Bay Haven Care Community and the Collingwood Public Library have been working together to provide a program for the residents called Books on Wheels. The Books on Wheels program allows books from the Collingwood Public Library to go directly to the residents that have signed up for the program. Residents that are interested in reading a variety of genres of books will be granted several different books per month. For those residents that are visually impaired, the Collingwood Public Library also offers audible books. The Books on Wheels program is a great way to give the residents at Bay Haven Care Community easily accessible books for their enjoyment. Reading books are very important as they keep your mind strong and active. This is a program that Bay Haven is proud to offer for their residents.
Aside from certain activities that the Recreation department puts together for the residents to stimulate the brain, Books on Wheels is another option for residents to keep their mind healthy, strong, and focused.
We here at Bay Haven are happy to continue this tradition so that our residents do not have to leave their home to go to the library, but rather have those books come to them.
Marco Sanfilippo – Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant.
Many Long-Term Care Homes across Ontario have established a dedicated family council within their homes. In these Family Councils, members have successfully set aside goals and aspirations to help improve the quality of life for their loved ones within the Long-Term Care Home. A Family Council is an organized, self-led, and self-determining group of people composed of family and friends of the residents living in the Long-Term Care Homes. The main purpose of a Family Council is to improve the quality of life for Long-Term Care residents and to give families and friends a forum for sharing their experiences, leanings, and other valuable information within the home. A Family Council works together with residents’ family members, friends, and the Long-Term Care Home to identify and resolve any issues that affect the resident’s quality of life.
Here are some examples of what Family Council have accomplished with other Ontario Long-Term Care Homes in the past:
Members of one Family Council advocated for new doors in the Alzheimer unit to improve resident safety.
Air-conditioning was installed in one Home at a Family Council’s recommendation.
Family Council worked with a local municipality to include curb ramps around the building of their Long-Term Care Home so residents using wheelchairs could leave the property.
Some of the benefits of having a Family Council in your Long-Term Care Home is that it allows families to give each other ongoing mutual support and encouragement by sharing thoughts and feelings with others who also have relatives in a Long-Term Care Home. Not only that, a Family Council provides an opportunity to become knowledgeable about the Long-Term Care Home’s operations, policies, and rules. This can be especially helpful for families of new residents in the home.
Starting in June 2019, Bay Haven Care Community began a Family Council. So far, our Family Council is small, but we would like to increase the number of participants as much as possible! Each Family Council at a Long-Term Care Home is unique to that individual Home; however, they all share the same goals and aspirations, and that is to provide additional care for your loved ones.
To promote and raise awareness for Bay Haven’s Family Council, we will be hosting a tea social on Wednesday, October 16th, 2019 at 6:00 PM at the Recreation Room in the Long-Term Care side of Bay Haven. At this social, there will be a PowerPoint presentation explaining more about Family Council and what it means to us. We will also be giving a tutorial on how to navigate the Bay Haven Facebook Page. This social will be a great way to introduce potential new members our Family Council at Bay Haven. At this social, you will be learning more about our goal to create a well-established Family Council at Bay Haven, our mission, and the date and time for the next upcoming meeting. We highly recommend and encourage all current resident family members to attend our event.
If you have any relatives in Bay Haven’s Long-Term Care Home and would like to volunteer your time to be part of our Family Council, please contact Bay Haven Care Community at (705)-445-6501 and ask for either April Lawson (Recreation Manager) or Marco Sanfilippo (Marketing Specialist) for more information. Do not forget to attend our tea social to meet us and learn more about Family Council at Bay Haven.
NOTE: Since Bay Haven is under an outbreak, we may have to postpone our social to another date. We will update everyone once the outbreak is gone.
Thank you,
Marco Sanfilippo – Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant.
On July 1st, 1867, Canada officially became its own country when three colonies (Province of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick) united into a single Dominion called Canada. 152 years later, we continue to celebrate this beautiful country for its rights, freedoms, expressions, and laws that make Canada such a great country. At Bay Haven Care Community, staff, residents and volunteers celebrated Canada Day with a Canada Day Social. Wearing as much red as possible, residents from the Retirement Home side and from the Nursing Home side came together to mingle with their neighbours and friends in the Bay Haven courtyard.
The recreation and dietary team put together a very fun event for Bay Haven’s residents. Some of the recreation assistants put on Canadian themed games for the residents, these games included a Canadian fun facts and trivia, and a Canadian themed bean bag toss. The recreation team also put up Canadian flags and other decorations throughout the entire building. Additionally, the dietary team provided some cold punch, and the members at the Collingwood Royal Canadian Legion were kind enough to donate a large Canada Day cake for our residents! We would like to take this opportunity to thank the members at the Legion for their kindness and generosity. According to the residents, this years Canada Day Social was very fun, warm, and delicious! We cannot wait to do it again next year!
Marco Sanfilippo – Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant
Bay Haven Staff Members Ready To Participate In Their Adopt-A-Road Program.
