New project to help Garden Terrace staff with supportive measures
Thursday November 22, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
The life enrichment department at Garden Terrace is working with family members to help create decorative information cards, highlighting personal information about individual residents, in an effort for staff members to get to know residents better.

Staff members especially want to reach out to those residents who have lost cognitive abilities and who are unable to communicate. These ornate cards will include information such as a resident’s accomplishments, where they were born, what they did for a living, hobbies and favourite foods.

Once complete, these cards will be placed in residents’ shadow boxes, small Plexiglas boxes attached to the wall outside each resident’s room which contain items such as family photographs.

The joint project between families and staff members is expected to be complete by Christmas.

“The better you know somebody, the better you’re going to be able to apply your supportive measures,” explains Shelley Johnson, supportive measures specialist and registered practical nurse at the Kanata long-term care home.

If a resident comes from a musical background, for example, this information will be included on the card. Knowing that a resident has an interest in music would help staff members customize supportive measures with music for the resident, says Johnson.

A resident who has a fondness for animals would be a good candidate for pet therapy, she adds.

She adds that family members have shown a lot of support for the idea, and are ready to come on board to help provide information about their loved ones.

Johnson emphasizes anticipates that the information cards will be a success, regardless of a resident’s cognitive level. Often, she notes, a resident who has a cognitive impairment will come out of their shell when a staff member takes the time to talk to them about their life and help them reminisce.

“The cognitive state (of a resident) doesn’t matter, (because) we can still apply supportive measures using all five senses,” says Johnson.

Johnson says staff members are “excited” about working with the families to get the project off the ground.

“It’s going to be a really nice team effort,” she says. “It’s going to really set Garden Terrace aside from other homes in the area.”