One of the ways OMNI Health Care long-term care homes enhance quality of life for residents is through the physiotherapy programs they offer. Read more
From left to right, Frost Manor residents Lorraine Kingdon, Lillian Hawery and Joy Dobson pose for a photo. These three ladies have had great success in the home’s physiotherapy program.
Frost Manor resident Lorraine Kingdon has continuously improved her mobility since she began participating in the Lindsay long-term care home’s physiotherapy program. Her next goal is to walk independently. Read more
From left to right, Frost Manor residents Lorraine Kingdon, Lillian Hawery and Joy Dobson pose for a photo. These three ladies have had great success in the home’s physiotherapy program. The OMNIway will be featuring all of their stories in coming days.
Frost Manor resident Lillian Hawery says her quality of life has improved “100 per cent” since she moved into the Lindsay long-term care home in February. Read more
From left to right, Frost Manor residents Lorraine Kingdon, Lillian Hawery and Joy Dobson pose for a photo. These three ladies have had great success in the home’s physiotherapy program. The OMNIway will be featuring all of their stories in coming days.
When Frost Manor resident Joy Dobson began participating in the Lindsay long-term care home’s physiotherapy program, she was unable to walk and required a wheelchair for mobility. With the help of the program and her commitment, Joy can now walk several lengths of the 35-metre hallways at a time with her walker. Read more
Riverview Manor resident Kellie MacDonald (right) is seen here with physiotherapy assistant Jody Harris. Kellie has improved her mobility through the Peterborough long-term care home’s physiotherapy program. Her goal is to improve her strength to the point that she can once again walk and live independently.
PETERBOROUGH, Ont. – Two weeks ago, Riverview Manor resident Kellie MacDonald stood up for the first time in two years, thanks to her hard work and guidance from the home’s physiotherapy team. Read more
Thursday, December 19, 2013 — Deron Hamel
Maplewood’s holiday season began the first week of December with the Brighton long-term care home’s annual Christmas party with 8 Wing Trenton and the local Royal Canadian Legion branch, and the momentum has been ongoing since.
For the eighth consecutive year, Maplewood, 8 Wing Trenton and Royal Canadian Legion, Brighton Branch 100, joined together to celebrate the holidays Dec. 5. There was food, live music and a Santa handing out presents, making the occasion “one of the most amazing afternoons experienced all year here at Maplewood,” says Maplewood life enrichment co-ordinator Rachel Corkery.
Mr. and Mrs. Claus and the Bernard Sisters pose for a photo during Maplewood’s recent family Christmas party.
Last weekend, Maplewood staff members celebrated the spirit of the season with residents and their families at the home’s annual family Christmas party. Musical entertainers Adrienne and Sharlene Bernard, better known as the Bernard Sisters, were special guests at the party, bringing their much-loved humour and talent to residents and their families.
“Even Santa and Mrs. Claus stopped in for a quick visit before heading back to the North Pole,” Corkery notes, adding that since Santa was on hand, families and residents had their photos taken with him.
And the festivities don’t stop there.
This weekend will see a new idea brought to Maplewood’s Christmas season — a children’s Christmas party. The party will include a resident and his wife playing Santa and Mrs. Claus — something the couple has been doing for many years.
Andy Forgie, a regular entertainer at Maplewood, will be singing and playing guitar at the event, and each child will get a present from Santa, made possible by the home’s residents’ council.
If you have a story you would like to share with the OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or email deron(at)axiomnews.ca.
If you have feedback on this story, please call the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.
Wednesday, December 18, 2013 — Deron Hamel
Riverview Manor has been demonstrating the Christmas spirit this holiday season through its involvement with a Peterborough radio station’s annual toy drive to benefit children in low-income families.
This year the home’s staff members and families donated enough toys to fill two medium-sized boxes with stuffed animals and other Christmas favourites for the Salvation Army’s annual Christmas appeal.
Local radio station Country 105 FM/Energy 99.7 FM spearheads a toy drive for the charity called the Magic Broadcast. The City of Peterborough also helps out by donating a bus with a volunteer driver to stop at various drop-off points in Peterborough to collect toys for the Salvation Army.
Staff members from Peterborough’s Country 105 FM/Energy 99.7 FM are seen here picking up toys during the Miracle Broadcast Dec. 14.
As part of the Miracle Broadcast, collected toys are brought to Lansdowne Place shopping centre.
As with previous years, Riverview Manor was a drop-off point this holiday season, and on Saturday the Miracle Broadcast bus swung by the home to fetch the donated toys.
