www.northwood.care
A Community Paper sharing the stories of the largest not-for-profit continuing care organization in Atlantic Canada FALL 2021
Volume 03, Issue 02
Living More – because of you! By: Faye LeBlanc
If you have ever given to the Northwood Foundation, you have helped people in the Northwood Community to live more. Helping people live their best by living more is what the Northwood Foundation is all about, but we can’t do it without our kind donors. Whether you give online, through the mail, support a foundation event, or create your own event for Northwood, your dedication to our Northwood Community is a true investment in caring for those who need it the most. Your donations support programs that give purpose to people we care for, and, purpose, is the greatest gift of all. This September is Dignity Month, where we fundraise in support of Northwood’s Dignified Living Fund. The Dignified Living Fund was started by staff who saw residents who were going without items that would allow them to live with dignity. For over 12 years, the Dignified Living Fund has been supporting quality of life for those receiving care in our Northwood Community. The Northwood Foundation usually hosts the Live More Walk each year to raise funds for dignity, but the pandemic has changed much about how we fundraise. Some things
Northwood Resident Fought Against Adversity to win Gold Page 3
Anni Isenor receives award for “Noise for Northwood” Page 4
may have changed, but there will always be a need to support people’s dignity. There are many ways you can support the Dignified Living Fund during September. Our main fundraiser will be an online auction called “Bidding for Dignity” that community sponsors and donors have fully embraced. With over 100 fantastic items to bid on, surely, you’ll be able to find something for that perfect someone or get ahead of your holiday shopping! It’s great to have the Departmental Teams at Northwood come together for dignity and donate baskets and special gifts for the online auction. Thank you to everyone who rallied to support this request! It’s been a tough time on many businesses during the pandemic, and we’d like to thank Nature’s Way and Novacorp Properties Group, for not only being community sponsors, but also for donating extra funds to purchase online auction items from local businesses. This is so humbling and supports both local businesses and the Dignified Living Fund. You can find the online auction, “Bidding for Dignity” on www.northwoodfoundation.ca to start bidding now!
Continuing Care Month
Day in the life Page 6
Page 10
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Halifax Volunteer Awards 2021
Northwood Volunteer receives award for years of Volunteer Work By: Crystal Jamieson
“I was thrilled and honoured when I received the notification, I had to read it a few times,” says Marion Lakenman, recipient of the Halifax 2021 Volunteer Award. “I do this for the love of the work,” she says, “but it’s nice to be rewarded once in a while.” Lakenman started her career as a registered nurse in the United States for 4 years after which she returned home to Nova Scotia. She worked 35 years at the IWK Health centre, 10 years as a staff nurse in Pediatric Intensive Care and the remainder of her career in management. During those years, she participated in fundraising campaigns for the Alzheimer’s Society and Brigadoon. She says, “I have
always loved nursing so volunteering at Northwood was just another way to do what I enjoy doing, helping others.” After a career of working with young people, she decided in her retirement years she wanted to work at the other end of the healthcare system, that’s when she started volunteering with Northwood. “It’s very lonely for a lot of them (the residents) they
Homemade Afghan donation from the Heart There’s nothing more welcoming and heartwarming than a homemade afghan and nine residents will be warming up with theirs thanks to Debbie Samson. Samson donated nine handmade afghans to residents of Northwood. The afghans were handmade by Phyllis Samson, her motherin-law, who made each one with love, care and attention. She lived in St. Peter’s Nova Scotia until she passed in 2013 and spent much of her life enjoying quilting, knitting,
crocheting and working with crafts. Samson’s mother lives on 4 Centre of the Halifax Campus and she has nothing but praise for the staff in that neighbourhood and their care of her mom. She would like to thank the entire Northwood team for their diligence during COVID 19 in keeping her mom and other residents safe and decided to gift the afghans to Northwood residents so they can enjoy them like a warm hug.
