When asked to describe a good day from a bad day and what is important to her, Judy surprised Krista, the Care Coordinator for Assisted Living, by telling her that she loves sunshine and snowflakes.  She also shared that she was not able to enjoy this anymore because she did not feel safe going outside alone - not even on her porch!  Quick action led to Judy getting a Help call system and her feeling safe to go out on her porch.   She has also said that this has brought more joy to her life. 

Over the last 4 months, The Mills Community Support Corporation has developed an Assisted Living service for older adults who are considered to be 'at risk' in their own homes.    These support services focus on helping older adults to have a good life and a safe life, to continue to live at home and to participate in the life of the community.  From the beginning, The Mills wanted this new service to be person centred.  Jill Faber from the HSA Canada team supported Wendy (Manager) and Krista (Care Coordinator) on their very first day of work.  Wendy recently shared that:

"Using the tools Jill provided helped us establish our vision and our work plan. It helped us discover our creativity and pulled out our passion for a person centred vision of service. It was a great first step because it has become our guiding principle."

From this vision and work plan, Wendy and Krista approached the hiring, matching and orientation of staff in a person centred manner.  Wendy shared that they have also applied what they learned from their own experience with Person Centred Teams to this new workforce and feel that it has helped in supporting staff by facilitating positive open communication and a collaborative approach to problem solving.

I am also very excited to share with you the Support Plan that was fuelled and developed by the initial visioning exercise, Person Centred Thinking training and Krista's own research and experiences as an Occupational Therapist.  Krista says that the Support Plan has been well received by those supported and that they see it as an ongoing/evolving process.  This Support Plan is used when first meeting the person and must then be updated and shared as they learn more about the person.  It needs to be a living document.

This particular team is helping us think about How to Help People Stay at Home.  We look forward to continue learning from this team and sharing this learning with you.  I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this.  Please email me at juliem@hsacanada.ca with questions or suggestions.