OMNI unveils supportive measures training plan
Supportive measures communities of practice develop
Tuesday, October 10, 2006 -- Natalie Miller
OMNI unveiled Wednesday details of its corporate strategy to ensure all employees are trained in supportive measures in a year’s time.

Supportive measures specialists gathered in Peterborough to hear more about how each home will roll out the supportive measures training program.

Kathy Barr, life enrichment co-ordinator at Rosebridge Manor in Jasper, was pleased with what she heard.

“I felt like we had accomplished everything we set out to accomplish,” says Kathy.

“It was a pretty clear mandate. Our goal is to have all the staff educated by December 2007.”

As a result of the gathering, supportive measures specialists will meet with their colleagues in neighbouring homes three to four times a year through new communities of practice committees.

This month, supportive measures specialists will be responsible to send a letter out to all employees addressing the goals of supportive measures education in their respective homes. A staff survey will be distributed to determine what level of exposure each staff member has had to supportive measures. “We’ll be finding out what level each staff member is at.” Target completion for the surveys is the end of October.

“Once we’ve compiled that information the goal for November is to have a supportive measures team in place,” says Kathy. “We’ll be soliciting staff we would like to see on the team.”

While Kathy, registered nurse Heath Heffernan and personal support worker Charlene Renkema are certified trainers at Rosebridge Manor, they will be calling on others to help lead the supportive measures education. “We’re going to delegate a lot. We’re going to share the work,” Kathy says. “If we do it right, it doesn’t have to be a crazy situation.”

Kathy says specialists have access to a binder that contains very focused training components and will be given a template for the supportive measures team meetings so all of the homes are working off the same page. The meetings will be monthly.

“In January, the actual training of the staff will start,” says Kathy.

The life enrichment co-ordinator has long been an advocate of supportive measures and is happy to see its continued emphasis. “I feel over-the-top about it,” says Kathy. “I’m thrilled. I like when the focus is on supportive measures not just within the home but within the OMNI chain.”

The communities of practice meetings will provide the opportunity for networking and information-sharing too, she says. The specialists will report to their respective administrators on the progress of the training. Administrators will include an update on supportive measures in their monthly reports to home office in Peterborough, Kathy explains. “This really helps put us in the right direction,” she says.

During four days of the first two weeks of July, 53 OMNI employees took training to equip them with the skills to help them educate everyone in their respective homes in supportive measures.

Supportive measures is a practice whereby caregivers focus on individual needs and preferences of residents living with Alzheimer disease or related dementia. By identifying factors that trigger resident 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.