depend on others and look forward to the volunteers coming to talk to them and do activities with them,” says Lakenman. The volunteers serve an important role in the lives of residents providing more of a friendship, and one-on-one experience the healthcare staff are unable to provide while attending to the medical needs of their patients. “As a volunteer I have the ability to do things I couldn’t as a nurse,” says Lekenman, “I can take a resident and spend time with them shopping, sharing stories and when they ask for something I try to be there or get it for them.” She finds the pandemic has been hard for her because she misses seeing the residents. “They are frail, they just sit there, lonely, I miss being able to cheer
them up and spend time with them.” The part she loves the most about volunteering is seeing “that big smile” on their faces when she comes to visit. According to Lakenman, volunteers are appreciated by both the staff and residents, “I feel good after I leave,” she says, “the recreation department at Northwood is great and use me to my full capacity.” Lakenman also volunteers with a group that promotes and preserves the many historical and natural features of McNabs Island. The Red Cross as an emergency responder and with Friends of McNabs, a volunteer not-for-profit. “Being a volunteer is very rewarding,” Lakenman says, “Sometimes you feel like you need to accomplish big things, but it’s the little things that count.”
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Northwood Special Olympic Medalist
Northwood Resident Fought Against Adversity to win Gold By: Crystal Jamieson
With the Tokyo summer Olympics making headlines this summer, Northwood’s own Special Olympic medalist, Mary Jane Brantnall, attributes much of her success in life to her time as a Special Olympian. “Special Olympics has allowed me to develop more confidence in myself, more self-acceptance, everything I never thought I was,” says Brantnall, “Before the Olympics I had low self-esteem, hated people looking at me, hid my hands. Now, I don’t have to feel ashamed of who I am, Special Olympics has done that for me and many other people. Brantnall was born in British Columbia in 1967 to a Caucasian father and Indigenous mother. They were told she was born with Apert Syndrome, a rare genetic condition that presents as distinctive malformations of the skull, face, hands, and feet. She grew up in a hospital from the time she was born until she was a teenager. “I had over 100 surgeries on my body, mom was told I would never walk or talk or live past my fifth birthday but here I am at 54 years old.,” she says. Brantnall’s parents separated when she was threeyears-old, her mom left with her and her three sisters and two brothers. They had to move several times through her life, eventually ending up at the Gloosecap First Nation. She said teachers didn’t want to teach her because they didn’t know if she was teachable. At the age of 16 she quit school because she couldn’t handle the bullying anymore.
“People don’t understand what it’s like to grow up as a person with a disability. If it wasn’t for my mom and my family loving me, I don’t think I would be here right now,” she says, “I don’t understand why the bullies are not educated to accept kids who are different. Doesn’t matter if they are black, white, Asian, whatever nationality or disability.” She says she finds racism and hate are more widely expressed these days than when she was a kid. “I look in the news and see the stuff about George Floyd and then I see stuff about Asians and Indigenous people,” she says, “A human being is a human being regardless of size, what their face looks like, or hair looks like. They are still human beings; they have a heart. It’s cruelty and I don’t understand it.” Special Olympics, at first, was very scary for Brantnall and she wasn’t sure if she was fit for it. She was going to join first as a volunteer then decided to compete as an athlete for floor hockey. “I liked it and started competing in cross country skiing, track and field, bowling and shot put and won many medals,” she says. “The highest is from the world games in Anchorage Alaska where I won a gold, silver and a bronze for crosscountry skiing.” While living home with her mom she started working at Walmart. While working there and still doing Special Olympics she came home one day and smashed both of her knees on a cement step. “I thought I would not be able to walk again,” she recalls. “I was in my early 40’s
at that time. It was time for me to quit and look after my own health.” Brantnall’s mom passed away a year-ago and that along with being physically, mentally, and emotionally abused for 20 years led to a mental breakdown. Her sister, Crystal recognized that and got her the help she needed. “I got my strength from mom and grandmother,” she says. “They taught me how to be strong, be determined, to carry my voice, to be able to say what is on my mind without feeling guilty. If it wasn’t for them teaching me to be strong, I would be a passive person.” While working at Walmart she said a little kid who was lost said he liked her big fin-
ger because he could hold on to it, “he said, ‘I like you’ and I said, ‘I like you too bud’.” When kids ask questions, I tell them about it. “One day my niece was sucking her thumb and asked me what happened to mine, I told her I sucked on it so hard it blew up,” she said as she laughed, “When I tell them in that way, I want them to feel comfortable.” Brantnall has persevered through her disabilities making them abilities instead. One message she wants to send out to all kids is, “Only cowardly kids bully, if you take the time to learn, and get to know somebody with a disability or who is different you may find out you have a new friend.”
