Tag: Bay Haven

Self-Care: Practices for a Healthy Body & Mind

Posted on by Reagan Morgan

Sounds simple right? But when we really think about it, do we consciously and actively take good care of ourselves? For many, the answer is no.

Initially it can be challenging to find the time as we can overthink self-care and make it this “big thing” to achieve, however it can be quite simple, it comes down to small, daily decisions that add up to big rewards when you look at the big picture.

Here are 8 pillars of self-care that you can be focus on:

Physical: This involves movement of the body, your health, nutrition, sleep/rest touch and sexual needs. Some ways you can focus on physical self-care are 1) take a walk and connect with nature whenever possible 2) eat health nourishing foods, 3) get adequate sleep, aim for 8 hours a night on average, and 4) drink plenty of water.

Psychological: This involves learning new things, showing creativity, practicing mindfulness, using consequential thinking, engaging intrinsic motivation.  Some ways you can focus on physical self-care are journaling and self-reflection, practicing mindfulness and an awareness of the present moment and cultivate a feeling of acceptance of what is. Master a new skill that feels good to you-crafting or drawing or learning something new and expanding your knowledge, just make sure it does not cause stress.

Emotional: This involves exercising compassion for yourself and others and seeing negative emotions arise and not letting it control you. Finding ways to focus on emotional self-care are watching your thoughts, developing a better emotionally supportive dialogue in your mind, and become aware of your feelings. Manage stress through therapeutic activities like listing to music, create art, or engage with nature.

Social: This involves your connection with your community, your co-workers, your friends and family, the world, and humanity. With social distancing and lockdowns, this can put a strain on your social connections.  It makes it more important to make the time to connect with loved ones any way you can safely. Ways you can focus on social self-care include recognizing and keeping away from toxic people in your life. When we join a group, community or volunteer our time to help others, we fill our own happiness cup up too. Meet new people and connect on a deeper level. Realizing we are all connected and all unique.

Professional: This involves loving what you do for a profession. Having a clear understanding of your role and responsibilities and feeling that your work makes an impact every day. Ways too focus on professional self-care are- attending professional development courses and get involved at work in committees etc. Set clear healthy boundaries and have a good work-life balance, negotiate your needs and benefits in a clear assertive way.

Financial: This involves a healthy relationship with your money. How do you see money? Ways to focus on financial self-care are include being conscious of spending habits and debts that may be outstanding. Manage your money wisely, plan a budget that suits you and get help from a planner if needed. Keep mindful of what bills need to be paid and do it on time. It will make you feel relieved and focus on having a good relationship and purpose for your money.

Spiritual: This involves connecting with your higher consciousness, feeling the life and connectedness to all living beings within all of us. Ways you can focus on spiritual self-care are – making a list of personal beliefs and guiding values but its best to not have a fixed, rigid mental state that must be defended – accept what is. Spend time connecting with nature and feel its essence. Ensure to allow for adequate spiritual practices or religious activities, what makes you feel connected with others and feels good to you.

Environmental: This involves your space you live in, your connection with the earth and all living things. Ways to focus on your environmental self-care are to keeping your living and workspaces clean, neat, and organized. This will help you focus, gain clarity, and comfort when needed. Complete seasonal cleaning and organizing and allow for that time to regenerate and change things up. If it is not working seek out a feng shui approach to help. Consider your direct impact on the health of Mother Earth and do whatever you can to reduce your impact. For example, reuse, reduce and recycle when possible. Plant trees and plants that help heal the earth and reduce chemical use in the home and in the garden. Healthy soils equal healthy life.

Remember everyone’s self-care plan will look so different and be totally personal. Start by making small goals and feel joyful about self-care try to reduce and overwhelmed feelings related to it! I hope this helps everyone’s self-care journey! Lots of love to you all!


Lillian Kelly
RN Director of Nursing

Safe Outings Now Possible For Long-Term Care and Retirement Home Residents

Posted on by Reagan Morgan

The Ontario government has announced that long term care and retirement home residents can once again leave their residences for short stay and temporary absences.

