and their families will help enhance the quality of care at the Lanark County long-term care home, says one of Rachel’s colleagues.

Ruzica Subotic-Howell, the director of infection, prevention and control at Garden Terrace, worked with Rachel at Almonte Country Haven when Ruzica was Country Haven’s director of care. She says Rachel has a “passion” for helping residents receiving palliative care supports and their families, and the knowledge she has gleaned through her end-of-life doula certification will enhance the already-strong palliative care team at the home, Ruzica adds.

“Doula” is a Greek word that translates to “servant” or “helper”. The goal of an end-of-life doula is to empower and counsel people who are at the end-of-life stage and their families on decision making when it comes to their wishes and needs.

While staff members working on palliative care teams already consult with residents receiving end-of-life care and their families about their wishes and needs, a doula specializes in the approach, Ruzica says.

“What (having an end-of-life doula) will mean for residents receiving end-of-life care is that they will have a specialized person who will be able to look at the domains of their care as they move to end-of-life/palliative care,” Ruzica tells The OMNIway.

“This is definitely related to the quality of resident care because Rachel is now a leader in that, and she’s a wonderful teacher and a team player who shares her knowledge with others, so it will be a tremendous benefit for the home.”

Ruzica says there are not many doulas working in Ontario long-term care homes, so being certified as an end-of-life doula is a “massive achievement” for Rachel that will benefit Almonte Country Haven residents and their loved ones.

“Rachel has been such a keen person, (and) she has taken on the initiative to (build upon) her palliative care knowledge, so this brings (her expertise) up quite a notch,” Ruzica says.

“She wants to work with residents at Almonte and really solidify the knowledge she has to help them.”

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Riverview Manor ensures resident has a happy Hanukkah

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Ken Greenberg celebrated the Festival of Lights with residents and staff

When Hanukkah began on Dec. 10, the Riverview Manor life enrichment team went to work to make sure a resident of the Jewish faith had everything he needed to celebrate the Festival of Lights.

Resident Ken Greenberg had a menorah to light and, as part of the Hanukkah tradition, received a small gift every morning during the course of the eight-day holiday.

Ken happily educated residents and staff about some of Hanukkah’s traditions, such as the dreidel, a spinning wooden top that’s played with during Hanukkah.

Ken and other residents spun a dreidel during Hanukkah, and Ken took the opportunity to explain its significance.

For example, each of the four sides of a dreidel has a letter from the Hebrew alphabet. The four letters – nun, gimel, hey and shin – stand for “nes gadol haya sham,” which translates to “a great miracle happened there.”

However, Ken explained, if a dreidel is made in Israel, the phrase is “nes gadol haya pho,” which means “a great miracle happened here.” On these dreidels, the letter shin is replaced with the letter peh.

“(The dreidel) was played because it is said that because Jewish people were outlawed from practising their religion and studying the Torah, they would use their dreidel to pretend that they were playing games,” Riverview Manor life enrichment aide (LEA) Adam Wicklum tells The OMNIway.

During Hanukkah, Ken had his own electric menorah in his room. For Hanukkah 2019, the life enrichment department purchased a small battery-powered menorah after Ken moved to the Peterborough long-term care home.

This menorah was placed in the window near the table where Ken has his meals, and during Hanukkah Ken would light the menorah at dinnertime. Team members also decorated the two windows near Ken’s table with a Hanukkah motif. Every morning before breakfast, an LEA would bring Ken a small gift.

Hanukkah began at sunset on Thursday, Dec. 10 and ended at sunset on Friday, Dec. 18. Hanukkah, which translates to the words “to dedicate,” is the eight-day celebration commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple of Jerusalem in 165 BC.

Hanukkah, also called the Festival of Lights, begins on the 25th day of the month of Kislev in the Hebrew calendar.

People celebrate Hanukkah by eating traditional foods, playing games and exchanging gifts. The holiday is observed over eight days with the nightly lighting of the menorah candles and saying prayers.

Adam says it was important to celebrate Hanukkah at Riverview Manor because of the diversity of faith among residents and because it was an opportunity for residents to learn about one of Judaism’s most important holidays.

“It shows we care for one individual’s faith (and) special holiday, and (it was a chance) to educate and share culture with other residents,” he says.

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Forest Hill residents receive COVID-19 immunization

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Forest Hill residents have received their first round of vaccinations to protect them from the COVID-19 virus.