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Dr. Robert Strang Community Hero Award
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Publisher Northwood Communications Editor Crystal Jamieson Communications and Desktop Publishing Assistant Crystal Jamieson 902-454-3342 crystal.jamieson@nwood.ns.ca Printing Advocate Printing & Publishing Graphic Designer Vicki Hines Production Manager Vicki Hines
FOR ADVERTISING SALES CONTACT: publishers@metroguide.ca Tel. 902-420-9943 For more information, please contact Northwood Corporate Office, Suite 1 South, 130 Eileen Stubbs Ave., Dartmouth, NS B3B 2C4 902-425-2273 information@nwood.ns.ca www.northwood.care
Anni Isenor receives award for “Noise for Northwood” By: Crystal Jamieson (based on CBC interview)
Halifax resident Anni Isenor is one of twenty people in the province to receive the Dr. Robert Strang Community Hero Award for showing extra community support during the pandemic. The award is named after the province's Chief Medical Officer and is given to Nova Scotians who stand out for their community support during the pandemic. Winners were selected by a committee from over 179 applications, and each will recive one of Dr. Strang’s neckties in a glass frame. "I was speechless," said Isenor, when it came to receiving the award. "It wasn't anything I anticipated when I decided to start this." Isenor, a hair stylist and neighbour to the Northwood Halifax campus started a Facebook group called “Noise for Northwood”. "I just felt that Northwood was getting a real raw deal,” says Isenor. “Those people were going in there risking their lives, terrified and I just couldn't help but try to figure something out." She says the group started out to show appreciation for the staff of Northwood by asking the community to make as much noise as possible to show the staff and residents inside Northwood that the city cared about them. "I felt that making noise, as much noise as
we could at a shift change every weekend, could make them feel a bit better but little did I know it made a huge impact,” says Isenor, “There were people that were crying." Isenor also organized rallies, antique car shows and other special events to show support and boost morale for people living in Northwood. Isenor’s touched to receive the award but for her, it was about helping people and, in a small, way helping herself. "I felt that I was helping them and that's what I wanted to do." Anni has donated the Dr. Strang Community Hero award back to Northwood as a reminder that everything she did was to support the staff in a difficult time. “They are the real hero’s”
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GooGLe HoMes
smart home technology comes to northwood By: Crystal Jamieson
Northwood is getting SMART technology! Residents at Northwood are learning how to use SMART technology to regain their independence with simple, everyday tasks. Jackie Carter has lived at Northwood for over 20 years, “Northwood staff opened up my eyes to technology and have given me independence in my room,” she adds, “I turn around and ask Google any questions like, ‘What is the conversion of American dollars to Canadian?’ it will tell me, as well as weights (kilograms to pounds), any basic trivia you need to know.” Carter is a quadriplegic,
which means she has had to rely on others to help her with simple tasks for most of her life. She needed help turning on her TV, fan, lights and even adjusting her bed but now she can do
all of that for herself. “I no longer have to call for assistance, I am able to browse through the TV if I like and take my time, I am not in a hurry. I can make myself comfortable and
adjust my bed. All I need from staff is a drink and maybe some food once-in-awhile,” says Carter. “For the most part, I have freedom in my room and it’s all because of technology.” There is also the added benefit of being able to interact with their virtual assistant to play games, listen to music and even ask about the weather. “It’s almost like my new best friend, but don’t argue with Siri and Google at the same time, I did and one of them thought I was in trouble and called 911,” jokes Carter. With the addition of SMART technology, Northwood is making it possible for our residents to Live More!
