Village Green shows interest in flax flour program
Monday, March 14, 2005 - Natalie Miller
When she heard about a sister long-term care home’s success with a diet-based remedy for regularity, Linda Pierce was curious.

Linda, administrator of Village Green in Selby, says her home was amidst discussions about protocol in this area of resident care.

“When we heard about the positive results of flax flour, it piqued our interest because it’s better than chemical (interventions),” says Linda.

The administrator is referring to the addition of flax flour to residents’ diets as an alternative to administering pharmaceutical laxatives. The initiative was trialed in 2004 at Garden Terrace in Kanata with success, reducing the number of laxatives given to residents in a month from 564 to eight.

Based on those results and further research, OMNI is aiming to expand the program to its other 15 homes by year’s end.

Linda says she’s always looking for opportunities to introduce programs that work at other homes and put the best practice into place at Village Green. She expressed her interest in the program to Aimee Fluke, OMNI’s nutritional care co-ordinator, and requested information from Garden Terrace about the program.

“We’re in the beginning planning stages,” says Linda. “I haven’t had the opportunity to talk to all of the team.”

Linda says she will be meeting with Aimee in the near future to further discuss the Natural Bowel Care program.