Paramedics from the local public health unit were at Forest Hill on Jan. 14 to immunize more than 140 residents at the Kanata, Ont. long-term care home.

All residents vaccinated provided consent to be immunized.

Some staff members who had not yet received the vaccination, as well as family members who have been deemed “essential caregivers,” were also able to receive immunization, says Craig Forrest, Forest Hill’s life enrichment co-ordinator.

Up to Jan. 14, Craig says about three-quarters of Forest Hill staff members had been immunized, and the paramedics were able to inoculate about 10 staff members who had not yet received the vaccine.

The COVID-19 vaccine requires two vaccinations, and the paramedics will be returning in two and half weeks to administer the second round, Craig says.

Although the COVID-19 pandemic is ongoing and safety protocols, such as staff wearing face masks, strict hand-washing and social distancing will remain in place at Forest Hill, Craig says there’s a sense of things getting better.

“We are still going to have months (of the pandemic) ahead of us, but at least you can see the light at the end of the tunnel,” he tells The OMNIway.

The COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020. At the time of this writing, the Government of Canada website is reporting there have been 731,450 cases of people in Canada contracting the virus. The website reports that 18,622 Canadians have died as a result of COVID-19 infection.

The Government of Ontario says on its website that vaccinations will be crucial to curbing COVID-19 infection.

“(Vaccines) will be an important tool to help stop the spread of the virus and allow individuals, families and workers to safely resume normal life,” the website states.

“The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine does not cause a coronavirus infection. It helps to build up your immunity to the virus, so your body will fight it off more easily if it affects you.”

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Fun-filled week at Maplewood includes a ‘deer hunt’ and a travelling food cart

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Activities like this ‘help with the loneliness we all may be experiencing during this pandemic,’ says administrator

The Maplewood team recently hosted a fun-filled week for the Brighton, Ont. long-term care home’s residents that was highlighted by a “deer hunt” and the life enrichment team transforming a mobile snack cart into both a hot dog and banana-split stand.

Life enrichment aide (LEA) Lynanne Campbell saw a Facebook post recently about a mock deer hunt that was organized by a long-term care home on Manitoulin Island. The activity had staff members dress up as deer and residents were tasked to “hunt the deer” with Nerf guns.

Lynanne gathered the needed supplies, starting with her own costumes which include many animals. She then transformed the dining room into a “forest”. She enlisted the help of residents and staff.

“What followed was genuine happiness,” Maplewood administrator and life enrichment co-ordinator Rachel Corkery tells The OMNIway.

“It was truly awesome.”

Rachel says Lynanne and fellow LEA Rosanne Blackburn also harnessed their creative flair and dressed up as food-cart vendors to serve hot dogs and banana splits during the week of Jan. 3 to Jan. 9.

Not only was Maplewood’s mobile snack cart transformed to match the theme of the day, there was also music played to match the theme, Rachel notes.

Rachel underscores the difference activities like this make to residents and Maplewood team members.

“It truly is amazingly creative,” she says. “(These activities) help with the loneliness we all may be experiencing during this pandemic and all the restrictions.”

Rachel also commends the life enrichment team for adapting so well to the changes that have affected the home since the global COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020.

“Yes, our activities have changed, yes, we all wear masks, we miss our families, but the fun and laughter hasn’t changed,” she says.

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Streamway’s resident Santa makes Christmas even more special

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Even if he wore a protective face mask instead of a long white beard, Streamway Villa’s resident Santa Claus still made a positive impact on other residents at Christmas.

Dressed in a full Santa costume, resident Claire Conlin did a walkabout at the Cobourg, Ont. long-term care home Christmas Day, handing out gifts and visiting residents to help give the occasion that needed personal touch that only Kris Kringle can deliver.

During his visits to residents, Claire played up the part of Father Christmas well, asking everyone if they remembered what he brought them last year, says Streamway Villa life enrichment co-ordinator Laurie Kracht.

“And the residents would all say, ‘Oh yeah, I remember,’ and he’d say, ‘well, this is your present for this year,’ and hand them their gift,” Laurie tells The OMNIway.

Normally, presents are given to residents in the dining room on Christmas morning, but because of social distancing precautions in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was safer for Claire to hand the presents out one by one in residents’ rooms, Laurie adds.

Laurie says the Streamway Villa team is grateful to Claire for playing the part of Santa and helping make Christmas extra special for residents.

“He played the part really well,” she says.