Short stay absences are for outpatient medical visits, to see family or run errands and do not include an overnight stay, with the exception of single-night emergency room visits. Bay Haven will provide resident with a medical mask to be worn at all times when outside the home, if tolerated.  Residents will be reminded of the importance of physical distancing and hand hygiene.  When the resident returns, they will be actively screened but will not be required to be tested or to self isolate.

Temporary absences are for personal reasons of one or more nights. Temporary absences will be at the discretion of the home and decided upon a case-by-case basis based upon safety factors like the risk associated with the absence (e.g. for a family weekend vs. a large gathering) and ability of the home to help residents self-isolate upon return. Residents can return if the home is not in outbreak, the resident has tested negative for COVID-19 and is returning to a room shared with no more than one other resident. For the protection of their neighbours, resident who leave on a temporary absence will be required to self-isolate for 14 days when they return to the home.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate ask Lillian Kelly, Director of Nursing or Roseanne Beaupre, Retirement Home Manager.

Thank you for your continued support as we work together to address the COVID-19 situation.

Communicating with a person living with Dementia while wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

Posted on by Reagan Morgan

Do you ever wonder what a person with Dementia would think about regarding the COVID-19 pandemic? What exactly are they thinking about when they see their family and friends wearing a mask? What about when they think about the fact that they cannot go outside to public spaces or outings? Why is my family not visiting me? These are all questions that a person living with Dementia could be thinking about during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because of this, a person living with Dementia may experience an increase in anxiety and/or confusion about the world around them. A person living with Dementia who is living in a Retirement or Long-Term Care home and is in isolation from their family and friends cannot properly understand all the precautionary measures taken during this time. The lack of visiting, going outdoors, and people wearing masks can impact their mental health and ability to socialize. This is why it is important to fully understand how to communicate and approach a person living with Dementia when you put on your Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

In a health care setting, a person’s living with Dementia are likely unaware of current events and may have difficulty understanding the need for additional PPE & precautions in place. These extra precautions may be stressful for them because it is out of their normal daily routine. Once a person living with Dementia’s routine changes from their ordinary lifestyle, it can cause confusion and frustration for them. Normally, a person’s living with Dementia often rely on body language and facial expressions during interactions with another person, however, if they cannot see your mouth or your body language, this can affect them as well. This is why it is important to communicate properly with a person with Dementia even if you are wearing a lot of Personal Protection Equipment.

It is important to allow time for the person living with Dementia to process and understand who is approaching them. It may take additional time for them to understand what is being asked, and since a mask can cover up your mouth and distort their ability to understand or recognize your face, this could cause extra stress as well. It is always important to have direct eye contact with the person living with Dementia while communicating with them. When approaching them, remember to always use their name often when providing instructions to maintain their attention. If a person’s living with Dementia have questions surrounding precautions or PPE, provide simplified explanations so they can understand easily. Always remember to be mindful of your own non-verbal cues that the person’s living with Dementia may be responding to (body language, tone of voice, and facial expressions). It is important that you remain calm at all times. These are some important tips from the Alzheimer’s Society that you can take while communicating with a person in your life who is living with Dementia.

Marco Sanfilippo
Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant

Outdoor patio visits between Residents and Families will commence

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
Staying distant and wearing a mask are crucial while visiting family

Since the COVID-19 outbreak began, Bay Haven Care Community took precautionary measures to ensure that all residents and staff stay healthy and safe during these unprecedented times. Bay Haven Care Community is excited to announce that starting on Friday, June 26th, we will begin scheduled and supervised outside patio visits between residents and families. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) has issued strict guidelines to ensure safe family visiting takes place during this time. Please note that ALL of the following rules are extremely necessary before attending an outdoor patio visit. An outdoor patio visit cannot be scheduled unless all of the following criteria are met. If a visitor does not comply with these requirements, there will be immediate discontinuation for resident visiting.

Please read and adhere to the following Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care safeguards so we can maintain your family members safety.

1. All visits must be scheduled ahead of time and pre-screened over the phone.

The Bay Haven Care Community Recreation staff will make every effort to accommodate scheduling of visitors during regular visiting hours. Regular visiting hours will take place between 10:00 AM to 4:30 PM. To schedule a time, please call the Recreation Department at 705–445–6501 ext. 222 for Alivya on the Nursing Home side, or ext. 229 for Marco on the Retirement Home side.