trisHaw bikes coMe to nortHwood
northwood foundation Helps fund accessible bikes around the city with an added little treat of an ice cream.” Northwood has partnered The bike trip takes residents with Cycling Without Age to to The Public Gardens, The help seniors get back on biHalifax Waterfront, The cycles. This new program was Commons and other nearby funded by the Northwood Foun- popular locations. dation to help residents at our Volunteers are trained by Halifax and Bedford locations the Halifax Cycling Coalition to get out and enjoy the wind in on how to use the bikes, which their faces again. also have a backup motor to Northwood tenant, Charlotte help give the driver a break. Burns, loves going for rides on The best part of volunteering the Trishaw and reminiscing is enjoying the stories, the about her youth but her company and the joy of the favourite part of the ride, is residents who are always exited the free treat at the Lemonade to get out for a nice bike ride. General Store compliments of Booking a ride for Halifax the Northwood Foundation. and Bedford campus residents “I think everyone should take is as easy as picking up the chance to go for a bike ride, the phone. it is so fun and a nice little trip By: Crystal Jamieson
Book a Cycling Without Age ride! Halifax
Bedford
Wednesdays between 1:30-3:30 and 5:30-7pm Fridays between 1:30 and 3:30
Tuesday between 1:30-3:30 and 5:30-7pm Thursday between 1:30 and 3:30
Call 902-454-3353 for booking
Call 902-407-8550 for booking
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Continuing Care Month time to formally recognize CEO, Northwood Group of Companies the contributions of staff and volunteers across the Continuing Care Month organization who work every is celebrated each year day to improve quality of in October, this year’s life and quality of care for Continuing Care Month individuals who rely on theme is Continuing Care: our support. Your Home, Our Passion. The For more than 50 years, theme reflects the underlying the team at Northwood has message that, every day been supporting the pursuit in Nova Scotia people who of our vision and mission. work and volunteer in The global pandemic has continuing care are making made our work especially a remarkable difference in challenging, however, our the lives of people in their specialty is responding to communities. challenges and creating “Every individual who magic. I saw evidence of works or volunteers at this every day during the Northwood plays a part in pandemic and as we begin supporting individuals to to see evidence of what the LIVE MORE in the place new normal will look like, they can call home. Every I see a new kind of passion year, Northwood takes this emerging. By: Janet Simm
Our focus has always been to help people maximize their independence, promote their health and well-being, sustain or enhance their quality of life, and support families to meet the ongoing care needs of their loved ones. While we all have suffered greatly and have faced challenges that we could not have imagined less than 2 years ago, the renewed energy that has begun to emerge is incredible. There is a renewed passion for looking at new ways to support our clients, tenants and residents. You will see some wonderful examples in this edition of this newspaper and in the months to come.
While COVID-19 slowed us down, it did not defeat us. In fact, it gave us further evidence that we can do anything we put our minds to. We have undergone many changes as we strive to meet the changing needs of our residents and make improvements to assist us in attaining our mission during these very challenging times…. A huge thank you to our staff and volunteers who continue to embrace any opportunity to support our clients to LIVE MORE.
October 1 – October 31, 2021 By: Cheryl King
October marks Continuing Care Month in Nova Scotia. It is a time to recognize our Northwood Staff for the care and support they provide to the residents and clients we serve. October 11 – 15 will highlight CCA Week. This week highlights the dedication and commitment of all CCAs and shows how this is a growing field in our healthcare industry. This year’s Continuing Care Month theme is Continuing Care: Your Home, Our Passion. The theme reflects the underlying message that every day in Nova Scotia, the people who work and volunteer in continuing care are making a remarkable difference in the lives of people of all ages who need care and support in their homes
and communities. It also highlights that Continuing Care providers consistently go above and beyond to meet the unique needs of clients and ensure the highest quality of care. As per previous years,
Northwood will be celebrating our employees for their contributions in providing care to the residents in our Long-Term Care facilities as well as the clients we serve in the community. Keep an eye
on the Northwood Hub for further information and details for our plans to celebrate Continuing Care month with YOU - our valued health care professionals.
