Why would you be willing to give up the comforts
of home at a certain age? How often do we find ourselves looking forward to crawling into
our own bed, or relaxing into our favorite chair, or joining with those we love around
the kitchen table? These things all seem even more important when we are ill, or feeling
vulnerable and especially if we are feeling alone. Renovating a facility into home can
help elders deal with these often-faced challenges.
The neighborhood and household models are designed to bring residents closer together
in a smaller, cozier environment than the standard long hall of bedrooms. Most
neighborhoods, or households, can accommodate 10 - 20 residents. Neighborhoods have their
own dining rooms and perhaps small kitchenettes. Households have their own dining room,
but also a functioning kitchen and living room. There are multiple households or
neighborhoods in a single facility. Facilities moving to these innovative models will
sometimes have a town center or main street for all the residents, including destinations
such as a movie theater, beauty salon, chapel and physical therapy spa.
One of the most rewarding renovations is the household kitchen. Set up much like a
home kitchen with standard appliances and cupboards, it is a place for activities, snacks
and one of the shining stars of culture change, the open breakfast. Usually, residents in
a traditional facility are awakened at a designated time to have whatever is prepared
that day for breakfast in their rooms or in a large centralized dining room. Open
breakfast in a household or neighborhood allows elders to decide when they want to eat,
what they want to eat and to come out into the small kitchen area to enjoy their meal.
"Open breakfast is our greatest accomplishment," espouses Brett Dewolf, Director of
Environmental services at Halcyon House. "[Under the previous model] staff was rushed and
the residents didn't like it either. So, now we have open dining times."
We've all heard, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day." For the elders at
Pennybyrn at Maryfield, where Rich Newman is Administrative President, the new morning
schedule sets the tone for the day. "Waking residents up and bringing them food in their
rooms was self-destructing," he said. "Now they come out and eat in the sunroom/solarium.
It's amazing how much they love doing the morning now and how much better they feel when
they are not woken up to eat and then go back to sleep."
Bathing rooms can also be uncomfortable with their institutional decor and bath lifts.
A team at Pennybyrn renovated their bathing room by adding towel racks, fish decorations
and heat lamps. At Halcyon House residents, staff and maintenence were presented with
choices for tubs, wallpaper, tile and paint. Everyone weighed in with their ideas of what
would make an ideal bathing room before it was redone. Residents at Perham Memorial
Hospital and Home even have the option of taking a shower.
When it came time to redo the living area at Halcyon House, residents were given a say
about what kind of furniture they wanted to see and were it would be placed. The
residents and staff at Pennybyrn moved furniture around to create more intimate spaces
within their living areas. It seems like a little thing, but a resident at Halcyon House,
suffering from dementia, had a rare lucid moment while visiting with her family in a
newly renovated room "It's just so nice to sit in a quiet room," she said.
Wireless paging systems with no overhead alarms, silent pagers at Halcyon House, and
medications kept in resident rooms instead of on a cart at Perham all help the staff do
their jobs efficiently. What's more, they take the institution out of the
facility, and replace it all with home.
Most of us are at our best at home. We can be ourselves, relax and feel safe. When a
facility becomes home, it becomes a place for everyone there to have a more fulfilling
life. Perhaps more importantly, it becomes a place to have good days again, and once in
awhile a place to enjoy a great day!