2. Residents participating in the outside patio visit must be able to follow instructions.

All rules and instructions are placed for a reason. Everyone must be able to comply with the requirements for the outdoor patio visit. For those resident’s who’s current functional abilities prohibit compliance, or who are bed bound, a virtual or window visit will be scheduled. When you call to schedule the visit; Recreation staff can discuss options for you and your loved one.

3. All visitors must have a negative COVID-19 test result.

All visitors must have a negative COVID-19 test that has been conducted within the last 14 days. You can call Telehealth at 1 866–797–0000 and they will direct you to the nearest assessment centre for testing.

4. All visitors must pass an active screening questionnaire prior to the actual visit.

These active screening tools include having their temperature taken, attest that they are symptom free, have not been exposed to COVID-19 and have tested negative for COVID-19 within the last 14 days. Visitors must follow proper hand hygiene and cough etiquette.

5. Limit of one visitor per week to allow all residents the opportunity to visit with their loved one.

You will need to determine with your family members who this will be and how to plan your visits. At a later date and upon the home’s discretion supervised outdoor visits may increase from one visitor at a time to two or more. If visitors are adhering to current visiting protocols, resident safety will be maintained.

6. Visitors are responsible for bringing their own face covering for outside visits.

If a visitor forgets their medical mask or fabric face covering, Bay Have Care Community will provide you one. Visitors must wear the mask during the entire duration of their visit. Residents are not required to a wear face covering during the outside visit, but if they able to tolerate a mask, one will be provided.

7. All visitors will remain on the designated outdoor patio area during the visit.

When you arrive at the home, ring the doorbell and wait for Recreation staff to answer. Bay Haven Care Community is required to ask you a screening questionnaire. Both the resident and visiting family member must perform hand hygiene and maintain social distance of two metres.

8. All visitors should bring their own folding chair or lawn chair.

Please bring your own folding chairs or lawn chairs to the visit to stay comfortable outside. This will save the staff from having to disinfect surfaces after each visit and allow us to arrange for more visits.

9. The visits will be scheduled for a maximum of 30 minutes.

Please do not come early as we are trying to maintain social distancing between visiting families. Everyone is on a schedule, so we ask you to please coordinate your time properly.

10. The resident will remain 2 meters or 6 feet away.

All residents will be 2 meters or 6 feet away from the family member. Residents will be behind the table barrier. No items or gifts can be given directly to the residents. Staff will accept these gift items and follow our disinfecting protocols.

11. You must maintain a minimum distance of 2 metres / 6 feet from the resident and staff at all times.

We will bring the resident out to you and the staff member will return at the end of the visit to porter the resident back into the home. We know that it will be difficult to not hug or kiss your loved one, but it is necessary to ensure that no one unknowingly exposes our residents or staff to COVID-19. If these rules are not maintained and someone does come into contact with a resident, we are required by law to isolate the resident for 14 days post exposure. Please help us avoid this. Please maintain physical distancing by staying 2 metres / 6’ feet apart.

We understand that this is difficult for you and your family, but we feel it is necessary to allow these visits to happen safely. We are desperate for you and your resident to have these visits. Please help us by following these rule and guidelines. Any non-adherence to these rules will be the basis for discontinuation of future visits.

In the meantime, we will be evaluating the outdoor patio visits after the first few weeks. We welcome all feedback and encourage you to let us know how we can make these visit experiences better. Please feel free to share any comments or questions about all of the above rules and guidelines.

We are hopeful that this brings a bit of balance by ensuring our residents can see their family and loved ones in person while keeping safe as COVID-19 is still circulating in the community.

Please feel free to email or call us for any questions that you have and we will be happy to respond to you as soon as possible. Let’s work together to keep our residents healthy and COVID-free!

Thank you for your cooperation and stay healthy and safe!

Share The Love Week – Valentine’s Day at Bay Haven 2020

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
The final collage from the Valentine’s Day Love Photo marketing event

The entire Recreation Department and Marco, the Marketing Specialist, worked hard to create a two-week long Valentine’s Day event for the residents at Bay Haven Care Community. The Recreation Department organized Valentine’s Day themed programs throughout the first and second week of February. Some of the programs included creating a Valentine’s Day posters, arts and crafts, trivia, drama performances, and even making heart-shaped Topper’s pizza with Emaan, a new volunteer who owns all of the Topper’s Pizza in Canada with her family.

