Message from the President/CEO
Each week the Life Enrichment staff assist a long term care resident to Face Time with her nephew who lives out of state. Though usually quiet, when she is Facetiming with her nephew she is talkative and smiling. For another resident, the staff start the morning by leading prayer and devotion for the resident before he is even out of bed as it helps his day start out right. A gentleman who has lived with Resthaven for several years helped pick out all the artwork and design the furniture layout for his room, as this fit with his personal preferences and his past history of working in the art world. One resident has his own activity schedule that the staff print out for him on a specific size paper and with his preferred font that he carries around with him every day so he knows what activities are happening. These are just a few of the everyday examples that exist throughout the Resthaven continuum of how the team members here truly live out the spirit of Person-Centered Care.
Though the term itself has become a bit of a buzz phrase over the past decade or two, PersonCentered Care, at its heart, is a model of providing meaningful individualized care and attention to each resident in response to their unique abilities, current needs, and past and current preferences.
We know from research that the better we understand someone’s past preferences, current abilities, and current needs the better we can care for them and make them comfortable. Resthaven has been very intentional in ensuring that each resident is known by the staff members who are honored to care for them. Whenever a new senior moves in, attention is given to learn and write the resident’s life story and this is shared with other team members so they can better know the resident. This helps us determine how to make dining and meal experiences more enjoyable, care more comfortable, and activities more meaningful.
Person-Centered Care is a philosophy and a mindset and at Resthaven it is implemented based on the knowledge that we are all created uniquely in the image of Christ. It is our goal as an organization and as individual team members to know each resident and adapt our methods to make them comfortable so that we can truly live out our mission as we have been called to do.
Deedre Vriesman
President/CEO