Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) hopes to pilot an adult day program at its Highland Wood long
term care home in Haliburton – just one measure following a fact-finding trip to the Netherlands to learn about innovative elder care there.
“This would better integrate our community with our homes,” CEO and president Veronica Nelson told a ‘future of
health care’ forum in Minden June 5.
McMaster University sponsored Nelson, Jennifer Burns West (chief nursing executive), and Irene Odell (HHHS board chair) to participate in the research trip. The cost was $7,500 with the remaining $2,352 charged to HHHS. Costs included flights, trains, buses, mileage, food, accommodations, and taxis.
They were accompanied by Dr. Sharon Kaasalainen, a McMaster professor and HHHS board member, and Fay Wilkinson, who spoke at last week’s meeting. In all, 30 people went.
Green care farms offer an innovative approach to elder care, particularly for individuals with dementia. The farms
provide a unique environment for older adults, enabling them to engage in activities such as feeding animals, gardening, or preparing meals, which can stimulate cognitive function and social interaction.
Nelson said the team came back enthusiastic about making aging, and long-term care, better locally, “even if it’s
incrementally better, and even with all of the regulations” in Ontario, and across Canada.
She noted they already have a “robust” adult day program at HHHS’ Minden site. She said it provides a structured, therapeutic and individualized program for adults living at home. She added it offers respite and support for caregivers.
With a pilot project for Highland Wood, Nelson said “this would integrate our community with our home. It would mean taking long-term care residents from Highland Wood and bringing them to the day program, integrating them with older adults from the community attending the day program.
“We learned that people admitted to a green care farm were required to have attended the daycare program before. That early participation enabled that smoother transition. They were already settled their first night of overnight. Sometimes they had a week or a couple of days’ trial before they actually decided, ‘okay, I’m gong to stay now for good’.” Nelson said.
“Imagine if we could get to a place where we included those waiting to come into our long-term care homes in our adult program, so they could have that transition too?”
She said they would work with their partners at Ontario Health at Home on the initiative.
The other focus of green care farms is the outdoors. “I don’t think I saw any resident in side any building, ever. It was incredible,” Nelson said. While the Canadian climate is more challenging, she added, “we can do better. I find our residents are inside most of the time.”
She said one thing they could do is unlock dining rooms only opened for meals to allow residents to use them. She noted the natural light and views of gardens. She said there were ways to ensure safety.
Nelson added they want residents to get outside all year-long. “We can bundle them up. We can maintain the spaces outdoors. They can actually sense winter, not just look at it from the inside. They can feel the crispness of the air on their skin, the wind on their cheeks, feel the sun warming them, watch the snowflakes fall on their nose and melt on their mittens.”
She also spoke to the importance of animals, noting Walkabout Farms brings miniature ponies to LTC and Snowflake Meadows, puppies, and therapeutic dogs. “But we can do better. Can we have pets living with our residents? Can we foster pets?” She pondered cats, bunnies or baby chicks.
Nelson said in Canada, a choice has been made to keep residents safe as opposed to allowing them quality of life.
She said while six of 10 people with dementia are at risk of getting lost, at the Netherlands homes, no doors or gates are locked, and people have GPS devices so staff can track and retrieve them safely. She said the residents have less responsive behaviour because of this freedom.
“We tend to put people in a building, and put measures in place because they’re misbehaving or getting agitated. If we open the doors, then maybe they wouldn’t be as agitated, and then they would sleep.” She added they rarely medicated residents in the green care farms they visited. She noted it is not a free-for-all, with the ability, as
dementia progresses, to control which doors open, and when.
Other ideas include more intergenerational programming, including a summer day camp for children of staff.
“So, here we go. Green care farms meet HHHS. We’re on. We’re gong to do it.”
