During this Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, we would like to share with you a bit about the Individuals we support.
Care supports approximately 25 Individuals diagnosed with Dementia. A few of those Individuals have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease. Care’s Designated Supportive Living facility in Grimshaw, Stone Brook, provides DLS3, DSL4 and DSL4D care.
What does that mean? DSL4D supports are for Individuals “with moderate to severe dementia, who may have a high risk of wandering and unpredictable behaviours but who are not a safety risk to themselves or others.” (AlbertaHealthServices.ca)
Stone Brook has 76 supportive living suites within six furnished cottages: Poppy Lane, Wilcox, Memory Lane, Mackenzie Cottage, Heritage Way and Lac Cardinal Cottage.
Poppy Lane is a locked unit and resident’s room are equipped with door alarms to ensure the safety of the Individuals.
This past fall, Stone Brook developed a Dementia Awareness campaign, creating posters explaining behaviours visitors might see when visiting the facility.
Learning about other people’s journey helps us come together as a community and care for those in need.
The Holiday Season came and went in what feels like a blink of an eye.
As we mentioned last month, a number of applications were received in November and we are happy to announce that there were two new hires at Stone Brook, three new hires in the Grande Prairie region and five in the Peace River/Grimshaw region.
Congratulations to Shae-Lynne Lepensee-Bryant who was promoted from Support Worker to Residential Coordinator in Peace River!
Get to know: Whitney, an Accounting Assistant at Care
My name is Whitney McCain, mother of 2 and married to the most amazing man I’ve ever met. I have a cat whose name is “M.” 6 years ago, my family moved to Grande Prairie from southeastern Ontario. I have always enjoyed providing care to others, and numbers (I love math.)
When I’m not knee deep in numbers, I’m playing with my kids or reading with a tea in hand. My goal since becoming a mother has been to raise kids that can show compassion towards others. I am so fortunate to have a place of employment where I get to see that same compassion every day.
I formerly worked in medical administrative positions before applying to work with Care Human Services. I was looking for a change in work environment, that would allow me to continue providing support to the public. I was hired as an accounting assistant, and given the opportunity to grow and learn, while still providing support to individuals in our community who are in need. Care Human Services has provided me with everything I was looking for and so much more. I am truly blessed to be a part of this amazing organization.
I was introduced to the accounting department at time of change, I have embraced the challenge and have worked very hard over the past few months.
If I were able to speak with the founding parents, I would say thank you. This organization is wonderful in all aspects. I feel energized when I come to work because I have the opportunity to share my day with my amazing colleagues and the individuals we care for.
Susie is a
resident of Stone Brook in Grimshaw and always has a smile to share with fellow
residents, visitors and staff.
Susie is ready
to lend a hand and help with any task, activity or event. You can see her
sitting at the front desk at Stone Brook, offering warm greetings to all. She is also in charge of sorting mail and feeding
the resident cats and fish.
When Susie
isn’t working, she likes to go for walks as well as shopping in town.
Her
favourite meal is hamburger and fries and her favourite cat at Stone Brook is
Smoky.
Thank-you
Susie for sharing a bit about yourself with everyone!
Care had a few hires in the month of November and welcomed
seven new members to the Care team!
There were three new additions to the DSL team at Stone
Brook in Grimshaw and three new support staff were hired in Grimshaw and Peace
River.
November also saw a number of applications come in so look
for more details in the December/January update.
Care was able to take part in a couple community fundraising
events this past month.
In Grande Prairie a mini tree was decorated for the Grande Prairie Regional Hospital Foundation’s annual Festival of Trees fundraiser and in Grimshaw and Peace River, Individuals and staff decorated two mini trees for the Grimshaw Library fundraiser.
Ok Alone is a lone worker app and safety monitor that has replaced Safety Line.
The app has been downloaded on the Care provided phone for each residence and/or Individual within the organization.
Getting started:
Your name and personal pin will be posted on ShareVision on the homepage of the Individual and/or residence pages.
Once logged in, the app will prompt you to ‘Start Shift’, click start shift.