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Long-Term service Awards
Northwood Honours Employees Receiving Long Service Awards Long Term Care Nursing Services – Halifax Campus
10 Years Rosalyn MacAulay Tigist Kassa Betelhem Kassa Susmy Thomas Helen Corbett Kimberley McPhee Ventina Allison Shawn Element
15 Years Kyle MacPherson Susan Butler Angela Strong Connie Khon Yee Hamer-Ng Clare Kotchea Dianna Cooper 20 Years Joanne Hart Cassandra Smith Natasha Malloy Joanne Deviller Charlotte Johnson 30 Years Connie Tupper Donna Currie Maria Burgess Debra Bradley 35 Years Joy Feltmate Barbara MacKinnon Margaret Mahoney
Recreation Therapy – Halifax Campus 10 Years Kathryn Martin
35 Years Nathalie McJannet
Food & Nutrition Services – Halifax Campus 10 Years Robert McCormack
15 Years Shannon MacEwan Smith 20 Years Verna Clarke Danielle Patterson 25 Years Dorothy Paris 30 Years Elzbieta Wesecka 35 Years Keith Johnson 40 Years Marilyn Maskell
Environmental Services – Halifax Campus 20 Years Darren Melanson Arthur Davies 25 Years Lisa Vassos Janet Pellerine
Jamie Chiasson Carolyn Albert Allison Tingley Sylvia Valdebenito Lisa Poirier Meagan McIntosh Megan Oickle Nicole Chenell Corazon Murphy Catrina Crouse
Support Services – Bedford Campus 10 Years Denise Duchesne Stephanie Edgar
PROGRAM SUPPORT Financial Services
25 Years Amanda Lowe Tina Solberg
Physical Plant 15 Years Cory Clayton
HOMECARE Adult Day
30 Years Scott Mombourquette
25 Year Rita Buchanan
40 Years Elsie Richard Billy Barrett
30 Years Carla Hajnal
Staffing Resources 10 Years Kerri Rayner
Nursing Services Bedford Campus 10 Years Jennifer Murphy Lori Adair-Nichol Helen Nicol Merinissa Matulac Margaret Leveck Elizabeth Parker Leslie Reid Amy MacLellan
InTouch 20 Years Tisha White 25 Years Joann Campbell
Administrative Support 25 Years Helen Barkhouse
Software Support 20 Years Marie Ida Denyes
Client Care 25 Years Jill Latta
Home Support 10 Years Samantha James Gail Smith Elaine Welsh Paula Isenor Shannon Bernard Dawn White Steven Lemoine Paula Hanrahan Amanda Damery Felicia Boutilier David Cort Samantha Borgal Michelle Carey-Wile Christa Hamilton Kimberley Naugle-Lutz Elaine Latta Louise Champagne-Tanner Ashley Carson Garrett Gray Melanie Sansom 15 Years Patricia Dunn Barbara Bartlett Trina Morris Lucy Sullivan-Warwick Tara Beaver Sher MacPhee Tara Matheson Patricia Latter Dianne French Shirley Lydiard 25 Years Denise Keddy Betty LeClair Patricia Sweeney Elaine Aalders Julie DeCoste Kelly Baker Elaine Mosher Pamela Hicks
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Long-Term Service Award recipients Margaret Mahoney Margaret has worked in long-term care with Northwood for 35 years. She says growing up, one of her gifts was always looking after people so she decided to make it into a career. For her, Northwood seemed like the best fit, so she pursued a job here and hasn’t looked back. Margaret’s favorite part of her job is spending time with the residents. She enjoys encouraging them as well as bringing them treats and joy. She found it special to be there to help them through the Covid-19 pandemic, a time when the residents really had no one else around to support them. “Overall, the residents, the staff and the support system at Northwood has been very good to me and I have always been happy going to work”. Margaret is very family oriented and has been taking in international students into her home for 15 years. She enjoys taking them sightseeing and learning about their culture and values. Debra Bradley I have worked in long-term care with
Northwood for 30 years now, I originally came to Northwood for the paycheck to help me take care of my family. However, after time and making so many friends, I realized the community here at Northwood was the perfect fit for me. I enjoy working with the elderly and experiencing something different each day. The residents always teach and educate me on things, which has made me a better person. I like to laugh and carry on; enjoy a glass of wine and I believe family is most important. All I wanted when I started at Northwood was enough to support my family, pay rent and buy food and a car. Northwood took a chance on me when I was young and 30 years later, I’m still here. Helen Barkhouse In 1995, I was working in Administration at a large Construction Equipment Sales and Rental company. Due to restructuring in the company, I found myself unemployed. Within a few months, at the age of 49, I was registered to take a course at The
Learning Edge to become a Home Support Worker. I was surprised and excited to be “back in school”. Upon completion of the course, I was hired immediately by Home Support Central in Windsor. After two or three years in the field as a home support worker, a secretarial position became available in the administrative office at Home Support Central, so I went in the office to work. I found it an asset to have the background of a hands on HSW while working in the office. Soon we merged with Northwood Homecare in the HRM area under the
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and why they love Northwood Northwood name. We moved from Windsor to Bedford and eventually to Burnside. Northwood provided Homecare to most of Central Nova Scotia. One of the first big projects we entered was application for accreditation for Northwood. I was on the Accreditation Team! This was to be one of the highlights of my time at Northwood. Presently Northwood displays a plaque on the wall which says, “Accreditation with Exemplary Standing”. So Proud. When I turned 65 Northwood gave me the option to work part-time. It doesn’t get much better! That allowed me to still be a big part of Northwood and have more time for my family, my community work, and my sewing. My sewing skills came in handy when Covid 19 arrived. I was able to assist with the project of
having volunteers sew masks and gowns for our workers and clients. I’m not sure I can pinpoint any one thing that is most interesting about my job, or even what motivates me, but there must be something, I’m still here. I love my job at Northwood. I think of myself as an Ambassador for Northwood. I have seen many changes of staff, leadership, and processes. Northwood just keeps growing and growing and growing and I like being a part of that. Thank you, Northwood. Lisa Vassos I started working for Northwood in 1996 as a Laundry Aid and later on as a Housekeeper. During those years I served on the Smart Committee, Unifor Union Shop Steward and on the Union Executive as a Recording Secretary.
