Laundry program keeps residents happy, eases anxiety
Friday November 16, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
For residents living in a long-term care home, the ability to continue doing their laundry can be vital to overall happiness, says Teddy Mazzuca, supportive measures specialist and life enrichment co-ordinator at Willows Estate.

About a year ago, staff members at the Aurora long-term care home began hearing concerns from residents who were worried about their clothes being washed, dried and folded.

These residents were becoming anxious and upset at the idea of others doing their laundry, fearing articles of clothing would get lost.

To help curb this, Mazzuca and other staff members intervened with a supportive measures initiative allowing residents to launder their own clothes.

There are now five residents who take their clothes to a room in the life enrichment department which has its own separate washer and dryer. The program, says Mazzuca, has been “very successful.”

“They wash and dry their own laundry, fold it right then and there and take it back up, so that deletes that bit of anxiety over their belongings,” she says, adding the program also reduces work for the laundry department.

Providing residents the opportunity to do their own laundry “allows them to maintain as much of their independence as they can. This is their home, so we want them to use the skills that they have and help them,” Mazzuca says.

Since incorporating this program, staff members have seen anxiety reduced in these residents and they’re happier because they have the control to do their own laundry, says Mazzuca.

“They’ve had control over that their whole life . . . (and) this really alleviated that bit of concern that they had,” she says. “They know that if they’re doing it (the laundry) themselves, it’s getting back (to their room).”

This program amounts to individualizing a resident’s care when it comes to their activities of daily living (ADLs), as well as their programming experiences, adds Mazzuca.

Willows Estate receives many compliments about the home from family members and those associated with the long-term care sector, says Mazzuca. And it’s because of programs like this, she says, which help establish Willows Estate as a first-rate long-term care home.