How it works:
The app then notifies you when your next check in is due and at that time press ‘I’m Ok’. If you do need help, click ‘Help’ and your Residential Coordinator or Team Lead will be contacted immediately.
The ‘End Shift’ option is only applicable to a sleep shift but it is important to remember to start shift once the sleep shift ends.
If you ignore the ‘I’m Ok’ screen and do not respond, an alarm will go off.
Please do not send messages through the app. If you require further assistance, please contact your Residential Coordinator or Team Lead.
1 Support Services Manager was hired in Grande Prairie
October saw 9 internal referrals and two resulted in hires.
Congratulations to Cailey Schmidtke who was promoted to the
role of Residential Coordinator!
We would also like to welcome Jessica Corbin to the team who is taking on the role of Support Services Manager.
Get to know Jessica:
Jessica was born in Grande Prairie and since then has lived in Calgary, Edmonton and Australia. She has obtained her Bachelors Degree of Human Resources Management and has a passion for people and making a positive impact on those around her.
She grew up
as a dancer, starting at the age of three that lead to opening her own
community dance studio in Grande Cache.
Jessica is a
newlywed and has two dogs, Phillip and Bailey.
Most of her
spare time is spent enjoying time with family and her animals!
Though the month seemed to zoom by, Care did welcome new team members!
4 Support Workers hired in Grande Prairie
2 Health Care Aides hired at Stone Brook
1 LPN hired at Stone Brook
September saw 12 internal referrals and one referral from
August was hired.
As the Fall season begins, we are saying good-bye to our Human Resources Team Lead. Nichole Radersma has decided to grab life by the kilt and move to Scotland! We wish you the best of luck and hope that you packed a raincoat.
Stepping in will be Kristina Ferrier and Kylee Lefebvre. Kristina will be looking after Recruitment Performance Management and Kylee WCB, Employee Management and as well as taking care of updating our systems.
Get to know Kristina;
I have been with Care Human Services since February of this year. I was hired into Human Resources as a Recruitment Coordinator. I have a love for the ever-changing role of HR, and it shows. I moved from Southern Ontario in 2014 and made Grande Prairie my home. I enjoy living in the heart of the city with my boisterous dog Otis. I also love to travel, and usually Otis comes along for the ride.
And Kylee!
I was born and raised in Bonanza Alberta just outside of Dawson Creek. I moved to Grande Prairie to attend GPRC in 2014 and graduated from there with my Office Management Diploma. I have and amazing fiancé and two babies (dogs) Sadie and Baxter who are my absolute world! I have always wanted to get into Human Resources and could not think of a better organization and team to build my career with!
In order to provide the best care for Individuals receiving
CARE supports, we do all we can to better understand what Individuals are going
through and experiencing.
Some Individuals receiving CARE supports live with schizophrenia
described as “a long-term mental disorder of a type involving a breakdown in
the relation between thought, emotion, and behavior, leading to faulty
perception, inappropriate actions and feelings, withdrawal from reality and
personal relationships into fantasy and delusion, and a sense of mental
fragmentation”.
To help understand what that means, CARE team members take the Hearing Voices That Are Distressing Workshop – a simulated training experience as presented by Alberta Health Services’ CONNECT Community Support Team.
The Workshop is described as a “groundbreaking
empathy-building exercise which helps students, mental health professionals and
first responders understand the challenges and strengths of people who
experience psychosis.”
It was developed by Patricia Deegan who was diagnosed with schizophrenia when she was a teenager. She went on to get her B.S. and Ph.D. and is the creator of the CommonGround Program.
So, what is it?
Participants are given a set of headphones to wear and what
they hear are ‘distressing voices’. While having the voices play in their ears,
they are asked to complete simple tasks such as reading and comprehension or
putting together puzzles.
It is substantially harder for participants to concentrate
on the task at hand and can lead to feelings of frustration, distress, fear or
anger.
What is learned?
Participants leave with a better understanding of how hearing voices get in the way of day-today life.
Sometimes the voices relay negative messages and sometimes
the voices are sounds like humming or grinding. As explained in the workshop,
the voices can come from objects like windows or buildings or body parts. The
voices can resemble people the person knows, speak in a clear language or
mumble and not be understandable. Sometimes the voices whisper and sometimes
they yell.
