Editorial
Preserving the core, stimulating progress
Friday, June 16, 2006
Lasting organizations have a few things in common. So says Jim Collins and his research team in their best selling business book, Good to Great.

One of the common elements Collins’ team uncovered was the ability to preserve the core values and personality of the organization while continually finding better ways to express its values in action.

Supportive measures has come to represent OMNI’s philosophy of care.

Supportive measures are practices whereby caregivers focus on the individual needs and preferences of residents living with Alzheimer disease or related dementia. By identifying factors that trigger disease-related agitation, interventions can be put in place to remove many of these factors from the resident’s daily life and reduce the need for psychotropic medications.

The resulting relationship-based care delivers sometimes dramatic improvements in residents’ quality of life. It’s a core element of who OMNI is.

Recent supportive measures training has met with enthusiastic interest, and the lessons learned at those sessions have already been translated into action in the homes.
Shawn Riel, the home office leader of the supportive measures portfolio, says the latest group of staff attending the training are the most engaged she’s seen yet.

One home, Springdale Manor, has created a supportive measures department in their home, taking the commitment one step further.
In other homes, alterations have been made to dining and outing experiences to reflect residents’ past experience or to accomodate their social preferences.

In the meantime, a top level engagement team has been created to stimulate progress of a different sort. The team’s mandate is to get involved in the health care and local communities of OMNI homes.

Fraser Wilson leads the team and has taken on a board position with the Ontario Long Term Care Association. In that capacity he has chosen to focus his attention on the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).

Candace Chartier, another member of the OMNI engagement team, is also focussing on working with the health care community beyond OMNI’s walls. Her ambassadorial work comprises, among other things, a role with a regional Infection Control Network, the Central East LHIN Seamless Care for Seniors planning committee, and seat on the board of directors of the Alzheimer Society of Victoria County.

Linda Pierce, also a member of the engagement team has accepted a position on a South East LHIN project team set up to aid in the creation of an Integrated Health Services Plan (IHSP) for the area.

While the supportive measures strengthens OMNI’s core values and commitments, the engagement team promises to be a strong force for stimulating innovative progress.