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Garden Terrace residents and staff receive first round of COVID-19 vaccinations

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‘We are so happy; it’s a relief and excitement’

Garden Terrace residents and staff members received their first round of COVID-19 vaccinations at the Ottawa-area long-term care home on Jan. 13.

More than 20 paramedics from the local public health unit were at Garden Terrace to administer the vaccinations on Thursday.

There were 138 Garden Terrace residents who consented to receive the vaccine. All of the home’s managers and many of the front-line staff members and essential caregivers also received immunizations.

There will be a second round of vaccinations performed at Garden Terrace in three weeks.

“We are so happy; it’s a relief and excitement,” Garden Terrace’s director of infection, prevention and control Ruzica Subotic-Howell tells The OMNIway.

“We have (most) of the residents vaccinated and that’s exciting, and all of the managers have been vaccinated as well.”

The COVID-19 pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization in March 2020. At the time of this writing, the Government of Canada website is reporting there have been 674,473 cases of people in Canada contracting the virus. The website reports that 17,233 Canadians have died as a result of COVID-19 infection.

The Government of Ontario says on its website that vaccinations will be crucial to curbing COVID-19 infection.

“(Vaccines) will be an important tool to help stop the spread of the virus and allow individuals, families and workers to safely resume normal life,” the website states.

“The coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine does not cause a coronavirus infection. It helps to build up your immunity to the virus, so your body will fight it off more easily if it affects you.”

Ruzica commends Garden Terrace team members for planning Thursday’s visit from the paramedics with precision and ensuring the immunizations went smoothly and in a timely manner.

“Every single manager in every department was diligent and organized to make this a success,” she says.

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How a special name badge means ‘inclusion’ to a Country Terrace care aide

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Jennifer Hamblin says a Christmas-themed badge administrator Karen Dann made for her also helped her get a COVID vaccination

Country Terrace care aide Jennifer Hamblin says the Christmas-themed name badge administrator Karen Dann made for her in December not only made her feel part of a team it also helped ensure she received her COVID-19 vaccination recently.

Jennifer, who joined the Country Terrace team Oct. 1, says wearing an ID badge has always been important in her work life and that she was “elated” when she was handed her name tag and card shortly after being hired.

“It was a personal touch that meant a big deal,” she tells The OMNIway. “Back in 2012, I retired from a career in security. The hardest part was handing over the identity badge. It was as if I handed over a part of myself, never to return.”

A few weeks ago, Jennifer’s badge went through the laundry when she forgot to remove it from a gown. The housekeeping staff found it and returned it to her.

Shortly after, her badge fell out of its plastic sleeve while she was making beds and she was not able to find it, so she had to get a new one.

There was one other name tag Jennifer had: the Christmas-themed badge Karen made for her.

In early December, The OMNIway published a story about how Karen made Christmas-themed name badges for everyone working at the Komoka, Ont. long-term care home.

The badges have team members’ first names embossed on a Christmas-themed design. Jennifer’s name tag is a red Santa stocking. Jennifer says receiving her Christmas badge brought her a feeling of inclusion at Country Terrace.

“I realized a lot of work and love went into the preparation of the badge; I even laminated mine with protective clear film,” she says.

“After years of experience and three degrees, what I have learned is what matters the most for me (in a workplace) is that I am included. I felt so blessed to be a part of a wonderful team, despite the challenging circumstances (of the pandemic).”

On Jan. 10, Jennifer went to the vaccination clinic in London, Ont. to be immunized against COVID-19. Since people working in health-care settings are a top priority for the vaccine, she was asked for a work ID.

“I proudly displayed my Christmas badge because that is all I had,” Jennifer says. “I forgot my real ID at home. Luckily for me, the police officer at the door chuckled, and the staff person at registration reassured me that everything would be fine.”

Jennifer showed them a copy of her police reference check she submitted when she was hired at Country Terrace. With her vaccination form and information already completed, she was ushered forward.

“Nevertheless, I wondered what would I have done without my Christmas badge,” Jennifer says.

Having experience teaching, Jennifer says she often finds herself looking for moral lessons to be learned from a given situation.

“In losing my title badge, gaining a Christmas badge (and) forgetting my real ID at home, I pondered what the next lesson in life would be for me,” she says.

“In the meantime, I enjoyed the moment of how a Christmas badge made me feel better about myself and helped me to get ushered through the vaccination process.”

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