What exactly is the Adopt-A-Road Program? The Town of Collingwood Adopt-a-Road Program is a private/public partnership program where environmental conscious citizens, community organizations, businesses, and other industries make a personal contribution to a cleaner and more beautiful roads in Collingwood. Garbage and other roadside litter can be very unappealing to every Collingwood resident and tourist. Not only that, roadside garbage is harmful to the environment, creates pollution, and completely takes away from Collingwood’s beautiful outdoor scenery. In order to change this, Bay Haven Care Community participates in the Adopt-A-Road Program.
The Adopt-A-Road Program is a public service program for volunteers to pick up litter along certain roads in Collingwood. Every volunteer or organization is assigned a road that they attend twice a year to pick up all garbage found on that road. Bay Haven Care Community’s assigned road is the Pretty Rive Parkway. Bay Haven staff members gather together at the end of their workday to help and clean up the road. Since Pretty River Parkway is one of the larger roads in Collingwood, Bay Haven staff members gather for dinner at a local Collingwood restaurant after their hard work. We are very fortunate enough to live in a Town that offers a program like this that aims to make Collingwood, and the world, a better place to live in. The Adopt-A-Road Program is a great way to help clean up your community, and these days, it is essential that we keep our environment as clean and healthy as possible for our future.
Bay Haven staff and volunteers taking residents on an excursion to Sunset Point.
Excursions are an important part of Bay Haven’s culture and programs. The Bay Haven Excursions Committee Members organizes excursions with residents in order to provide the best outing for them throughout the entire year. The Bay Haven Excursions Committee is comprised with the Chairman – Scott Strandholt, the Treasurer/Secretary – Cynthia Landriault, the Recreation Manager – April Lawson, and a mix of three volunteer Bay Haven resident representatives from the Retirement Home and the Nursing Home side.
The Excursion Committee meet every six months. Sometimes the committee meets more often, depending on the Chairs request. At these meetings, the committee members gather in the Bay Haven conference room and discuss and review all the excursions that have occurred, the ones that are upcoming, those that have been suggested, and then proceed to discuss all of the excursion related questions as they arise during the meeting. In the latest meeting, some of the residents suggested different possible outing ideas, such as attending vineyards, local breweries, apple orchards, strawberry picking, and more. It is great to be able to discuss these topics and ideas with our residents at these meetings since they provide us with great ideas for future outings. The Treasurer also gives out an updated report of the budget and funding that is provided for these excursions. Everyone’s role in the committee is important, and their hard work and commitment in keeping the Bay Haven excursions strong is great for the future for Bay Haven.
The Excursion Committee are kindly encouraging people to make donations to ensure that residents continue to enjoy our monthly outings. The money that will be donated will go towards everything related to our excursions, including the funds needed to pay for the Red Cross Bus to transport our residents to their destination. To donate, visit our website and click the Donation tab to see how to donate.
With your help, we will be able to continue our excursion programs with our residents in the future.
Let’s go on an excursion!
Marco Sanfilippo – Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant.
The Ontario Medical Association was founded in 1880 by physicians in Ontario who wanted to form a provincial medical association. At the beginning, the council only had 270 physicians from across Ontario who came from eleven different districts and six different medical school. These early physicians largely contributed to the phenomenal Health Care system that Canada has today. In 2019, the number of memberships for the OMA is more than 39,000. This number comprises of all physicians and medical students across Ontario because now, all practicing physicians in Ontario are authorized by law to be part of the Ontario Medical Association. What exactly does the Ontario Medical Association do? The OMA is a membership organization that contains practicing physicians and medical students that run programs to encourage healthy living and illness prevention around Ontario.
Introducing Dr. Sohail Gandhi
As of May 5th, 2019, Dr. Sohail Gandhi from Stayner, Ontario will become the new President of the Ontario Medical Association. Dr. Gandhi is a family physician who practices at the Stayner Medical Clinic and become the very first Ontario Medical Association president from the Georgian Triangle. During his one year of presidency, Dr. Gandhi will be traveling across the province to visit other doctors and medical facilities, and then document all the success and challenges that come out of those facilities. This is a tremendous opportunity for Dr. Gandhi to be able to observe the entire Ontario medical association and gain knowledge about all Ontario physicians. “I am truly inspired by the group that we have, and I am truly inspired by our membership. It is their hard work, their dedication, and their commitment to their patients that have got us to where we are today” Gandhi said during his acceptance speech, “I also believe that if we stay united, we are starting to gain the influence, not just with the Government, but with the general public.” Dr. Sohail Gandhi is a very dedicated physician who loves his job, and he will do anything to keep every Ontario physician fully prepared for their patients. Here at Bay Haven Care Community, we would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Dr. Sohail Gandhi for becoming the first President of the Ontario Medical Association from our area. Congratulations Dr. Gandhi, you will do a phenomenal job!
A resident rediscovering her senses through the Snoezelen program.
