Tuesday, October 9, 2012
The Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric Care in Markham is a Long Term Care (LTC) home for approximately 200 adults, primarily of Chinese and Asian descent. This home is working through the Dawning Phase of the Appreciative Inquiry process and is working on maintaining and building existing Authentic Partnerships.
At their October meeting, older and new members of the Yee Hong Culture Change Coalition (CCC) shared a meal together. CCC members, including: front line staff; management; and family members of individuals living with dementia discussed the Dawning process at the Yee Hong CCC thus far.
The group began with 'Icebreaker' exercises in which individuals learned more about the interests and roles of fellow CCC members. These were followed by a reflective group activity in which CCC members talked about what contributions they felt they individually could make to the CCC. This exercise reinforced to members that their experiences and personal knowledge has enormous value in terms of effecting positive culture change at Yee Hong. Some of these exercises and a further explanation of the process can be found in the Partnerships in Dementia Care Toolkit.
At the end of the meeting, the CCC members reaffirmed their goals to continue to see how they might: take a role in culture change; live and work with a courageous, positive attitude; and continue to work towards even stronger relationship building.
The next CCC meeting for Yee Hong will take place in early November.