Some voices engage in conversations while other voices
insist the person listen and obey orders given.
The voices can be triggered by anything and be heard
multiple times a day or just once.
What is also learned is that no two experiences are the
same.
In 1969, thePeace River and District Association for the Mentally Retarded organization registered under the Societies Act. It operated two schools and a dormitory called Sunshine House.
There were two classrooms in Falher and Cosmos School began
operation in Peace River.
After Falher formed its own organization and the Peace River
School Division took responsibility of running Cosmos School, Sunshine House
was turned into a group home and the Society began the task of re-identifying
its purpose.
The organization’s mandate changed in 1979 to include
physical disabilities. The
organization’s named was changed to reflect that, becoming the Peace River and District Association for
People with Special Needs.
Under the new name and mandate, the Independent Living
Skills Program was created, and Individual Program Plans were introduced.
Other programs followed such as the Language Development
Program and the Vocational Program.
As the
organization continued to grow and evolve. The General Service Plan was
established in January 1987 and in March of that year it was decided that the
organization’s name be changed to the North
Peace Community Living Society.
The
Society’s two major focuses now were education and housing. More programs were
added, and the Society developed businesses to serve as training and employment
centers.
In 2003 the
organization amalgamated with New Horizons and the Independent Living Society
creating Accredited Supportive Living
Society. This broadened our service area to include Grande Prairie.
Services
and programs continued to expand and in 2006 the organization changed from a
Society to an Incorporated Company: Accredited
Supportive Living Services Limited. ASLS
had 14 facilities in Grande Prairie, Le Crete, High Prairie,
Grimshaw and Peace River and provided supports through numerous programs;
Homeless Supports Program, Brain Injury Support Program, CAPCC Program, Family
Support Program, FASD Support/ P-CAP Programs, Designated Supportive Living
Program, Independent Living Program, Residential Supports Program and
Behavioural Supports Program.
Who we are now.
The organization changed its name in July 2019 to Care Human
Services Ltd.
Our CEO Rilla Websdale had this message to share:
We decided to take the opportunity of our 50th Anniversary of being a charity to roll out a new brand in 2019. Our new legal name will be Care Human Services Ltd.
We chose Care because it is a clear and simple statement of our values. We are compassionate and empathetic humans providing respectful and skilled support to the people we have been entrusted to provide care to, ensuring their needs are met in a way that fosters their growth, development, and meaningful community inclusion.
Our new logo speaks to what Care means to each of us. It is reminiscent of a tree, suggesting life and growth, being an integral part of the environment, and providing shelter. The circular shape suggests a gentle embrace, and the safe space we provide for Individuals to live and be supported. The upward projection of the arrows represents empowerment, and the success and growth we all aspire to witness in each Individual, and one another. And finally, the base of the logo speaks of the support that ensures a strong foundation for Individuals to flourish in their lives.
We have also taken this opportunity to update our existing Stone Brook brand, which is now better connected to the overall Care identity.
Thank you for being part of ASLS and your continued dedication, as we move into the next 50 years of providing empowered care to Individuals in Alberta.
August flew by and much like July saw some new hires.
Taking a
look back on August there were;
3
new Community Support Worker hires in Peace River and Grimshaw
1
new LPN hire at Stone Brook
There were
also 9 internal referrals this month.
HR spotlight: Anita Giesbrecht
We are welcoming back Anita to the Care team! Here is her story:
I started working for Care (ASLS) in June of 2016. I originally planned on working part time. That quickly changed to full time as I loved the new challenges I was facing.
I was a full time CSW and worked a lot of extra hours. I enjoyed being with the individuals we supported.
I saw the Saskatoon Lake property grow. A position of Supervisor opened up and I applied. My role of supervisor was very enjoyable and I enjoyed this for many months.
A position of Team Lead opened up and I took on the new challenge. Work was busy and again, so enjoyable.
In November of 2018 I made the hard decision to resign as my family needed me at home. Fast forward to June 2019 and the part time position of Food Support Worker came up. It was the perfect opportunity for me to ease back into work.
