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Yee Hong Culture Change Coalition
My reflections as a participant by George Hoo Sue

Back in late 2011, I was invited by Amy Go, Executive Director of Yee Hong to participate in a study group. The group would be part of the PiDC Alliance ongoing research on changing the culture in dementia care, hence the name – Yee Hong Culture Change
Coalition. While we were waiting to start our first meeting in January 2012, Jenny Ploeg (research lead at Yee Hong) and I had a brief discussion on the timelines of this study and the Appreciative Inquiry method. I recall back then I was skeptical that it should take 5 years or more for some desired objectives to be implemented. I am coming from a corporate business background where results tend to be more important than processes.

On September 8 2014 the Huffington Post posted an article which featured one of our culture change coalitions - Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric care. Keep up the great work Yee Hong!

"Unable to communicate what's wrong and losing all freedom of movement is the stuff of nightmares and the reason that Yee Hong was established to provide culturally appropriate care for people who were unable to communicate their care needs in English language nursing homes. The isolation and fear accelerated their deterioration. Yee Hong not only has staff who speak several language including Chinese but three different types of kitchens, including woks and tandoori ovens -- all evidence of the resident-centred care that is more than a catch phrase. Staffing and resources are adjusted, even within the existing funding envelopes, to maximize attention for those who need it. And while they haven't solved entirely the puzzle of dementia care, at least they have a psychiatrist on staff -- a rarity among nursing homes."

-Susan Eng.

The full article see Canadian Healthcare Needs to Tackle Dementia 

The Yee Hong Culture Change Coalition had a busy meeting reading through all of the staff Discovery data. Great appreciative feedback was received. They also met with the recreational therapists to try to gain an understanding of how best to involve the residents in Discovery, they had some great ideas. More to come on this...

Today marks the start of an exciting part of the Discovery phase of the Culture Change process at Yee Hong - Markham.

Multi-lingual volunteers from Yee Hong will begin interviewing staff members at Yee Hong to Discover 'the best of what is' at this Long Term Care home in Markham, Ontario.  Most of the staff at Yee Hong are native Chinese speakers, so volunteers fluent in English, Mandarin, Cantonese and even a Hakka speaker are on hand to confidentially learn from staff members. 

At the July meeting of the Yee Hong Culture Change coalition, the group put the final touches on an interview and survey guide for staff at the Yee Hong Centre for Geriatric care in Markham.

The group has been working for months on identifying who they would like to target, and how, in order to gather positive stories about what works best at Yee Hong and to build on these strengths to improve dementia care for everyone involved. 

In the past two months, the Yee Hong Culture Change Coalition has been working hard and moving out of the first phase of the Appreciative Inquiry process, Dawning, and making plans for the second phase, Discovery.

At just over a year old, the Culture Change Coalition has recently welcomed a number of new faces.  We've been working, in the last few months to bring everyone up to speed.

Yee Hong’s Culture Change Coalition (CCC) members gathered together for an afternoon of discussion as they began the transition to Discovery, the second phase of Appreciative Inquiry process. In Discovery, many stories of positive experiences will be collected to determine the core factors that give life to Yee Hong.