One-to-one programming essential for residents with cognitive impairment
Wednesday December 19, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
Because many residents affected by cognitive impairment are unable to participate in group activities, meaningful one-to-one programming is a mainstay in many long-term care homes.

At Avalon Retirement Centre, a Jarlette Health Services-owned long-term care home in Orangeville, activity staff members try to ensure that every resident receives at least one program per week.

Over the past year, staff members have made one-to-one programming a core focus at the home. Early on, staff members looked at residents individually to see who was not receiving enough programming.

“We started trying to get specific information about what they liked to do, the best time of day (and) the best location for them to be in,” says Sarah Murray, Avalon’s activity director. “We made up very specific care plans for each of these residents.”

The result of this initiative was a schedule which is divided between staff members in the activity department. Each staff member is responsibility to make sure every resident needing one-to-one programming is visited at least once per week.

Having residents in need of one-to-one programming being assigned specific staff members to spend time with results in familiarity and trust for residents, Murray points out.

“Now that (staff members) know what programs do and don’t work, they visit residents and take whatever equipment they need and they can have a very meaningful visit,” says Murray.

One of the challenges with creating activities for residents with cognitive impairment is trying to gauge the success of the activity, notes Darlene Thibault, life enrichment co-ordinator at Almonte Country Haven, an OMNI Health Care-owned long-term care home near Ottawa.

A way to solve this, notes Thibault, is to monitor the resident to see if they’re becoming agitated during programming.

“If you start to see an escalation in behaviour, you know the program is not working,” says Thibault. “If you find behaviours are dissipating, then it’s a good indicator that whatever you are doing with them is working.”

Thibault stresses the importance of programming directed at residents with cognitive impairments. Earlier in the year, Almonte’s activity staff conducted a study seeking to find the benefits of programming on residents with cognitive impairments.

“In a three-week period the consistency in one-to-one programming with residents in our home, we found that behaviours had decreased immensely,” notes Thibault.