Almonte Country Haven Administrator Rick Gourlie presents staff member Bonnie Everitt with a box of laundry soap, symbolic of the home's efforts to clean up safety in 2006.

Almonte ‘cleaning up safety’
Thursday, January 11, 2007 -- Natalie Miller
An OMNI administrator is hopeful the increased awareness of workplace safety within Almonte Country Haven’s culture will continue to be proactive in reducing injuries this year.

“Our education on this has helped bring safety and its completeness forward,” says Rick Gourlie, administrator of Almonte Country Haven.

“The Safety Group has allowed us to focus on prevention and therefore hopefully create a safer, more educated workplace.”

Rick is referring to Almonte Country Haven’s involvement in the Safety Group training program, sponsored by a number of different organizations including Dunk & Associates, which works closely with the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. OMNI teamed up with Dunk & Associates in 2006 as one of several initiatives aimed at improving the long-term care provider’s safety record and creating better environments in its 16 nursing homes.

Rick and nutritional care manager Sandy Bullock were the home’s representatives within the Safety Group and brought back the training to the eastern Ontario long-term care home.

“We’ve done a lot of training since September,” says Sandy.

“The staff in the nursing home were trained in all of the elements of Safety First,” says Sandy, referring to OMNI’s health and safety manual which was also revised and remarketed in 2006.

Rick says several employees of Almonte Country Haven were involved in training staff in the new health and safety measures. “It was completely a team effort,” says the administrator.

Staff members were trained in five elements of safety -- a policy statement for health and safety, the early and safe return to work program, infectious disease as it pertains to personal protective equipment, the role of the joint health and safety committee and Lock out Tag out’ training which essentially is a procedure to properly mark equipment that has malfunctioned to prevent it from being used.

Recently, Almonte celebrated its achievement in safety training by awarding a 20-kilogram box of laundry soap to an employee, symbolic of the home’s efforts at “cleaning up safety,” says Rick.

Rick and Sandy will continue to take part in the Safety Group training program this year.