Residents to get bubbles and wine with baths
Friday November 9, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
For some residents in long-term care, bathing can feel like an intrusive experience. With this in mind, supportive measures staff at Pleasant Meadow Manor has developed an idea to make bath-time a more enjoyable experience for residents.

OMNI’s 16 long-term care home’s embarked on a four-module training program earlier this year, with the aim of teaching every OMNI employee effective supportive measures skills.

Staff members have recently wrapped up the third module. The focus of this section was on how to make activities such as bathing and mealtimes more pleasurable experiences for residents.

From this training, staff at the Norwood long-term care home got the idea of having items such as non-alcoholic wine and ginger ale available in the bathing room.

Providing residents with refreshments from a plastic wine cup while they bathe, says administrator and supportive measures specialist Connie Daly, will help make the experience more relaxing.

Soft music, toys and bubbles will also help make the experience more pleasing, she notes.

Staff is planning to put the idea into practice within the next month.

Refreshments will be kept in a locked cabinet in the bathing room.

“We want to make these items available right in the tub room, so that if a resident would like a glass of ginger ale while they’re relaxing, it’s right there,” says Daly.

Daly says staff plans to ask residents about some of the things they like having when they bathe. For residents who are unable to communicate, staff will take items out of the cabinet and show them to residents to see how they react.

Not only will the experience be more enjoyable for the resident, but it will also make the job of staff member easier when it comes to getting residents into the bathing room.

As part of OMNI’s policy, residents who choose not to bathe do not have to, however, to promote good hygiene, residents are always encouraged to bathe as often as possible.

“The importance of this is to provide an individual bathing experience for our residents,” says Daly. “I think what will fall out of that is if a resident knows bath-time is going to be enjoyable, then they will come and we’ll get less resistance at bath-time.”