Village Green nears completion of supportive measures training
Tuesday December 11, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Staff members at Village Green are on the last leg of the supportive measures training which has been ongoing at OMNI’s 16 long-term care homes throughout the year.

Jane Hughes, a supportive measures trainer at the Selby long-term care home, says she expects the last module of the four-part training program to be complete by Christmas, with the approximately 70 staff members fully trained.

Supportive measures training began in early 2007 with every staff member receiving education in four areas of supportive measures throughout the year — Alzheimer’s and difficult behaviours, the aging process, purpose-filled days and quality of life for residents.

This is the first time OMNI has had mandatory supportive measures training for all staff members. The deadline for having all staff members trained in supportive measures is Dec. 31.

With each staff member trained in supportive measures, Hughes expects to see a lot more consistency when it comes to addressing agitation issues.

She notes that it’s important to have staff members in areas such as the nutritional care and housekeeping departments trained, because these staff members often have the most contact with residents.

“The residents tend to talk a lot to housekeepers, so I think it’s important for them to be able to apply supportive measures to their daily work,” she says.

Hughes says the supportive measures training has been successful at fostering understanding across the board of why some residents exhibit agitation.

Like in many other OMNI homes, Hughes says staff members at Village Green have been practicing supportive measures for several years, although they didn’t always have a name for it.

She adds that with a name behind supportive measures, it enhances awareness of the practice.

“I think the important thing is that now people realize that what they are doing is right and (it’s good) to have a name to it,” she says. “If you see someone doing a supportive measure, you can point it out to them and say, ‘That’s really good supportive measures you’re applying.’”