Care to Chat BC – Debunking the Myths and Misconceptions of BC’s Continuing Care Sector

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karen-baillieKaren Baillie, CEO of Menno Place (2nd from right beside Colin Hansen) weighs in on the conversation that was started by the BC Care Providers Association when they commissioned a public opinion poll to discover what more than 800 British Columbians believe at seniors care in our province.

The results included in the presentation are based on an online study conducted from March 25 to March 29th by Insights West and BC Care Providers Association.

Karen shared that her biggest surprise from the survey results were that most British Columbians believe care homes are allocated $69 on average to provide meals to residents on a daily basis. In fact, care homes are allocated between $6-$7 per day to provide residents with meals.

Other myths that are believed by British Columbians include:

  1. Myth: Wait times for residential care in BC have increase or are increasing. In reality, the median wait time has decreased in the past decade from 1 year to 45 days.
  2. Myth: Seniors are more likely to be abused in residential care facilities than while receiving care at home. Although the public hears more reports about senior abuse, there is no quantifiable data to prove that incidents of physical of financial abuse has increased in the past decade. All care providers record, investigate and track all incidents of abuse reported in their facility.
  3. Myth: Most of the food at residential care homes is cooked offsite and brought into care homes each day. Menno Place has five kitchens on campus. We are cooking every meal here in our kitchens and asking our residents for their feedback through Resident Choice meals and menu planning.

For the complete survey results, click here.

Global BC1 Covered the story of the Myths and Realities of Senior Care in British Columbia.

Click here to see the media coverage surround the survey and the Care to Chat session.

Menno Place responds to Seniors Advocate Report

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Isobel Mackenzie, BC’s Seniors Advocate recently released her third report entitled Placement, Drugs and Therapy … We Can Do Better outlining three findings that identify systemic issues in the care of 25,000 seniors who are living in residential care or receiving home care in British Columbia. Issues identified by the Office of the Seniors Advocate (OSA):

  1. Premature admissions to residential care (still capable of living independently)
  2. Use of antipsychotic medications and anti-depressants
  3. Percentage of seniors who received therapy (recreational, occupational, speech-language, physiotherapy) in the past 7 days

How is Menno Place responding to the concerns raised by the Seniors Advocate?

It is important to thank our Seniors Advocate for her candid and poignant report using InterRAI data (see below) that has recently become available for this type of analysis. She identified issues that we have been working on at Menno Place for some time. Her advocacy for seniors will encourage provincial and regional conversations and initiatives. It will also encourage increased individual advocacy of those who love a senior in residential care. We welcome all levels of advocacy as this provides evidence for improvement and is in line with our model of person-centred care.

1. Inappropriate Placement in Residential Care

Menno Place works together with the Fraser Health Authority to ensure that residents who move in fit the parameters of residential care and benefit significantly from the support that is offered at Menno Place.

Menno Place offers a full spectrum of care with 347 Residential Care beds, 40 Fraser Health subsidized Assisted Living Apartments, 38 Private-Pay Assisted Living Apartments and 232 apartment suites for Independent Living with support. This Campus-of-Care model supports appropriate levels of care for residents and tenants. There are multiple care options available for seniors who live on the Menno Place campus.

2. Use of antipsychotic medications and anti-depressants

Antipsychotic Medications

Menno Place is a member organization of the BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA). BCCPA members care for over 11,000 seniors in residential and assisted living in British Columbia.

In 2013, BCCPA issued the report, Best Practices Guide for Safely Reducing Anti-Psychotic Drug Use in Residential Care. The Seniors Advocate referenced this as a commendable effort and as an example of how the overuse of antipsychotic drugs is already a major concern in the industry. Residential Care facilities, like Menno Place, are actively working to reduce the overuse of antipsychotic drugs and are among those who have seen a reduction from 50% of residents prescribed an antipsychotic in 2010/11 to 34% in 2013. We continue to work on reducing and anticipate further decreases through 2014 and 2015.