Riverview Manor personal support worker (PSW) Virginia Gall, whose husband, George Gall, is news director at Country 105, was involved with the Riverview Manor toy drive.
Virginia decorated the donation boxes and got posters from the radio station advertising the event at the home.
Based on the success of the drive’s repeated success throughout the years, Virginia says the event will likely continue to be a fixture at Riverview Manor in the future.
“I think everybody really enjoys donating to such a great cause,” the PSW tells the OMNIway.
In addition to the toy drive, Riverview Manor is hosting a food drive for the Peterborough Food Bank this holiday season. To date, two bins have been filled with non-perishable food.
If you have a story you would like to share with the OMNIway, please contact the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or email deron(at)axiomnews.ca.
If you have feedback on this story, please call the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.
Forest Hill’s life enrichment co-ordinator Craig Forrest is applauding a community partnership the Kanata long-term care home has with the local Holiday Inn that sees residents, their families and staff members enjoy a complimentary luncheon every holiday season.
For about 10 years the Holiday Inn & Suites Kanata has hosted a free holiday lunch for those connected with Forest Hill and nearby Garden Terrace. Unfortunately, Garden Terrace is in outbreak and the home’s residents and staff were not able to attend this year. However, about 40 Forest Hill residents, plus family members and staff, attended this year’s luncheon on Dec. 13.
In addition to a full-spread lunch, residents were treated to Christmas carols from the Holy Trinity Catholic High School’s boys choir and each resident received a Christmas poinsettia.
Forrest adds the Holiday Inn staff did an “excellent” job of serving.
As part of the collaboration, Forest Hill hosts its annual Christmas party at the Holiday Inn. Forrest says the residents appreciate the hotel’s generosity and the staff members’ hard work, adding the luncheon provides an avenue for others in the community to become acquainted with Forest Hill and its residents.
“It gives a local business the opportunity to meet our residents and to experience what we can do for them,” Forrest tells the OMNIway. “(The luncheon) also gives the residents’ family members a different setting to spend time with their loved ones as well.”
If you have a story you would like to share with the OMNIway, please contact newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.
If you have feedback on this story, please call the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.
December 13, 2013 — Deron Hamel
When a nurse in Nova Scotia was recently looking for information about the Behavioural Supports Ontario (BSO) initiative he did an Internet search and came across an OMNIway story about Streamway Villa’s success with the program that’s posted on the Central East Local Health Integration Network’s (LHIN’s) website.
Streamway Villa
From there, the nurse e-mailed Streamway Villa administrator Kylie Szczebonski to learn more about what the Cobourg long-term care home had accomplished through its involvement with BSO, a provincial initiative to help enhance quality of life for seniors affected by dementia and other conditions that cause agitation.
“And I gladly gave him everything that I had,” Szczebonski tells the OMNIway. “I sent him a lot about Central East LHIN and the whole (BSO) project, and then talked about Streamway Villa and OMNI and how OMNI is really taking off with our Supportive Measures program.”
Szczebonski says this illustrates the role OMNI Health Care and its 17 long-term care homes can play in addressing issues related to elder care in Canada.
Likewise, the administrator says the OMNIway, which is produced by Axiom News, can play a role facilitating this engagement via the success stories published on the website.
“We are in a media world. Google something you want to know and it will pop up, and that’s the way of the future,” Szczebonski says. “Because (the OMNIway) is online, the stories that are out there are going to catch on. A lot of the stories focus on our quality and that’s really what’s going to capture people’s attention — all everybody hears in health care is quality, quality, quality. That’s because quality is important.”
Szczebonski refers to the fact Canada is the only G8 nation without a national dementia strategy, an issue that’s received media attention this week due to the Dec. 11 G8 dementia conference in London. The administrator says OMNI’s homes and the OMNIway can play a part in bringing stakeholders across the country together through news stories showcasing what’s working.
Ideally, this information sharing could eventually lead to a nationwide strategy, Szczebonski says.
“We’re not copyrighting things because we want people to take what we’ve done and use it,” she says.
See the links below to read OMNI stories posted on the Central East LHIN’s website.
Documentaries deliver hope for long-term care leaders
Responsive behaviours, restraints, medication use decreasing at Streamway Villa
If you have a story you would like to share with the OMNIway, please contact newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.
If you have feedback on this story, please call the newsroom at 800-294-0051, ext. 23, or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.
A group of students from North Cavan Public School recently celebrated the Christmas spirit with Riverview Manor residents. Video courtesy of CHEX TV.