Come Alive: Shifting the Culture of Care in Long-Term Care Homes
How can we shift the culture of care by uplifting the perspectives of people living in care homes, creating space for them to shape the future of their care?
Working collaboratively with people living in care homes, their families, and staff, we co-facilitated the Come Alive culture change initiative with Vancouver Coastal Health through an emergent and collaborative process starting in 2018. This initiative explored ways in which participatory design methods can amplify the voices of people in care and their loved ones in order to drive organizational change.
Engagement Approach
This project began by bringing to light the rich stories, experiences, and aspirations of people living in long-term care. Through co-creative workshops, people in care homes were reconnected with their personal histories, current lived experiences, and their desires for their future. Through workshops in 10 homes, conversations with residents focused around two key questions: What does good care look like to you? and What is important to you?.
The responses were grouped into 5 themes:
- A Sense of Purpose
- Relationships and Conversations
- Recognizing and Supporting Resident Abilities
- Individual Needs and Care
- Flexible and Spontaneous Care
In order to increase dialogue around these priorities within VCH LTC homes, a set of short animated videos was created, narrated by residents. Watch the videos here.
In October 2019, these videos were shared with VCH staff in a 100+ person workshop as part of a large scale strategy for knowledge mobilization. Shortly thereafter, the project had to pivot due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March 2020, the pandemic brought many challenges to long-term care, dramatically impacting visitation and socialization; therefore, our collaboration shifted to address this immediate challenge. Our team worked to support this community by creating an avenue for families to generate and share ideas about how to connect with loved ones living in care homes. In September 2020, Vancouver Coastal Health teamed up with the Health Design Lab at Emily Carr University of Art and Design to hold three Zoom workshops inviting family members of people living in long-term care homes to join us in coming up with as many ideas as possible for how to connect. The ideas, collected from over 40 families, were collated into a resource to inspire and support other to connect.
Knowledge Sharing
Videos: Culture of Care: Voices We Heard
Resource: Ideas for Connecting: Connecting with loved ones living in long-term care
News Story: Helping Loved Ones Stay Connected During Disconnected Times
Article: Scaling Participatory Methods for Cultural Change in Long Term Care Homes
Project Collaborators
Partner:
Vancouver Coastal Health
Funder:
Vancouver Coastal Health
HDL Project Team:
Caylee Raber
Lisa Boulton
Nadia Beyzaei
Vannysha Chang
Morgan Martino
Ajra Doobenen
Laura Escueta
Eliza Rose
Garima Sood
Jean Chisholm
Nandita Ratan
Timeline:
Sep 2018 – Oct 2021