The Seniors Advocate notes in her report that the reduction in anitpsychotic drug from 50% – 34% is laudible, but is still higher than other provinces. We appreciate her acknowledgement of the efforts that residential care providers in British Columbia have already made great strides forward in this area.

Initiatives to reduce the use of antipsychotic drugs at Menno Place include:

  • Participation by one of our medical directors (doctor) in the collaborative initiative, Call for Less Antipsychotics in Residential Care (CLeAR) spearheaded in June 2013 by the BC Patient Safety Quality Council. Through this initiative, the medical director in collaboration with the health care team brings best practices to Menno Place.
  • Exemplary standing with Accreditation Canada which includes following the Required Organization Practice (ROP): Medication Reconciliation at Care Transitions. This required practice involves the resident, family or caregiver (as appropriate) and the clinical team to generate the Best Possible Medication History (BPMH) for each resident, enabling the organization to reconcile medications. We use this opportunity to identify overuse of multiple prescriptions (polypharmacy) or antipsychotics drugs.
  • Recognition that some residents are already be on prescribed anti-psychotic medications upon moving into Menno Place. Care plans include the Fraser Health Reducing Risks of Polypharmacy Initiative. This involves assessing if a prescribed drug can be changed to one with fewer side effects, decreased or discontinued.
  • RAI assessments for each resident are done quarterly. These assessments give opportunity to assess appropriate medications as well as the reduction of antipsychotic medications. These are done more frequently if there is a significant change.
  • Recent access to the InterRAI data is allowing us to benchmark our indicators, identify issues, analyze, compare with others in our field and make evidence-based improvements.

Use of anti-depressants

Menno Place recognizes that one of the most common mental health problems among our residents is depression.

Initiatives to reduce the use of anti-depressants at Menno Place include:

  • Active recreation therapy programs (see recreation calendars for details), which includes a wide variety of interactive and entertainment options. Residents are encouraged to participate in pet visits, Concerts in Care, birthday parties, resident council meetings, bus trips and a wide variety of daily activities.
  • Our extensive volunteer program (more than 250 volunteers giving 12,000 hours) engage residents in conversation, games and transport to activities.
  • Music therapy and ballet therapy provide significant opportunities for residents to engage in life-giving arts-based therapies.
  • Our Music Project is an initiative to provide residents with mp3 players to listen to favorite music, sing along and experience the profound positive benefit of personalized music.
  • Our latest Garden Project (the size of a residential lot) will open in Spring 2015 – with benches to relax, water features and a beautiful gazebo. It complements our secure 1-acre courtyard, our secure-unit garden and our secure west garden.
  • Spiritual care is a focus at Menno Place providing residents with opportunities to express and expand their faith including one-on-one visits, chapel services, special programs, hymn sing-a-longs and regular Bible Study groups. This has proven to be a great source of hope and vitality.

3. Providing Rehabilitative Therapy for Residents

With respect to the need for an increase in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy and recreational therapy, we welcome any additional funding for these therapies that may result from the Seniors Advocate’s report. We invite the OSA to consider the addition of music therapy to this list of vital services for seniors. New research and initiatives, such as Music & Memory have seen remarkable re-awakenings among those who suffer from dementia. Our own initiatives with music therapy (one-on-one and in groups) as well as music-based programs such as Concerts in Care have proven to bring considerable benefit to our residents.

For most residential care facilities, as it is with Menno Place, our government funding is the primary hurdle to providing extensive rehabilitative therapies. Funded at less than the rate of inflation, we are constantly working to balance our budget. Greater funding for rehabilitative therapies would open the door to significant benefits for our residents.

What can you do if you have questions about the prescriptions of your loved one who lives at Menno Place?

Here are some steps that will help you to understand the individualized care that your loved one is receiving at Menno Place:

  1. Identify if you have permission to be involved in the health care decisions of your family member. We can only discuss medical information with the resident or their designated alternate substitute decision maker
  2. Book a meeting with the Director of Care (DOC). The DOC provides direction, leadership and best practices to the nursing and care teams in a residential care facility. If you can meet in person, that is preferred.