Snoezelen is a form of non-directive therapy used for our sensory stimulation programs for residents who have cognitive dissonance. Discovered in the 1970’s by two Dutch therapists named Jan Hulsegge and Ad Verheul, their goal was to successfully increase enjoyment and relaxation by developing a new sensory experience for those with cognitive dissonance. The experiment was successful and received positive responses from both verbal and non-verbal patients.
The way to properly make a Snoezelen program work, a resident must be in a soothing and stimulating environment. The Snoezelen room is usually dark and contains lighting effects, colour, scent, sounds, texture, and music. Bay Haven has sensory equipment specifically designed to stimulate various senses to the residents. The residents at Bay Haven love our sensory music, videos, 1.5 metre Bubble Tube, and our cascade of fibre optics!
An advantage of Snoezelen therapy is that it does not rely heavily on verbal communication and it is extremely beneficial for people with autism, as well as others who are not so cognitive. The beautiful aspect of Snoezelen is that it provides stimulation to those that found it mentally impossible to reach before. Snoezelen allows residents to reach those previously unattainable goals.
The Snoezelen environment and various equipment are effective because they implement the relaxation process, reducing residents’ physical and emotional anxiety, and pain. It aims to maximize a person’s potential to focus on his or her own self and to engage a motivational stimulus through objects or activities, ultimately improving their communication, functioning, and learning capabilities. All these beneficial factors are extraordinarily healthy for the residents, and that is exactly what Bay Haven wants to strive for.
Some of the most rewarding aspects for implementing Snoezelen at Bay Haven is that we get to witness residents who are not cognitive improving their overall senses, touch, and attentiveness. It is always nice to see improvement with our residents because that is the kind of high-quality care that we practice daily.
Bay Haven’s sensory stimulation program offers a great amount of sensory resources for our residents, and in order to provide the best quality care possible, we will continue to practice and improve on Snoezelen in order to provide the most satisfying and healthy results for our residents.
Marco Sanfilippo — Marketing Specialist/Recreation Assistant
A Recreation Assistant interacting with a resident.
I am always astonished to see how influential recreation activities can keep residents engaged. As someone who has recently joined the recreation team at Bay Haven Care Community, I am already beginning to see how activities such as Bingo, happy hour, musical performances, outings, and trivia games can enhance a resident’s overall experience at their retirement home. As a Recreation Assistant, it is my job to make residents happy and to enhance their quality of life as much as possible.
Here are 4 things I learned on my first week as a Recreation Assistant.
1. Interaction.
It is always important to keep this in mind as you provide your recreation activity. If you are providing a program for a group of 20 residents, it is important to always interact with each person individually as much as possible. You always want the residents to know that they are a crucial part of the activity that you are providing for them. The more interactive you are, the better.
2. Follow the 7 Dimensions of Well-being.
The seven dimensions of well-being is a holistic approach to programming that Bay Haven ensures to provide for their residents. The seven steps are:
Emotional: Coping with challenges and behaving in a trustworthy and respectful way. This creates emotional wellness and helps counsel stress, management, humour/laughter and personal stories.
Intellectual: Providing creative pursuits and intellectually stimulating activities is proven to keep minds alert and interested and it can slow down the process of Alzheimer’s and Dementia.
Physical: If you provide a physical program throughout the day, residents will feel better emotionally, as they will be releasing “feel good” endorphins from their body.
Vocational: It is important for everyone to have a purpose and feel needed with a specific goal in mind. This step is a great way for residents to be connected with the community!
Social: Social interactions with family, friends, and co-residents can be valuable to maintain good health for the residents.
Spiritual: Residents at Bay Haven can practice their own religious morals and faith. Living with a meaning and purpose of life is key to feeling a connection to the larger world.
Environmental: It is important for everyone to get outside whenever possible. If the weather is bad, we will bring the environmental programs inside.
These seven steps are a crucial part of being a Recreation Assistant. In order to provide life enrichment to all of our residents, a Recreation Assistant must always keep these seven steps in mind.
3. Create a variety of programs.
It is important to provide a variety of programs for the retirement home you are working for. Repetitive programs will make the residents lose interest. A variety of creative and interactive programs will be beneficial for the overall experience as a Recreation Assistant. Doing this will also alter the experience for your residents, making them happier and more interested in their daily activities. Always remember, keep an open-mind, use your creativity, and have fun!
4. Have fun and be patient.
Two of the most important steps of becoming a great Recreation Assistant is to make sure you always have fun, and to be patient. The beautiful part of this job is that you get to have fun with the residents! The variety of games, performances, activities and events that you will be hosting for the residents are enjoyable! However, you must be patient as well. The number one rule that every Recreation Assistant must know is that the residents always come first. If they need to do something urgent in the middle of your program, simply allow them to go. This is their home and their life; always understand that.
These are 4 things that I learned on my first week as a Recreation Assistant.
Marco Sanfilippo — Recreation Assistant/Marketing Specialist
