Hi everyone, I'm from Australia and I've been in Aged care now for 2 yrs. I've been a "Home Maker" aka Care co-ordinator for about 3mths. Our facility caters for 100 high/low care residents and I have 40 of those residents on my floor, where I share the floor with another HomeMaker. We have 20 residents on each side. She "manages" her side and I have mine BUT we run our floor together. We need to start implementing "Community circles" where I bring my residents together sit around in a circle and we discuss their positive and negative concerns. My question is.... Has anyone else had experience doing this? Where would I begin? Any feed back is great, thank you Charlene
Molly
26th Sep 2018
Activity Professional & Writer
Hi Charlene, I've held a resident council, and it sounds like a community circle would be similar. Ours was held once a month, I would suggest inviting a number of your more talkative, and active residents to join. Follow through is important. For instance, in one resident council meeting, the majority of the residents complained that the soup choices (split pea and Italian wedding) were getting old, so we brought it to the dining staff, and they changed up the menu. After this win, our meetings became more productive and the residents felt more empowered. Oh, and I was just the facilitator in these meetings and took the notes we tried to encourage that it was a resident-led group.
I absolutely love this concept. In Leisure & Health we focus offering choice related to person-centered activities....... this should of course be extended to person-centered life. Why on earth do we still choose menu, furnishings, garden design. So much to be proposed in honoring choice across their entire social setting and empowering. Good onya, another great forum of thought and perspective.
In our Resident Council meeting we have a standing agenda of departmental updates from the homes leadership; nursing, environmental services, food service and recreation. Our residents love to discuss food and upcoming activities and their thoughts and ideas for improvement. One thing I like to do is have the residents choose a number between 1 and 27 to discuss one of our 27 Residents' Rights (in Ontario, Canada.) We then talk about the right and if the residents have any suggests for improvement or words of encouragement for the staff if they feel that the staff adhere to the right as outlined. This always sparks lots of interaction and participation.
I can't thank Golden Carers enough for all the ideas and tips being launched regularly. I am so glad I became a member of this site and can bring smiles and joy to my clients. Now more laughter and giggles will spread in the AIR!!
Our facility caters for 100 high/low care residents and I have 40 of those residents on my floor, where I share the floor with another HomeMaker. We have 20 residents on each side. She "manages" her side and I have mine BUT we run our floor together.
We need to start implementing "Community circles" where I bring my residents together sit around in a circle and we discuss their positive and negative concerns.
My question is....
Has anyone else had experience doing this?
Where would I begin?
Any feed back is great, thank you
Charlene
furnishings, garden design. So much to be proposed in honoring choice across their entire social setting and empowering. Good onya, another great forum of thought and perspective.
Thank you for sharing your comments