Category: Age

Celebrating Seniors in Ontario — Stay Safe, Stay in Touch

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
June is Seniors’ Month! Make sure you Stay Safe, Stay in Touch

In Ontario, the month of June is considered Seniors’ Month and is a time to reflect and celebrate all seniors from across the province. This year’s theme is “Stay Safe, Stay in Touch” and it focuses on keeping our seniors safe, connected, and engaged at their home during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Minister for Seniors and Accessibility Raymond Cho “As we take this opportunity to mark Seniors’ Month, we recognize that these are very challenging times for seniors as they continue to self-isolate due to the risk of COVID-19. Now more than ever, it is important that we come together to support our seniors and recognize and honour the knowledge, experience, and the contributions that seniors have made to build the province that we enjoy today.”

Let us make this month extra special for our seniors by showing them as much support and love as possible. If you have a senior in your life, or if you want to help out voluntarily, please take the time to reach out to them to ensure that they have what they need during this very difficult time. There are plenty of things you can do to stay in touch with seniors, you can give them a call over the phone or through FaceTime or Zoom, you could pick up some groceries for them so they can stock up their refrigerators’ so they have food, or you could safely see them through a window while visiting. Anything that you do to help or connect with a senior will increase their level of happiness, especially since most of them cannot leave their home due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Ontario Government has the highest regard for our seniors and they are committed to protecting and supporting them as much as possible. According to Raymond Cho “We are continuing to invest in almost 300 Seniors Active Living Centres which help seniors remain active and engaged in age-friendly communities.” Cho said that 175 of these programs are currently being offered remotely through teleconference, online videos, and one on one phone calls. These are all critical programs that help seniors stay connection while being at home. The Ontario Government also invested $11 million dollars to implement the Ontario Community Support Program, which is used to help coordinate meals, medicine, and other necessities to seniors across the province. Not only that, but the Ontario government is also developing a comprehensive Seniors’ Strategy which helps seniors remain healthy, active, and socially engaged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

As you can see, the Ontario Government is doing a lot to support seniors during this most difficult time, and since June is Seniors’ Month, we should all be doing our part by reaching out to our seniors as well. At Bay Haven Care Community, the Recreation team conducts and designs programs that help stimulate seniors emotional, intellectual, physical, vocational, social, spiritual, and environmental well-beings to benefit the seniors lifestyle. This month, let’s stay safe and stay in touch together as we help our seniors cope through this pandemic lockdown.

Marco Sanfilippo
Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant

The Living Wish Foundation: A Christmas Gift They Will Never Forget

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
The Living Wish Foundation Logo

What exactly is The Living Wish Foundation? The Living Wish Foundation is an organization that provides medically supervised and supported end of life wishes to patients who are facing terminal diagnosis. By doing this, The Living Wish Foundation hopes to assist people who are terminally ill to make their last wish or dreams come true. Providing the patient this wish ultimately enhances their quality of life until they pass on.

Since we are in the Christmas season, it is important to understand how much of an impact that a wish that comes true can have on a terminally ill patient. End of life wishes are not necessarily overly complicated. Sometimes a wish could be a request to visit their home for the last time, go to a Toronto Maple Leafs game, or to celebrate and spend one last Christmas or birthday a few weeks earlier. The people who work at Living Wish Foundation have found that patients last request have often been something simple and easy to achieve. This Christmas, try to reach out to The Living Wish Foundation to donate your time to help someone achieve their last dream. Granting a last wish to a terminally ill patient can be the most powerful feeling to any care team. These wishes provide joy to the patient and one last memorable experience for the patient’s family and friends to sustain them in their grief. If you want to give the ultimate Christmas gift this holiday season, I suggest you help make a wish come true for a terminal ill patient. This will be a Christmas gift that they will never forget. Go out there, help those in need, and make an impact. Let’s give everyone the Christmas they deserve.

Marco Sanfilippo
Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant

Who Is Teepa Snow? Bay Haven Staff Went To Her Conference

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
Teepa Snow Workshop

Before you begin to read this article, you may be asking yourself, who is Teepa Snow? Teepa Snow is a leading trainer and consultant providing support and care that places the person living with dementia in a pivotal role when determining what is needed. Her goal is to help communities, agencies, organizations, professionals, and families to develop the awareness, knowledge, and skills needed to better support and care for someone living with dementia. Teepa Snow is the owner and CEO of Positive Approach to Care. Her organization provides training, services and products to help those who have dementia. Teepa Snow has successfully integrated her education, extremely varied work experiences, recent medical and international research, and her first-hand care experiences to be a major part of her companies’ program. All these tools are used to help people living with neurocognitive degeneration.

It is Teepa Snow’s mission to change the culture of dementia support and care throughout the world. Positive Approach to Care focuses on the best ways to approach and develop a relationship with a patient who has dementia. Relationships that are based on authenticity, empowerment, compassion, and curiosity. Teepa Snow believes that this mind-frame is important to everyone, because understanding a person who has dementia is the best way to get to truly know the person suffering with this disease. Teepa Snow had a conference held at Hawk Ridge Golf & Country Club near Orillia, Ontairo, and luckily, some staff at Bay Haven Care Community got to go and watch her lecture live. I happened to be one of those lucky employees, and believe me, it was such a fantastic experience. Teepa Snow went over so many different situations about people who have dementia. Her energetic personality and approach to people living with dementia was incredible to learn and see. Teepa Snow’s care strategies and techniques look at what is known about the brain function and all of the changes that happen with various conditions and then integrate all of that information with therapeutic approaches. She went over a bunch of topics related to the neurological functions of the brain and she told us how to put our caring and support to those with dementia into practice in a positive, loving, and rewarding way.