Menno Home Director of Care: Cyndy Gabriel
Phone Reception to book an appointment: 604.853.2411

Menno Hospital Director of Care: Tami Johnson
Phone Reception to book an appointment: 604.859.7631

How did the Office of the Seniors Advocate Gather Information for this report?

Information gathered through RAI-MDS

In her report, the Seniors Advocate shares initial health assessment data gathered through the InterRAI Resident Assessment Instrument – Minimum Data Set 2.0 (RAI-MDS 2.0), also referred to as “RAI” (pronounce ‘rye’). Each resident assessment data is submitted to the Canadian Institute of Health Information, “CIHI” (pronounce ‘kye-high’).

This information gathered from each resident prior to entering a care facility (and done quarterly or when there is a significant change) forms the data-set upon which we can create benchmarks, comparisons by province and care facility as well as note national, provincial and regional trends.

The InterRAI Resident Assessment has been used in BC since 2009 but it hasn’t been until recently that this comprehensive data gathering provided The Office of the Seniors Advocate (OSA) with the benchmarks and cross-country comparisons used in the report. We have also recently gained access to this same data-set that compares residential care facilities across the province. We welcome this ability to benchmark in our field.

Resources

BC Seniors Advocate Reports

Bruce and Gera share stories

A soldier and a Dutch nurse

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Today, two residents at Menno Place celebrated the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of Netherlands from German occupation during the second world war. Gera, a 20 year old at the time thanked her dear friend (and liberator), Bruce, a Canadian soldier who fought to liberate Netherlands from German occupation. More than 7,600 Canadians died in the nine dreadful months it took to liberate the Netherlands. Gera, age 20 on May 5, 1945, will never forget the day that they were free. Hungry, war-tired and filled with gratitude, they celebrated with tears and joy. Bruce walked through the streets of the Netherlands sharing smiles and gratitude from the dutch people. One woman was out on her patio putting laundry on the line. She smiled from ear to ear at Bruce. I’ll never forget how that felt, he says. It was the best feeling in the world.

Bruce shows us his medals of service – from France, Canada and the UK. Along with his service medals, he shares a “Thank You Canada” medal that he received in 1945. Brought together in their home at Menno Place, Bruce and Gera share memories and gratitude. Gera can’t believe that it is almost the 70 year anniversary of a day that forever changed her life. She affectionately smiles at Bruce – grateful that, at 98 years old, he is here to thank.

 

Roundtable with Minister of State (Seniors), Alice Wong, MP

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On Friday, March 6th, Sharon Simpson, Director of Communications emceed a roundtable discussion on seniors’ trends and issues in Abbotsford, BC. Hosted by Minister Ed Fast, MP, the event included a lunch (with more than 150 seniors), keynote address by Minister Alice Wong and roundtable discussion with health and service leaders in Abbotsford.

Joined by Darryl Plecas (MLA, Abbotsford), Parliamentary Secretary of Seniors to the Minister of Health, and Patricia Ross, Deputy Mayor of Abbotsford, the conversation was collaborative and passionate.

In her remarks, Minister Wong highlighted the programs and activities that the federal government is championing to address; social isolation of seniors, caregiving and the expectations on caregivers, age-friendly communities and seniors aging in place.

With the new pension income-splitting initiative, more than 600,000 seniors will no longer pay income tax in Canada.

In addition, there are significant initiatives Canada-wide to promote Age-Friendly Communities. Abbotsford has recently been awarded an $18,000 age-friendly community planning and project grant to help support local strategies to help seniors stay mobile, physically active, socially connected and healthy.

This grant will be used by the city for its Take a Walk! – Improving Walkability for Older Adults program.

The roundtable discussion brought out the passion that Abbotsford health and service leaders have for creating a supportive, vital NOW – and a sustainable FUTURE for seniors in this community. It was exciting to hear the collaboration and unity as each leader shared with Minister Wong the trends and issues they face as they relate to seniors in Abbotsford.

In addition to this, the roundtable tackled the topics of social isolation of seniors, caregiving and caregiver expectations, age-friendly communities and aging in place.

The event took place at Garden Park Tower, hosted by Minister Ed Fast, MP. It was organized by Ron Willms, Executive Director, Clearbrook Golden Age Society and Sharon Simpson, Director, Communications and Marketing, Menno Place.

Thank you to all who participated in the luncheon and roundtable. It was invigorating!

MSA Museum hosts spring lifewriting seminars

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This spring, aspiring memoirists, lifewriters, and family historians in the Fraser Valley will have a chance to learn about the finer aspects of the craft thanks to a series of lifewriting seminars that the MSA Museum in Abbotsford is hosting. The first event in the increasingly popular “Lifewriting Made Easy” series is a free, two-hour information session on March 21(9–11 a.m.) that provides an overview of the planning, writing, editing, and designing process along with a question and answer session.

Subsequent seminars include a three-hour session on book design and production ($30, March 28), an all-day seminar on writing ($60, May 23), and a three-hour session on interviewing family members and friends ($30, June 27). The seminars will be held at the MSA Museum (Trethewey House) at 2313 Ware Street in Abbotsford. Parking is free, and pre-registration is mandatory.

“The winter seminars were a great success,” said Dorothy van der Ree, outgoing executive director of the MSA Museum Society. “Participants tell us how helpful it is to learn about the skills and strategies that they need to start on their personal or family histories. Most of all, however, they speak of how encouraged they feel — they come away enthusiastic and ready to start. I’ve attended several of the seminars, and the level of engagement is amazing. The instructor’s enthusiasm is contagious.”

Leading the seminars is Abbotsford writer / editor / personal historian Philip Sherwood, whose company lifewriters.ca specialises in helping individuals, families, organisations, and communities tell and preserve their stories in book form.

In addition to the seminars, the MSA Museum offers other services to lifewriters. These include free one-on-one consultations, a list of do-it-yourself resources, and several fee-based services.

For more information about the seminars and to register and receive a syllabus, contact the Museum at 604.853.0313 or by email at info@msamuseum.ca, or visit www.msamuseum.ca.

For more information:

Kelly Railton,
Interim Executive Director,
MSA Museum Society
2313 Ware Street
Abbotsford BC V2S 3C6

Tel. 604.853.0313
Email: Kelly.R@msamuseum.ca

Emily Carr + Menno Place = Innovation

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In September 2014, Menno Place launched a two-phase project with Emily Carr University of Art + Design – specifically with their Health Design Lab.

Emily Carr University of Art + Design (ECUAD) has found a way of providing innovative solutions to “wicked problems” – these are the kinds of problems that have complex answers or no clear answers at all. The students in the Health Design Lab have provided insight, innovation and solutions for multiple Health Authorities throughout BC, including Fraser Health.

One solution that the students created was an innovative, interactive method to motivate hospital visitors to sanitize their hands. They created a technical app that linked the foyer hand sanitizers in Vancouver General Hospital with televisions mounted above. Each time an individual sanitized their hands, a hand icon was added to the graphics on the TV along with the new total number of hands that had been sanitized that day. It was a type of game – sanitize your hand and the TV recorded your effort.

This type of success and innovation motivated Menno Place to approach ECUAD to engage with our project – “Promoting Well-Being Within a Retirement Community”.

We agreed on a direction and have been working with ECUAD since September on Phase 1. The project will consider ways to engage with Menno Place’s residents and the public around issues related to the comfort and well-being of current and future residents. While Menno Place has a strong reputation within the community, parts of the infrastructure are aging and a new facility is being planned. This provides Menno Place with an opportunity to consult with their own resident population as well as the public in order to create meaningful dialogue on what a healthy, positive residential care environment might look like. The overarching goal is to provide a healthy, comfortable and positive space for the residents.

We completed Phase One in the fall of 2014. This included three co-creation sessions. These interactive processes took place with several groups: residents, staff, families and the public.

ECUAD also interviewed key personnel about their work at Menno Place. This was a confidential opportunity to establish existing barriers to change as well as to identify key opportunities.

