Culture Change in a dementia-specific care context:
Jennifer Beninato, Corinne Chiasson and Jodie Rennie with data about what works best at Bloomington Cove
Bloomington Cove Specialty Care is a 112 bed long-term-care (LTC) home in Whitchurch-Stouffville Ontario and one of the four PiDC Alliance Culture Change sites. Bloomington Cove is one of very few LTC settings in Ontario that focuses exclusively on care for persons living with dementia. This culture change coalition has recently re-named themselves “Partnering Together for Change”.
Like the PiDC Alliance’s other three sites, this group has a diverse membership, including front line staff and management from a broad array of departments and shifts, family partners in care, and a volunteer. The Partnering Together for Change group has used creative, arts-based approaches to include the voices of their residents throughout the project. The group has been hard at work for nearly 18 months and has just completed Discovery, the second phase of the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) journey.
After having spent the better part of the year collecting data, positive stories and experiences from as many members of the Bloomington Cove community as possible, and working together to analyze this data, the Partnering Together for Change team has recently entered the third phase of the AI process, Dream. By reflecting on the data from Discovery phase, the team is collaborating to imagine an ideal future for Bloomington Cove and create aspiration statements that reflect that future.
Notable Events at Bloomington Cove (BC)
In February 2013, Jennifer Beninato — a Partnering Together for Change team member and BC staffer — presented alongside PiDC Alliance researchers at the Ontario Long Term Care Association Education Day event in Toronto. Jennifer shared Bloomington Cove’s experience with the culture change process so far.