| Editorial
OMNI makes long-term
care ‘home’
Thursday, September
16, 2004
What makes a home? For some, home is defined by
its size, stature, interior-designed rooms and
lavish belongings. For others, home is somewhat
of a modest, cozy accommodation. But wherever
one resides, what truly makes it a home is compassion
and respect for fellow family members, healthy
relationships, safety and security. Nothing could
be truer when it comes to a long-term care home.
It’s a place where we entrust others to
not only provide good care for our loved ones
but to also treat them with love and compassion
and keep them safe. We entrust them to uphold
those very characteristics that make a home a
home.
OMNI has chosen the words ‘long-term care
home’ to describe what are traditionally
known as ‘long-term care facilities.’
It’s one thing to change a name but OMNI
has done much more than that.
Here at the OMNIway we report on countless examples
of staff contributing to make long-term care ‘home’
for its residents.
Fred Evans, a family member of a Streamway Villa
resident and volunteer calls where his wife lives
“a family home.” He says it isn’t
unusual to see an employee comfort a resident
who is upset as if she was comforting her “own
mom.” Fred also says the female staff members
he interacts with on a regular basis “are
like daughters.”
In the case of smaller long-term care homes the
relationships naturally run deeper, according
to one administrator of an OMNI home. Staff members
get to know residents’ families and residents
get to know employees’ families. Employees’
children can too become a part of seniors’
lives.
At West Lake Terrace, when a personal support
worker’s children visit her at work, the
first person they ask to see is “Rosemary
the chocolate lady.” The resident gave the
visiting children sweets one day. Their relationship
blossomed and the boys regularly send the resident
letters and drawings.
Sometimes, the relationships that develop in long-term
care aren’t the expected ones. We hear of
laundry aides who connect with residents on a
level front-line staff cannot. Some take a moment
to chat when they put away residents’ laundry
while another notices a new pillow might just
be what the resident needs to ease her discomfort.
Some staff members regularly take residents on
outings, like church, on their days off. Others
invite residents over for pool parties or dinners,
just as they would their own family members.
In a time when competition is intense in long-term
care, OMNI, like other long-term care providers,
is facing bigger, newer facilities opening up
next door. But no matter the size of where we
live, a building is just a building unless the
people who live, and in this case work there,
make it a home.
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