We are entering Phase Two of the project. This phase begins from an evidence-based context. Students will look for genuinely innovative approaches to the problems created by aging infrastructure. They will apply research findings to a range of suggested solutions: both practical and immediately realizable, as well as recommendations for long-term systemic changes to infrastructure.

 

Compassionate Care – Henri Nouwen

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Have you discovered Henri Nouwen’s writings?

Henri Nouwen was an internationally renowned priest and author. After leaving his professorship position at Harvard University, he worked with the L’Arche Daybreak community near Toronto, Canada. It was there that Henri served those with development disabilities, most notably Adam who became his dear friend and gateway to understanding the Jesus Story.

Henri says this to caregivers (and the rest of society, too)…

Compassion asks us to go where it hurts, to enter into the places of pain, to share in brokenness, fear, confusion, and anguish.

Compassion challenges us to cry out with those in misery, to mourn with those who are lonely, to weep with those in tears.

Compassion requires us to be weak with the weak, vulnerable with the vulnerable and powerless with the powerless.

Compassion means full immersion in the condition of being human.

Person-Centered Care – What does it mean?

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Person centered care is a philosophy of providing care for the elderly that puts the individual at the centre of their own care. In this philosophy the needs of those who care for the elder are considered as central to the care of each individual.

Person centered practice has five primary focuses in order to succeed:

1. Getting to know the resident as a person

This focuses on building a relationship between the caregivers and the resident. A person centered health professional knows and understands a resident beyond their diagnosis, medical needs and personal needs.

2. Sharing of power and responsibility

This focus is on respecting preferences. It includes treating residents and their caregivers as partners when setting goals, planning care and making decisions about care and treatments.

3. Accessibility and flexibility

Here, the focus is on meeting resident’s individual needs by being sensitive to values, preference and expressed needs. This focus gives the resident and their caregivers choice by giving them timely, complete and accurate information in a manner they can understand so they can make choices about their care.

4. Coordination and integration

This is about teamwork. It includes working together to minimize duplication. It involves working seamlessly behind the scenes to maximize the resident’s experiences and to provide them with a positive experience.

5. Environment

The physical, cultural and organizational environment allows staff to function in a person centered manner.

Grateful Community Volunteer Celebrates 100th Birthday

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On January 6, 2015, Siegfried Bartel smiled with content surrounded by his family and friends who celebrated his 100th Birthday.

Born in a time when the US House of Representatives was denying women the vote, neon tubes were patented and the first coast-to-coast long distance call was made, Siegfried has lived through the incredible and rapid changes of the 20th and 21st centuries. World War 1 had just begun to rage across Europe when Siegfried’s mother prayed a prayer of blessing upon her unborn child.

Growing up in Prussia (Poland) in a Mennonite community, Siegfried enjoyed a privileged life earned by the hard labour of his farming family. As a young boy, he watched his father extend grace to a man whose drunken negligence caused a train accident that took the lives of his mother and oldest brother.

It was natural for a man of German descent to enlist in the German Army and Siegfried did so in 1937 before the second world war. When the war erupted in September of 1939, he found himself in an army that eventually brought horrors to others and convinced Siegfried that pacifism was the only sane response to killing and war.

During the war, Siegfried married Erna and started a family. Seven boys were born into his family as Siegfried went back to farming to earn a living. In 1951, he received refugee help through Mennonite Central Committee (http://www.mcccanada.ca) to re-establish his life in Canada becoming a dairy farmer in Agassiz, BC. Siegfried became an active participant in the community as well as serving in leadership with MCC from 1972 – 1987, grateful for how he had received refugee help in his time of need.

Siegfried’s birthday celebration was a vibrant afternoon party with friends and residents from Menno Home joining in the festivities. Five sons, six daughter-in-laws, one grandson and one great-granddaughter and the staff of Menno Place celebrated as well. Siegfried’s older brother, Hans, age 103 came over from Primrose Gardens Apartments with his wife to celebrate his brother’s life and enjoy a delicious piece of home-made cake and some German music. Ingrid Schultz, Chaplain, shared highlights of Siegfried’s life of faith and a prayer of blessing upon his life and the lives of those who love him.