This year, Bay Haven Care Community and the Georgian Tringle Humane Society collaborated on a Valentine’s Day idea to raise money for the Humane Society. The Recreation Department created two program that allowed the residents on the retirement home and the nursing home side to bake and decorate Valentine’s Day themed cupcakes. These cupcakes were then sold on Wednesday, February 5th to all residents, staff, and guests at Bay Haven. On that day, we had two volunteers from the Therapeutic Paws of Canada bring in their dogs to help celebrate our bake sale! Virginia brought in her dog Poodle Enzo, and Alex brought in her Golden Retriever Georgia. The residents absolutely loved buying cupcakes and having a dog visit. Bay Haven Care Community raised $183.00 during the bake sale, with all proceeds going to the Georgian Triangle Humane Society.

Throughout the two weeks of February, Marco created a campaign titled “Valentine’s Day Love Photo.” This campaign allowed family members of residents and staff to submit a photo of their loved ones and to add a short description about why you love them, and what kind of inspiration that particular person gave you throughout your life. Since February 1st, Marco has been posting a new submitted photo on the Bay Haven Care Community Facebook page until Valentine’s Day. The marketing campaign was a huge success! The campaign generated 14 new “Likes” for the Bay Haven Care Community Facebook page, which is a 250% increase since January 17th, 2020. The campaign also got a 79% increase in “Post Engagement,” meaning there were more people commenting and liking our Facebook pictures and posts during this week than any other. After the campaign was over, Marco created a collage of everyone’s pictures and posted them on Facebook, as well as around the building.

Overall, Bay Haven’s 2020 Valentine’s Day was very successful and we are excited to continue providing the best quality care for all of our residents.

Marco Sanfilippo
Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant

Bay Haven Care Community Celebrates 51 Years of Quality Living for Long-Term Care and Retirement Home Residents

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
Administrator Scott Strandholt cutting Bay Haven Care Community’s 51st anniversary cake with Nursing Home resident Joyce Hayles

Bay Haven Care Community celebrated its 51st anniversary on Wednesday, January 15th along with residents, staff, and guests. The celebration began with the Town of Collingwood’s official town crier Ken Templeton presenting a speech about Bay Haven’s longevity and its continued impact on Collingwood. After that, Scott Strandholt held a speech about the history of Bay Haven and how it was established when both of his parents began Bay Haven after moving from Toronto to Collingwood to start a new life in 1969. Scott explained how his father, Elwyn Strandholt, was in charge of the office work and bookkeeping, and his mother, Dawn Strandholt, was doing a lot of the house work and cooking for their newly established business. Scott continued his speech by elaborating on the success that Bay Haven has achieved over the 51 years; he said he is looking forward to the future of the company when Bay Haven Care Community and the Collingwood Nursing Home merge into one business to develop a brand-new facility. Scott also delivered a shout-out to the head nurse Roseanne Beaupre, who has been working at Bay Haven Care Community for over 50 years.

After Scott finished his speech, Cynthia Strandholt took the podium and began talking about how Bay Haven is like a huge family and thanked all of the staff for their hard-work and dedication to keeping a high quality of care for the residents on the Long-Term Care and Retirement Home side. After the speeches were over, Scott Stranholt and Nursing Home resident Joyce Hayles both cut the cake together. The anniversary celebration had delicious food from the Bay Haven dietary team, music performance by Linda Ross, and beautiful decorations from the Bay Haven recreation team.

Happy 51st Anniversary Bay Haven! We are all excited to continue to be part of the Bay Haven team and its 51-year history. Together, all of the staff are going to work hard to continue delivering the highest quality care and make Bay Haven the best place to live for all residents.