Port Elgin Ontario where I completed a forty-hour course. I enjoy working at Northwood for job security, along with the interaction and opportunity of working with the Residents that reside here, which I have always maintained is my favorite reason for working here. I have met some wonderful co-workers and kind people over the years. It's a privilege overall to work with an organization where respect, kindness and dignity have been three main I have many skills and I am ingredients. I have used this proficient in working with in my daily survival, and I computers, smartphones am looking forward to my and tablets etc. Through long-time commitment to the our staff education I have organization that has helped completed several courses me grow into the person I am including a Microsoft Works today. In these ever changing and Excel and Essential and challenging times as the Skills Course. I was also world is persevering through sent by the Union on an the Covid Pandemic, and so Information Technology and many hardships, it's great to Communications Course in have a supportive employer.
“Get out the Vote!” By: Lynn Eyland
All this election talk brings me back to 1980 when I volunteered to "Get out the vote" when Alexa McDonagh was running federally for the NDP party. They put me on the phones to find out about the voter turn-out in our area. The first call I made was to one of our seniors, when I told him who I was working with, he actually yelled at me. He was spurting out things like, "I didn't fight hard for this country, in WWII and Korea to vote in a bunch of socialists!" then he abruptly hung up. This job wasn't a walk in the park, I wondered if my twenty-year-old mind could handle this, but I went on and the other calls were less opinionated. The next job they asked me to do was
on election day going door to door, asking if they are planning on voting. At one address I went to, I said "I am working for the NDP party, and I would like to see if you are planning to vote?” I found a young lady, about 23 or so, with a toddler in her arms. I asked her the question and she said "Well, I don't have a way to get there, in fact I don't know where to go!" I was driving my little manual Spitfire car and I asked her name, it was Mandy, and her young daughter's name was Erica. I told her that I would drive her and the baby to the polling station, where she could vote. She asked me "What do I do? Should I vote for who you are working for?" I said "No, you vote for who you want to." She voted, and I took them home. My Aunt Nora always said the same
thing to people who would comment "I'm not voting, they’re all crooks," she would say, "Just pick your favourite crook and vote for them!" Nora was the wisest woman I ever knew. JUST VOTE!!!!!!
