Workshops bring out the best in long-term care
‘Decentralization process’ is working
Monday March 31, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
PETERBOROUGH, Ont. – The Four Counties Palliative Care Network’s five yearly workshops are successful on many levels, said attendees at a recent network event.

The workshop, entitled “A Passport to Clinical Skills for Palliative Care,” included information covering aspects of palliative care such as wound care, holistic approaches and pain assessments.

The goal of the workshop was to increase practical palliative care knowledge and to share best practices in pain-and-symptom management. The event was held March 20 at the Rock Haven Motor Hotel in Peterborough and was sponsored health-care supplier Smith & Nephew.

Attendees were engaged in discussions about the different subjects from professionals in the sector at eight information tables set up in one of the hotel’s conference rooms. Each attendee was given a “passport” that was signed by each of the eight the instructors upon completion of each session.

Mary Anne Greco, the administrator at OMNI Health Care-owned Riverview Manor in Peterborough said a major benefit of these workshops is that they decentralize the work of the Central East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN).

“Within the Central East LHIN there’s a focus on the seamless approach to quality care for residents and pain-and-symptom management, and (through the workshops) we’re getting out what their mandate is and we’re bringing it to the people who are dealing with these issues on a day-to-day basis,” she said.

“The whole decentralization process is (working). We’re seeing it, we’re living it, it’s manifesting and for long-term care to be on that cutting edge is essential to our development.”

Greco, who sits on the network’s steering committee, added that interest in the recent workshop swelled from 30 people, who initially registered, to 100 people who were in attendance.

This, she said, is evidence of long-term care providers within the network catching onto the decentralized model of discovering best practices.

“Everyone is coming together and looking at things in a holistic and comprehensive fashion and we’re all sharing our practices in the goal to attain best practices and implement those throughout all four counties,” she said.

Gloria Crowley, compliance adviser for the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, said she was impressed with the way the network integrates area long-term care homes to foster best practices in long-term care.

“I think anytime you can get everyone together from all the long-term care homes (in a region) to share their ideas and their best practices and their thoughts and ideas on pain-and-symptom management it’s a bonus,” she says

Another benefit of the workshops is that they bring out a lot of frontline workers and engage them in sharing best practices. This, notes Barb Bremner, envelopes everyone in the process and brings in new ideas.

“(The workshops) are a great place for everyone to get information,” said Bremner, a pharmacist consultant for health-care supplier Medical Pharmacies.

The Four Counties Palliative Care Network holds five workshops annually to discuss best practices in palliative care in long-term care homes. The network consists of representatives from long-term care homes in Peterborough, Haliburton, Northumberland and Kawartha Lakes counties.

If you have a story you would like to share about long-term care homes working together, please contact deron(at)axiomnews.ca.

If you have feedback on this story, please call the newsroom at (800) 294-0051 or e-mail deron(at)axiomnews.ca.