Siegfried is the author of two books, Living with Conviction and Journey to Pacifism. In these books, he shares his life’s story and resulting convictions about pacifism and dedication to others in need. Happy 100th Birthday, Siegfried from your friends at Menno Place, Abbotsford Retirement Home.

 

Post by Menno Place.

Seamstress Shares Gifts

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Published by Matthew’s House

It looks like Christmas in Freda Teichroeb’s little apartment. She’s decorated her home with all the joy and flair of a true Christmas-lover: a festive wreath hangs on the door, another in the living room. Her table is covered in a pretty red and green tablecloth. At her window, a little decorated tree stands atop a table surrounded by more ornaments, a beautiful nativity set, and lit-up village houses. Christmas carols play softly in the background.

Frieda_T_with_tree“I’ve always loved Christmas,” she says. “I decorate early and leave things up until the New Year.”

But Freda’s love of Christmas goes much deeper than surface decorations. At the heart of this season is the message of giving, and Freda lives this out all year round. It is a value that is borne out of her deep faith in God and a desire to share her gifts with others.

“All my life I’ve been a faithful giver, tithing and supporting missions,” she says. “Then when my health began to fail, I really talked to the Lord and asked how I could continue to serve and give.”

The answer came through her sewing machine. Freda has sewn all her life. She and her husband Henry, a school teacher, raised their three children in Saskatchewan and she sewed all their clothes including coats and snow suits.

“My daughter always said that she had the nicest Christmas dresses,” Freda recalls.

They moved to B.C. 30 years ago to be closer to Henry’s aging parents. Freda managed a gift shop in Sevenoaks Mall called The Panhandler and Henry managed Alliance Manor, a rental apartment for seniors. They attended the Alliance church and then Clearbrook M.B. Church where they are still members. Over the years, the Lord has blessed them with seven grandchildren and one great-grandchild. Now in their late 80s, health challenges have necessitated a change in lifestyle. Henry lives in an extended care home while Freda’s assisted living arrangement gives her both the support and the independence she needs. Throughout her life’s journeys, her little sewing machine has traveled with her, so it was only natural that the answer to her prayer was to use her sewing skills to bless others. It was also natural that her skills and her love of Christmas would come together.

Freda began to sew Christmas stockings. She began by sewing them for her children, filling them with crayons, socks and books. She’d wrap everything carefully so that they had something to unwrap. She enjoyed it so much, she decided to sew stockings for sick children in Vancouver. She sewed 50 stockings that were so enthusiastically received that she decided to sew more – 250 more.

Then this summer, while attending a Lady’s Tea, a woman who was familiar with her abilities asked if Freda would consider sewing stockings for the children at Matthew’s House in Abbotsford. Matthew’s House is a ‘home away from home’ that provides respite care for children with complex health care issues, giving parents a chance to rest and rejuvenate.

“I thought it was a wonderful idea, so I did!” she says.

It takes a commitment from the community to keep Matthew’s House running, costing $860,000 annually, all of which comes from generous donations. When Alan Cavin, resource development coordinator for Matthew’s House, first received a call from Freda about her idea, he was moved by her desire to share her gifts with the children at Matthew’s House.

“We really value Freda’s generosity and her creativity,” he says. “Each child connected to Matthew’s House will receive a stocking and she has made dozens more for us to use to raise funds for Matthew’s House.”

Each stocking is made from high quality fabric that has been pre-shrunk so that they can be washed. They are fully lined and come with a strong loop so they can be filled and hung from a mantle. In the two years since she began this project, she has sewn more than 1000 stockings and continues to sew more. When asked why she keeps on doing it, a smile lights her face.

“I really feel that the Lord guided me to know that children would get smiles and joy from these stockings,” she says. ‘In my heart, I am doing this for the Lord and I feel so good doing it for Matthew’s House.”

Freda’s Christmas stockings will be available at several Matthew’s House community events this season: December 5th and 6th at the Lepp Farm Market Christmas events and December 6 & 13 at Sevenoaks Mall. The cost of a stocking is a donation to Matthew’s House.