Page 66 - Life Happens in the Kitchen

Page 60
The Range of Possibilities in Dining
Traditional LTC Facility
TRADITIONAL MODEL
Core Group–Steering Team
TRANSFORMATIONALMODEL
Permanent Care Teams
EARLY NEIGHBORHOOD
Cross-department, cross-functional care teams, everyone participating
MATURE NEIGHBORHOOD
Blended roles, versatile workers, everyone involved in giving care HOUSEHOLD MODEL
Millie is encouraged to get up by 6:30 in order to be in the dining room for breakfast at 7:30. She often is dressed and lined up in her wheelchair in the hall waiting for the dining room doors to open. Perhaps, because she’s cooperative, she’s actually gotten up at 5:30 by the night shift and falls asleep waiting in the hall!
Staff has found that Millie likes getting up by 6:30 if it means that she can feed her cat be- fore going to the dining room at 7:30. This has shortened her wait in the hall and she often has something to talk about to the others at breakfast. Staff has succeeded by helping Mil- lie enjoy her life within the efficiency model.
Millie gets up at 6:30 because of breakfast at 7:30. But, because one of her daily pleasures at home has always been to have her first cup of coffee in her pajamas, her caregivers have gone the extra mile to figure out how they can provide that to her daily. And it wasn’t an easy task – they had to come up with a coffee pot, find a safe place to keep it, work with dietary to get the coffee, and a staff member found a lovely cup, which also meant the caregivers washed it with hot water each day.
The neighborhood team discovered that Millie and others have different ideas about breakfast – what to eat, when to eat it. So, they met many times, studied regulations, determined resources available, worked with the dietician, dietary supervisor, and the other shifts. With the help of maintenance, they turned the nourishment station into a kitchenette. They figured out how to provide substantial snacks. Now Millie and her friends in the neighborhood have coffee, cold cereal, toast and hard-boiled eggs available and easily accessible to any elder upon request before and after their traditional breakfast in their decentralized dining room.
Millie’s (and everybody else’s) breakfast
is prepared to order, upon request by any
of the cross-trained staff. The refrigerator and cabinets are stocked with items known to be favorites of individual elders. Dishes (including Millie’s coffee cup) are washed in a dishwasher in the Green HouseTM or in households, and as a result, they all enjoy beautiful and colorful dishes, often of their own choosing.
Porch
Swing SeriesTM Culture Change Workbooks ©2004-2005 Action Pact, Inc.
Resident Choice
“Where are we now?”
“What resources do we need to move to our 3-month goal? What actions do we take?
“Where do we want to be in 3 months?”
“What resources do we need to move to our 1-year goal? What actions do we take?”
“Where do we want to be in 1 year?”