Alternative to community living for seniors

Times Contributor     

 

The community is getting older, the baby boomers are becoming our senior residents and facilities are filling up quickly. Our seniors need to know that there are choices for assisted living and other opportunities for care in the communities in which they live.

Meadowlark Care Home in Strathmore has adopted a philosophy of taking care of seniors in every capacity of their life. Debbie Wakelam has been running her home in Strathmore for a number of years now and says that there is a huge difference in assisted living and care. The senior is treated with the highest respect despite their age or level of ability. The family-friendly atmosphere at Meadowlark allows residents to participate in as much or as little as they want. The staff and residents are ‘family’ together working in the home to make it a safe, warm and inviting place to live. Wakelam says that part of their mission to the residents every day is asking the question “how can I help you today to make it just right for you?”

Personal Health Care Assistant Veronica has seen both ends of the spectrum in the care of seniors. She has experienced the large group setting of a care facility and the smaller scale of living in a family environment. While there is a need for both, she recognizes the difference comes not in the hours of work but the kind of work that the hours encompass. Her days are filled with building relationships with the residents at Meadowlark. The personal one-on-one time with six residents currently allows the staff to make those relationships meaningful and worthwhile. The relaxed atmosphere of participating in making meals together, eating together, baking together, gardening together, crafting together, house chores and visiting with one another is recognized in the responses of the residents. There is a reciprocal relationship between staff and residents.

Wakelam says they try to follow the Eden Philosophy of care, which abides by 10 philosophies and include the following principles. The ten Eden philosophies of care include:

1. The three plagues of loneliness, helplessness, and boredom account for the bulk of suffering among our elders.

2. An elder-centered community commits to creating a human habitat where life revolves around close and continuing contact with plants, animals, and children. It is these relationships that provide the young and old alike with a pathway to a life worth living.

3. Loving companionship is the antidote to loneliness. Elders deserve easy access to human and animal companionship.

4. An elder-centered community creates opportunity to give as well as receive care. This is the antidote to helplessness.

5. An elder-centered community imbues daily life with variety and spontaneity by creating an environment in which unexpected and unpredictable interactions and happenings can take place. This is the antidote to boredom.

6. Meaningless activity corrodes the human spirit. The opportunity to do things that we find meaningful is essential to human health.

7. Medical treatment should be the servant of genuine human caring, never its master.

8. An elder-centered community honours its elders by de-emphasizing top-down bureaucratic authority, seeking instead to place the maximum possible decision-making authority into the hands of the elders or into the hands of those closest to them.

9. Creating an elder-centered community is a never-ending process. Human growth must never be separated from human life.

10. Wise leadership is the lifeblood of any struggle against the three plagues. For it, there can be no substitute. [from Providence Health Care]

What are the defining characteristics of a Meadowlark Care in Strathmore?

While these defining characteristics aren’t from other types of supportive living options, always a true definition of every care home, they do serve to distinguish their care and assisted living housing.

1. Participatory activities each day that keeps one active and feeling useful

2. Shared ‘family-like setting’ at mealtimes helps to keep people talking to one another, discussions of current events & awareness of significant events in each other’s lives.

 3. Personal care assistants are able to provide more individualized care to meet elders changing needs.

 4. Connections with pets, children and community that help keep boredom and loneliness away. In one particular instance, for example, one staff member brings her three-year-old daughter to work occasionally; Haileigh, helps with crafts meals and the seniors absolutely love her as much as she loves them.

The Meadowlark Care Home can hold a resident capacity of nine and currently sits with six residents. For more information or inquiries please call Debbie Wakelam at 403-934-5294 or check out their website at www.meadowlarkcare.com.