Marco Sanfilippo
Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant

The Importance of Digitizing Your Business

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
Modernizing Bay Haven’s Digital Presences

We are officially in the year 2020, which is a crucial year for many businesses to finally focus on digitizing their business to become up-to-date with the modern world. All types of businesses are digitizing faster than we can comprehend, and it is important for you to not fall behind. Any small town or local business needs to begin planning an online presences of their company, whether focusing on a new modernized website, or adjusting their social media pages to stand out from their competitors, these are the tools that will make your business grow and become better than ever.

1) Phones > Newspapers: To begin, we have to understand the evolution process of human beings and how we receive our information. Simply put, humans do not read newspapers anymore. At one point in history, the newspaper was the only source of news that a person could get. But now, everyone uses their phone or computer to look up whatever they want. If you truly understood how many people use the internet to look things up, wouldn’t you want your website to look better than your competitors? As Bay Haven’s Marketing Specialist, I am planning on updating the website to modernize it for 2020. This is a project that I am excited to work on for the new year.

2) Pictures Speak A Thousand Words: It is simply true; pictures speak a thousand words. We are living in a fast-pace culture where images and pictures stand out a lot more than words. In our new fast-pace culture, people do not have time to read anymore. This is why it is important to post beautiful pictures on your website or social media pages. For Bay Haven, pictures are a very important way for us to communicate with resident’s family members that live far away. This is the most ideal way for family members to see their parents or grandparents living life at Bay Haven. This is why we try to post as many pictures and videos as we can on our Facebook page.

3) Social Media Interaction: For 2020, I plan on creating new social media pages for Bay Haven Care Community. I would like to create a Bay Haven Twitter, Instagram, and a TikTok account. I believe it is important for Bay Haven to communicate with all major social media platforms, because it is a way to express Bay Haven’s culture to families. Even though Facebook is the most used social media page for Bay Haven, I would like to expand Bay Haven’s horizons by interacting with members through other popular social media pages. This is important to do for any kind of business.

4) Website Representation: To make your business stand out from your competitors, it is important to show a good representation of your company through your website. Having a clean, fresh, and new look of your company through your website can really create an amazing image for your company. Here at Bay Haven, we want people to know that we are strive for the best possible care for our residents, and that our core values of respect, quality, staff, and community is positively represented over our website. The first thing that people do when they look up a retirement or nursing home for their loved ones, they search the company through Google. Having a great representation through our website is an amazing way to promote the excellence that comes from Bay Haven.

As a Marketing Specialist, I can confidentially say that these are four important first steps to bring your company into the online world. I am excited to work on Bay Haven’s marketing plan for 2020, so please continue to follow us as you venture on a journey with us to see new modern changes coming to Bay Haven’s online presences.

Marco Sanfilippo
Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant

Reflecting on Bay Haven’s 2019

Posted on by Reagan Morgan
Looking Ahead To 2020

2019 was an incredible year for Bay Haven. Since this is the last blog of this year, I would like to take a moment to reflect on some of the activities and events that we had throughout the year. During the year, Bay Haven staff and recreation team did an absolutely great job providing so much for the residents that live at Bay Haven. Our mission is to make Bay Haven the best Retirement Home/Nursing Home in Collingwood, and in order to do that, we need to provide the best programs for them.

We had so many activities and events planned out for the residents for both Retirement Home and Nursing Home side. Throughout the year, we had programs like TGIF entertainment every Friday, we played Bingo, we celebrated birthday parties, we watched movies, we had outdoor picnics, we listened to a lot of live music form plenty of guest performers, we had outings to Walmart/Sunset Point/Journey’s Blend, we baked delicious pastries, we celebrated holidays together, and so much more.

Not only did we have programs like these on a weekly basis, we also had a huge cultural experience day. This year we had a Caribbean Cultural Experience Day. Throughout the entire day, staff and residents dressed up and ate Caribbean food. It was a very entertaining time! Not only that, but Bay Haven celebrated its 50th anniversary back in January 2019. Staff and residents had a huge celebration accommodating Bay Haven’s success throughout those 50 years. Additionally, to that, Bay Haven has been posting blogs about the company on a weekly basis. This is a new idea that began in 2019, and we are happy to continue writing more blogs for 2020. As you can see, 2019 was a jam-packed year, and we are looking forward to having an even more packed year for 2020.

On behalf of Bay Haven, we would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year.

Thank you for reading,

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