Maplewood brings back innovative intervention after successfully reducing resident’s anxiety

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Weighted blanket has the feel of a gentle hug

When a Maplewood resident recently began experiencing agitation, one of the Brighton long-term care home’s life enrichment aides (LEAs) put their arm around the resident for comfort and the resident became calm.

Seeing the positive impact this had on the resident, some team members remembered the home had a weighted blanket specially designed to provide a feeling of comfort to people with cognitive impairment who experience agitation.

The blanket is shaped like a bear rug and weighs only a few pounds, but it provides sensory stimulation similar to a hug. Team members offered it to the resident, who became elated with the blanket, cradling the bear head in her hands.

“It worked wonderfully,” says Rachel Corkery, Maplewood’s administrator and life enrichment co-ordinator. “It was really beneficial to that resident.”

Despite being heavier than most blankets, weighted blankets do not pose a safety issue for people, Rachel notes.

The blanket was purchased by Maplewood several years ago to help one resident. Unfortunately, the intervention at the time didn’t work and the blanket was shelved.

But given the positive result the team recently achieved with the blanket, Rachel says staff will consider using it again if this resident or others experience agitation in the future.

She adds that interventions like this are not one-size-fits-all approaches. Each resident has a unique set of needs, and an intervention that works for one resident may not work for someone else, she notes.

Still, the success team members achieved with the blanket means they’re going to keep it at the ready, Rachel says.

“It was nice to work our way through that, to think of a solution and see that it worked,” she says. “We saw a reduction in anxiety. We are going to keep trying that.”

If you have a story you would like to share with The OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

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Maplewood team encouraged to bring pets for visits

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‘We have had to be so creative throughout the pandemic, and I think this is another way for us to be creative’

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, Maplewood residents received frequent and meaningful visits from St. John Ambulance therapy dogs and their handlers.

But while restrictions began easing this year and other volunteers started returning to the Brighton long-term care home, Maplewood has been unable to get the pet therapy visits residents enjoyed prior to the pandemic.

In some cases, volunteers have moved away or have retired from volunteering, resulting in a shortage of pet therapy volunteers.

Given the void this has left, Maplewood administrator and life enrichment co-ordinator Rachel Corkery is encouraging the home’s team members to bring their own pets to work to spend time with residents and staff.

In a recent OMNIway story, we told you how Rachel is bringing her new German shepherd puppy, Remington, to work with her on Fridays. She says she hopes others follow suit because having pets in the home is beneficial to residents and staff members.

“I’m hoping that staff will feel open to bringing in their pets, especially if they think it’s an appropriate match that the residents and their fellow staff members would benefit from,” Rachel says.

It’s not just dogs and cats team members can bring, Rachel adds, noting one team member has a bearded dragon.

OMNI Health Care has a visiting pet policy, and any pets brought into the home must meet specific standards and have proof of vaccinations, Rachel notes.

Allowing staff members to bring their pets to spend the day at the home is a three-way symbiotic relationship, Rachel says: a pet, such as a dog, visiting the home pleases residents and staff, and the animal is getting lots of attention as well, she notes.

“It’s hard not to smile to smile when you see a pet, especially something like a little puppy, walking through the home,” she says.

Rachel adds that having team members bring their pets to the home for visits is also an example of thinking outside the box to meet a need for residents and staff.

“We have had to be so creative throughout the pandemic, and I think this is another way for us to be creative.”

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Puppy makes debut at Maplewood to rave reviews from residents and staff

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Remington, a German shepherd, did so well on his first visit to the home, his owner, administrator Rachel Corkery, wants to bring him back every Friday

Last Friday (Aug. 26), Maplewood administrator and life enrichment co-ordinator Rachel Corkery brought her new dog, a German shepherd puppy named Remington, to the Brighton long-term care home to meet residents and staff members.

But he was so well behaved and proved to be so good with everyone, Rachel now plans to bring Remington – whom she affectionately calls Remi – to work every Friday.

On his first day, Remi made a big impression on everyone as soon as Rachel walked through the door with him at 8 a.m.

“We walked up and down the hallways and went to visit residents – we’ve just kind of been out and about – and every time someone passes by they stop and play with him,” Rachel tells The OMNIway.

Rachel says Remi spending time at Maplewood is a win-win for everyone. Remi is getting the socialization a puppy needs, and the residents and staff get to play with a dog, which, for many, brings back fond memories.

“I was talking with one resident, and I brought Remi into his line of vision and a big smile came across his face and we started talking about a dog that he had,” Rachel says.

Maplewood has a longstanding connection with the canine community. For many years, therapy dogs from St. John Ambulance would visit the home to spend time with residents.

However, when the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, the dog therapy program was suspended. With restrictions easing and programs opening again, Maplewood has been eager to restart pet visits. Unfortunately, the home has not been able to find therapy dogs in the area, Rachel says.

This is where Remi can help. Rachel says she’s considering having Remi trained as a therapy dog which would allow him to spend more time with residents.

As important as pet therapy is for long-term-care home residents, it’s also valuable for staff members, Rachel says, noting her co-workers were lining up to see Remi.

“Dogs have always been well received here, by both our staff and our residents, when we’ve had them in the past, and even when family members bring their (dogs) in to visit, it completely changes the atmosphere,” Rachel says. “As long as he continues to be well behaved, he will continue to come to work with me on Fridays.”

If you have a story you would like to share with The OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

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Team members help Maplewood resident celebrate 100th birthday

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Winifred Bailey caps off her party by leading everyone in the Loco-Motion

When Maplewood resident Winifred Bailey turned 100 last week, team members organized a party for her that included cake, music and lots of fun.

Celebrating new centenarians’ special day is always a major deal at OMNI Health Care seniors’ homes, and team members went all out to ensure that Winifred had a memorable day.

Residents and staff members gathered in Maplewood’s activity room for Winifred’s party.

In addition to the traditional birthday cake for Winifred, there was also music, singing and dancing during the afternoon of Aug. 15 to help her celebrate, says Rosanne Blackburn, a life enrichment aide at the Brighton, Ont. Long-term care home.

Team members supplied all the traditional birthday party favours, including balloons and hats, and Winifred proudly wore a “happy birthday” chapeau adorned with candles to celebrate her special day.

But Rosanne says the highlight of the afternoon came when Winifred led the charge doing the Loco-Motion dance when the 1962 hit song by Little Eva came through the speakers.

The dance involves participants forming a “train” by putting their hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them.

“We paraded down the hallways with Winifred in the lead,” Rosanne tells The OMNIway.

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Maplewood residents ‘loved’ visit from roller-skating nurse

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‘Most of them were so excited; they hadn’t seen a pair of roller skates for years’

Registered practical nurse (RPN) Laura Lawless brought lots of fun, laughter and fond memories to Maplewood residents recently when she “rolled” into their rooms during one of the Brighton, Ont. long-term care home’s travelling entertainment programs.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, life enrichment aide Rosanne Blackburn created the travelling programs to ensure residents got the engagement they needed without having to leave the safety of their rooms.

Travelling programs see team members visiting residents in their rooms for one-to-one activities geared to residents’ interests.

Laura, a roller skater who has competed in roller derbies, volunteered to put on her skates to show residents who “loved” the gesture, says administrator and life enrichment co-ordinator Rachel Corkery.

“A couple of them said, ‘you are going to fall,’ but (I told them) I’m a professional,” Laura explains, noting that bringing something new like this to residents makes a positive difference to them.

Laura and Rosanne – who isn’t a roller-skater – went room to room on Aug. 11 to visit residents. Laura also went to the dining room to show a group of residents her roller skates.

The experience brought back fond memories of going to roller rinks for some residents, Laura says.

Laura also recalls how before the pandemic started, one resident went to watch her and her team during one of their roller derbies in Trenton.

Laura joined a roller derby team about a year and a half before the COVID-19 pandemic began in March 2020, but because it’s a close-contact sport her league put the derbies on hold to help stop the spread of the virus.

Laura says it was a thrill for her to put her roller skates back on to bring some fun and laughter to the residents.

“Most of them were so excited; they hadn’t seen a pair of roller skates for years,” she says.

If you have a story you would like to share with The OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

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Maplewood chef makes beef tenderloin even more tender

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Tracy Morewood’s special recipe, which is served with hot potato salad, was entered in the March Madness recipe challenge

Steak is a favourite meal at Maplewood, and Tracy Morewood, the Brighton long-term care home’s nutritional care manager, has a steak recipe that’s both delicious and easy for residents to eat.

Her tenderloin steak with accompanying hot potato salad tastes so good Tracy entered this meal in OMNI Health Care’s first annual March Madness recipe challenge.

To make this special steak, Tracy begins by mixing soya sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, herbs and spices to make a marinade for the beef.

After marinating for four hours, Tracy sears the meat in a pan for two minutes per side and then places it on a baking tray with sautéed mushrooms. The meat and mushrooms are put into an oven set to 350 F.

The tenderloin is cooked to medium rare and then left to rest for 15 minutes. The steak is then garnished with a dollop of garlic butter and a sprig of rosemary.

While the variety of ingredients in the marinade gives the meat extra flavour, the marinade also makes the already tender cut of beef even easier for residents to eat, Tracy says.

“I chose steak (to enter in the contest) because (the residents) love steak, but chewing most steaks can be a challenge,” she writes in her contest entry form. “But with this marinade, it cuts like butter.”

Accompanying the beef tenderloin is hot potato salad, which Tracy makes by combining still-warm boiled red potatoes, bacon, broccoli florets, red onions, green onions and spices with a sauce made from Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and buttermilk dill dressing.

Chris Weber, OMNI’s operations manager of nutrition and food service, says the March Madness contest, which saw 16 recipes compete in a bracket contest where votes were cast each week between April 14 and May 6, was close.

The winning entry was a Mediterranean omelette, created by Josephine Goddard at Country Terrace, which won “by a very thin margin,” Chris says.

OMNI launched the first annual March Madness recipe challenge in March in recognition of Nutrition Month in Canada.

Chris came up with the idea to encourage nutritional care managers and cooks to showcase their most-loved recipes and to highlight the high-quality meals served in OMNI homes.

Throughout March, nutritional care managers and cooks prepared their favourite meals, plated them and took photos that were sent to head office. The photos were accompanied by the name of each meal and its recipe.

If you have a story you would like to share with The OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

If you have feedback on this story, please call the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

Maplewood team member’s contest entry adds Greek flavours to much-loved chicken

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Chicken kebabs are a new twist on a much-loved favourite meal

Maplewood residents “love chicken,” so Emily Morewood, a team member in the nutritional care department at the Brighton, Ont. long-term care home, has created a Greek-style kebab that everyone enjoys.

The Greek kebab was also Emily’s submission to OMNI Health Care’s March Madness recipe challenge.

Emily says she came up with this recipe while looking for a new way to serve chicken to residents.

After a trial run serving her chicken kebab recipe for friends, she decided to bring the recipe to Maplewood.

“(I) recently tried these recipes while entertaining friends and knew they would be a hit,” Emily writes in her contest submission form.

Emily starts by making a marinade from olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest, paprika, oregano, basil, thyme, garlic, salt, pepper and onion. She puts cubes of chicken thighs into this mixture and lets the meat rest in the refrigerator for two hours to absorb the flavours.

She then puts the chicken onto skewers between squares of onion and red pepper before cooking for about 10 minutes until the meat is at a temperature of 170 F.

Chris Weber, OMNI’s operations manager of nutrition and food service, says the March Madness contest, which saw 16 recipes compete in a bracket contest where votes were cast each week between April 14 and May 6, was close.

The winning entry was a Mediterranean omelette, created by Josephine Goddard at Country Terrace, which won “by a very thin margin,” Chris says.

OMNI launched the first annual March Madness recipe challenge in March in recognition of Nutrition Month in Canada.

Chris came up with the idea to encourage nutritional care managers and cooks to showcase their most-loved recipes and to highlight the high-quality meals served in OMNI homes.

Throughout March, nutritional care managers and cooks prepared their favourite meals, plated them and took photos that were sent to head office. The photos were accompanied by the name of each meal and its recipe.

If you have a story you would like to share with The OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

If you have feedback on this story, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

Top-notch ingredients come together in Maplewood’s turkey club sandwich

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Cook Jackie Jeffrey takes famous sandwich to a new level in her recipe contest submission

Maplewood nutritional care team member Jackie Jeffrey has added a few twists to the classic clubhouse sandwich to give this lunchtime favourite an even better look and taste.

Since the sandwich has become a favourite with residents of the Brighton, Ont. long-term care home, Jackie chose to enter her recipe in OMNI Health Care’s first annual March Madness recipe contest.

Knowing residents enjoy toasted sandwiches, Jackie decided to come up with her own version of the clubhouse to serve them.

