Videos, music and photos effective in supportive measures
Tuesday November 20, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Each resident in a long-term care home has unique needs. To accommodate this, staff members at Riverview Manor individualize supportive measures to meet the needs of its residents.

Cindy Northey and Cheryl Skelcher, both personal support workers (PSWs) at the Peterborough long-term care home, use several one-on-one supportive measures to calm residents and reduce behaviours.

They cite the example of one resident who is unable to participate in most programs offered at the home. Because of her cognitive impairment, this resident will become agitated and upset by the ambient noise that comes with group interaction.

Northey and Skelcher have found that videotapes featuring entertainers such as Lawrence Welk, Shirley Temple and Clark Gable, will ease her behaviours and make her happy.

“It’s the only soothing thing for her,” says Northey. “It is the only thing that keeps her calm and allows her to lie quietly in her bed.”

These videos have been so effective they even entice the resident to sing and dance along with music numbers featured in the videos.

Music has a way of jarring good memories and easing behaviours in residents with cognitive impairment.

Northey and Skelcher have had success with another resident by using music-based supportive measures. This resident had been an avid piano player most of her life. When she first moved into Riverview a few years ago, she frequently entertained other residents with her piano playing.

However, in recent years the resident’s behaviours increased, causing her to play the piano less. She began to wander and became anxious and unable to focus on anything. As time passed she began to forget the songs she knew.

Northey and Skelcher have been working with this resident by going through old songbooks with her, reading off song titles and reciting lyrics.

Their efforts are now paying off.

“More songs are coming back to her and she’s actually performing songs perfectly on the piano now, and she’s really proud of herself,” says Northey. “Each day we go back over those songs, and every day she’s getting (better).”

Photographs have also proven to be an effective supportive measure at the home.

Staff members have created photo albums by taking clippings of pictures out of magazines and pasting them into scrapbooks. The photos cover a wide array of subject matter.

These photo albums not only give residents something to focus on to calm behaviours, they also allow individuals to reminisce.

“You look through it with the resident and it triggers memories,” says Skelcher.