Partnership between nursing home, community agency ‘of huge value’
Thursday, February 22, 2007 -- Natalie Miller
A woman’s desire to volunteer with seniors has led to a valuable partnership between a Campbellford long-term care home and a local agency that supports people with intellectual disabilities.

For the past two years, Mary Fennell has spent her Thursday afternoons assisting seniors during the church service at Burnbrae Gardens. Fennell hands out hymn books and retrieves them at the end of the weekly program for residents of the nursing home. Now, the nursing home is looking to the community agency to help support one of its residents who could benefit from attending outings and other functions with the people supported by Community Living Campbellford Brighton.

“It’s of huge value,” says Wilma Swan, outcomes facilitator for Community Living Campbellford Brighton, about the relationship with Burnbrae Gardens.

“We have a lot of people who we support who are aging,” she says. “It’s a partnership to keep open and keep healthy.”

In addition to Burnbrae serving as a volunteer opportunity for Fennell, Community Living Campbellford Brighton also runs craft classes at the nursing home.

“Our residents join in with them,” says April Anderson, life enrichment co-ordinator at the long-term care home.

“As well, it gives them a place to (run the activity),” she says. Both Anderson and Swan speak to the socialization benefits for the seniors and the people supported by the community agency.

Anderson says having that connection also enabled her to pursue accessing additional supports for one of the nursing home’s younger residents. Supportive measures specialists know boredom can sometimes trigger agitation in residents.

Staff at Burnbrae Gardens have become increasingly suspicious this is the case for one man who gets upset with other residents and bangs on tabletops. While these habits surface frequently at the Campbellford long-term care home, they haven’t occurred when the man is preoccupied during outings, says Anderson. They involve the resident in all of the home’s outings but being able to partake in more, with people closer to his age, will benefit the resident, says Anderson.

Swan says she anticipates involving the man in a hot lunch program every Thursday and swimming.

“I definitely think getting him out with new people and new faces and doing other things with clients his same age” will be beneficial, says Anderson. “He’s quite young to be in a home like ours. He’s very mobile.”

Swan says including the resident “is a good way to give back,” to the nursing home.