Clubhouse sandwiches are traditionally made with three slices of toasted bread, turkey, bacon, iceberg lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise.

This sandwich is made with carved oven-roasted turkey, crispy bacon, romaine lettuce hearts and sliced tomato between two toasted slices of sourdough panini, which is spread with Jackie’s special mayonnaise-Dijon-mustard aioli.

The sandwich is served with a dill pickle spear.

“Our residents love toasted sandwiches, so (I) chose this alternative version of a turkey club,” Jackie says in her contest submission form.

Chris Weber, OMNI’s operations manager of nutrition and food service, says the March Madness contest, which saw 16 recipes compete in a bracket contest where votes were cast each week between April 14 and May 6, was close.

The winning entry was a Mediterranean omelette that was created by Country Terrace team member Josephine Goddard.

OMNI launched the March Madness recipe challenge in March in recognition of Nutrition Month in Canada.

Chris came up with the idea to encourage nutritional care managers and cooks to showcase their most-loved recipes and to highlight the high-quality meals served in OMNI homes.

Throughout March, nutritional care managers and cooks prepared their favourite meals, plated them and took photos that were sent to head office. The photos were accompanied by the name of each meal and its recipe.

If you have a story you would like to share with The OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

If you have feedback on this story, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

Family member pays tribute to Maplewood staff for the care her mom received

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‘We want each of you to know that we are so thankful to have had a “family” like you for the past almost nine years’

Patricia Brown’s mother, Eva Brinklow, recently passed away at Maplewood, the long-term care residence in Brighton she had called home for eight years. Patricia says her mother enjoyed an excellent quality of life at Maplewood that was made possible by staff members, and she recently reached out to The OMNIway to ask us to help her pay tribute to her mother’s caregivers.

Dedicated to all of the staff at Maplewood: You made Mom’s final days so personal.

Each of you showed respect and tenderness. This must have been as emotional for you as it was with us. We want each of you to know that we are so thankful to have had a “family” like you for the past almost nine years.

If only everyone could be so lucky in their final years.

With sincere thanks . . . Eva Brinklow’s family (Pat, Bonnie, Cathie and Danny)

In June, Patricia spoke with The OMNIway as part of a series of stories with family members of residents living at OMNI Health Care long-term care homes.

She recalled the positive impression the Maplewood team made on her and her sister from the moment they walked inside for the first time while looking for a new home for their mother.

“When we walked into Maplewood, we could smell dinner cooking,” Patricia said. “There were people in the hallways – they weren’t in their rooms, they were walking around. … That was why we put Maplewood as No. 1 on our list.”

If you have a story you would like to share with The OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

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Being an essential caregiver ‘makes you feel like you’re a partner’

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Karen Zidenberg says being with her mother at Maplewood has benefited them both

As an essential caregiver, Karen Zidenberg is at Maplewood with her mother, a resident of the Brighton, Ont. long-term care home, twice a week, spending one-to-one time with her mom and assisting with some of her care needs.

This has had a positive impact on Karen’s mother as well as Karen, who, like other family members, could not be inside the home during much of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It has been wonderful; it makes you feel like you’re a partner,” Karen says of being an essential caregiver.

Karen became an essential caregiver for her mother when she became eligible about a month ago.

Karen says she and her mother benefit from being able to see each other regularly. The essential caregiver role, she adds, is unique.

“What the essential caregiver role does is it gives recognition and it gives credence to people who can do as much as they can and be as active with their care as if they were in their own home,” Karen says.

Asked what she has learned about Maplewood throughout the pandemic, Karen says the most important thing has been the reinforcement of knowing her mother is well cared for.

“It has taught me that I don’t have to be there, that I can take care of myself and not burn myself out, and it taught me that things are going to be OK,” she says.

“As an essential caregiver, I can balance my life without worrying because I am not there.”

Karen also says the entire Maplewood team does an outstanding job caring for her mother.

“I am so thankful for everyone at Maplewood; I am so grateful and so thankful for each and every team member because I truly appreciate them,” she says.

Karen adds she has a “great relationship” with Maplewood.

“I will tell you that, hands down, I love the team, and I do what I can to show that appreciation the best that I can because I really think people (working in long-term care homes) are not appreciated enough for what they’re going through and how they have endured,” she says.

If you have a story you would like to share with The OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at deron(at)axiomnews.com.

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