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Day in the Life
A Day in the Life of a Northwood Homecare CCA By: Crystal Jamieson
With a knock on the door and a friendly “Hello,” Melissa Pearce, a CCA with Northwood Homecare, starts her day. “When I got this job, I thought for sure I would be working in a nursing home, “says Pearce, “but I really like the fact that with homecare you are around the city all the time meeting a tonne of different people, driving place to place, always something different and I never get bored.” This morning she starts her day with Trevor, a newer client who is unable to move about on his own. Her first task, getting him some breakfast while they chat about music and the latest news. “Getting into homecare for me was… well I wanted a career that was going to last a little while and be stable,” says Pearce, “I also, obviously, wanted a career that would work with people, something that had flexible hours so hopefully someday when I have a family it will be easy to work around.” After breakfast, Pearce helps Trevor get ready for the day by getting him some warm water to wash up with and his toothbrush to brush his teeth. She grabs his laundry from the dryer to give him a clean shirt and continues to fold his laundry. “I am a master at folding fitted sheets,” she adds with a chuckle while Trevor uses his smart home technology to play his favourite music, Pearl Jam. His flashing light show around his room makes you feel like you are at a night club. “This is how we start our day; I got his day started and he will have other CCA’s show up to help him through the day,” says Pearce. She checks to see if he needs anything else then says goodbye and it’s off to another client. “You are left on your own, not part of a team so you have to be very responsible, and you have to kind of know your limits and when you have to reach out,” says Pearce. “If you like being independent and helping others, it’s the perfect job.” Pearce says in homecare there really
is no average day but typically in the mornings you are getting people up for the day, helping them get ready which can include personal care, showers, sponge bath (depending on their situation), bringing them their breakfast and making sure they have a meal for lunch if needed. Around lunch time they cook lunches for everyone. Some of the later risers get up around lunch time so they help them start their day and, in the evenings, they are cooking supper and cleaning. At nighttime tuck them in and get them anything they may need throughout the night. “It can be anything, just imagine what your day includes and what you need to get done and you just help them with those activities whether it’s just sweeping a floor or cooking a meal,” says Pearce, “sometimes they just want to sit and chat and that’s really nice.” You can also get respite care sometimes where you spend time with a client while their family goes out so they can have a break. “You are just meeting them at their day and unfortunately they are in a lot of circumstances where they need help with things, so you just try to make
their day better,” adds Pearce. Pearce loves her job as a CCA so much she has decided that she would like to further her education and become an LPN. “I love my job, I love working in homecare, but I recently went through some health issues of my own that were pretty serious, and it reset my mind a little bit and gave me that drive,” says Pearce, “I definitely decided that I want to go into nursing and there are so many different options with Northwood. I just spoke to my supervisor and found out we offer bursaries if you are looking to upgrade to your LPN. There is such a need for it right now and if you have two years of CCA you don’t have to do that much more for your LPN.” Pearce notes the need for healthcare workers is very high and if you have two years of CCA that reduces the time it takes to become an LPN. She loves her job and plans to continue adding to her education so she can help others. “To me when you get into healthcare you learn so much and there is so much more you want to learn so it only makes sense to just keep going, I will probably die a student.”
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Northwood Foundation - The Dignity Fund
The Dignity fund helps those in Need Ted
the community who needed help. The Northwood Foundation is thrilled to be able to support his needs through The Dignified Living Fund. Thank you to all the donors for making this possible.
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Lynn Eyland studied art in Edmonton and then went on to enjoy a successful artistic career. She was 17 years old when she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Despite the difficulties and limitations this disease has imposed on Lynn, her enjoyment and desire to share her art continues. Lynn lives in Northwood Manor, and we’re proud to display her art to our community.
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Compression Socks Computer Knee Brace
IPad
Ted needed expensive motor repairs and a new battery for his wheelchair, it has close to 11,000 km on it from all the travelling he does. The Dignified Living Fund helped Ted with these repairs so he could get back on the road. “This was a big item which I didn’t expect but I have known of many people who have been helped by The Dignified Living Fund, a good example is one lady needed a toaster, she couldn’t make her toast in the morning, so I said why not ask your supervisor. Within an hour and a half, she had a new toaster. Ted has been a home care client with Northwood for over 22 years. Before he lost the ability to move about, he was helping children and families in
Bed Alarm
Foot Care Eye Exams
for Supporting Northwood's Dignified Living Fund
THANK YOU THANK YOU
12 | Northwood | FALL 2021
www.northwood.care
what’s Happening in the northwood foundation? Did you know September 12th is Grandparent’s Day? Our friends at Freeman’s Pizza in Fairview are donating $5 from each large pizza ordered that day, in support of The Dignified Living Fund!
2nd Annual John Gracie Christmas
Other organizations have embraced Dignity Month by hosting their own in-house fundraiser to donate to The Dignified Living Fund as well. watcH for: Holiday Magic 2021
Alzheimer; 30p2.999; 27.999al; Black; 191609 Living with Dementia? We can help.
1-800-611-6345 alzheimer@asns.ca www.alzheimer.ca/ns
191609