The conference went from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM and breakfast and lunch were both provided! Not only that, every table represented the retirement/nursing home you worked at, so it was nice to have a Bay Haven Care Community table. Teepa Snow got everyone in attendance involved by making everyone participate in her techniques and approach to proper caring. It was very fun to be able to practice these techniques with your co-workers and be able to learn new things that we could all bring to our work. Teepa Snow is a phenomenal lecturer and I highly recommend everyone to go to one of her conferences whenever she is in Canada. Bellow are a couple links to her videos from YouTube.

Teepa Snow Discusses The Ten Early Signs of Dementia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqmqC-702Yg

Calming & Comforting a Person Living with Dementia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGqYaRhjxrM

Marco Sanfilippo – Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant

World Alzheimer’s Day

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
Wear blue this World Alzheimer’s Day!

Saturday, September 21st is World Alzheimer’s Day. World Alzheimer’s Day is an annual event where people around the world come together to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, affects more than 400,000 Canadians aged 65 years and older. Since Canada’s population is now living longer than ever before, this number is expected to grow even more. At Bay Haven Care Community, residents and staff will be wearing blue on Friday, September 20th, 2019 in support of people living with dementia, their caregivers, and families. We will be taking photos and sharing all our blue on social media using the hashtag #GoBlueforAlz!

Not only will Bay Haven Care Community be celebrating World Alzheimer’s Day, but several landmarks across Ontario will be lit up in blue as well, including the CN Tower in Toronto. Every 65 seconds, someone develops dementia somewhere around the world, and due to our aging population, the number of people living with dementia in Canada will only continue to rise. So here are the top 4 ways you can make a difference for dementia this year.

  1. Learn more about Alzheimer’s Disease.

It is always important to learn more about Alzheimer’s Disease. Understanding Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia is the best way to help those that are impacted. Do you know all the risks, prevention’s, and how to bet support those with the disease? If not, this is the day to learn about those diseases.

  1. Spread the world.

Talk to family and friends about dementia and build awareness in your community. There are so many different ways for you to make a positive change and impact to the lives of Ontarians who have been impacted by dementia. The more people know, the more we can take action! Spread the word.

  1. Host or Attend a Coffee Break.

Coffee Break is a major nationwide annual fundraiser where friends, co-workers and customers gather in communities across Canada to raise funds for their local Alzheimer Society. This is a great way to become part of the Alzheimer Society and a way to connect to people who have the same interest and goals as you.

  1. Make a donation.

Your donation will support so many vital programs for men and women with dementia. Any donation or contribution that you make will help those with Alzheimer’s Disease, caregivers, and their families. This is the best way to help on World Alzheimer’s Day.

 

In support of World Alzheimer’s Day, let’s all do our part to raise awareness of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease. Together we can make a real difference in the lives of Canadian’s living with dementia. Do not forget to wear blue and donate!

 

Marco Sanfilippo – Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant.

Bay Haven’s Centenarian’s

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
  • Luena is our oldest resident at Bay Haven. She is 106.

What does the term centenarian mean? A centenarian is someone who is 100 years of age or older. Bay Haven Care Community is proud to say that we have THREE centenarian residents, Luena – 106, Isobel – 104, and Annie – 102. All three centenarians are in great health and continue to be active in our recreation programs. In fact, Luena plays the piano for all her fellow residents and staff four days a week. When asking Luena what her secret to longevity is, she said to always keep active physically and mentally. Annie use to be a nurse when Bay Haven began in 1969. Now, her daughter Roseanne is a nurse and her granddaughter Amanda works in house keeping.

Bay Haven Care Community also have many residents that are in their late 90s. Muriel is 99 years old and will be turning 100 in 2020. Other residents’ range between 95 – 99. It is incredible to be surrounded by so many active elders in the Bay Haven community, whenever I come into work, it encourages me to keep active so that I may also live a long, healthy life.

The oldest person to ever live was a woman named Jeanne Calment from France. Jeanne was born on February 21st, 1875 and she passed away on August 4th, 1997. She was 122 years and 164 days old. Currently, the oldest living person is Kane Tanaka from Japan. Kane was born on January 2nd, 1903 and she is currently 116 years old. Kane is still in good health and occupies her time by playing the board game Othello and taking short walks in the facility’s hallways. Her hobbies include calligraphy and calculations. She credits her family, sleep, and God as her secrets to her longevity. Kane also said that she has a strong appetite and likes sweets; she drinks three cans a day of canned coffee, sodas, and various nutritional drinks.

Studies have shown that longevity has been increasing over centuries. As life expectancy is increasing across the world, the number of centenarians is expected to increase quickly in the future. According to a study done in the United Kingdom, one-third of babies born in 2013 in the UK are expected to live to 100. In the end, remember to eat well, keep active, get proper sleep, and live an amazing life.

Marco Sanfilippo – Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant