Pleasant Meadow Manor
welcomes new LES
Tuesday October 30, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Jackie Arnott says she’s settling nicely into her new role as life enrichment supervisor (LES) at Pleasant Meadow Manor.

Arnott, who started her new job at the Norwood long-term care home Oct. 15, is filling the position left open by Karen Coulter, who is now life enrichment co-ordinator (LEC) at Village Green in Selby.

Having worked in the long-term care sector for six years, Arnott worked as program manager at a long-term care home in Port Hope before coming to Pleasant Meadow.

Arnott received her activity programming certificate from Sir Sandford Fleming College. It was here she first met Pleasant Meadow administrator Connie Daly, who taught the program.

Before choosing a career in long-term care, Arnott worked in an office. She made the switch to long-term care because she wanted to find a job offering more “personal interaction.”

“I needed to interact with people and feel like I was making a difference,” she says. “I always had an interest in nursing, but I just wasn’t quite sure if that was exactly the direction I wanted to go. I started doing some research and I found the program that was my niche.”

As the new LES, Arnott says she plans to balance long-established programming with new activities. Part of starting a new position at a long-term care home, she says, is adding your personal touch to existing curriculums.

“Pleasant Meadow Manor has a great activity program already developed, so I just hope to extend on that and add my own ideas and my own energy to that,” says Arnott.

Given the time of year, Arnott says she isn’t planning on putting any new activities on the agenda just yet. Halloween and Christmas events, as well as the home’s annual bazaar, are some of the activities on the table for the next two months. These activities, she says, will keep residents and the life enrichment department busy until the new year.

Arnott adds she’s looking forward to her future as part of the OMNI family.

“I had heard a lot about Pleasant Meadow Manor through the grapevine (and) it has always been good things that I’ve heard,” she says. “I knew it would be a nice place to come and work.”