RegencyCare care philosophy acknowledged
Monday, July 4, 2005 -- Craig Anderson
Recent, intensive work by RegencyCare staff and administrators was officially acknowledged yesterday with the three-year accreditation of 12 of their long-term care homes by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation.

“We’re really excited,” says Elaine Wood, manager of sales and marketing, adding that it is rare for a long-term care provider to have such a large scale group accreditation.

“For so many of your homes to go through it at once it’s quite daunting,” says Wood, adding that surveyors from across Canada took part in the year long undertaking. “And then to be successful and have all the homes achieve it is even more important.”

The Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation offers assessments to a diverse array of health organizations across the country, offering critical and constructive advice on improving the quality of care.

For Bruce Scully, RegencyCare’s director of operations, the accreditation is also an acknowledgement of RegencyCare’s unique long-term care philosophy.

“We’re very proud,” says Scully, of the surveyor’s assessments, adding that the company’s young age – they’ve opened 16 homes in three and a half years – simply ‘blew some of them away.”

Scully maintains that it is RegencyCare’s ‘resident-directed’ approach that has really been the cornerstone of their success. RegencyCare has adopted a motif entitled ‘The Living Tapestry.’ This is a philosophy of care – not unlike other companies such as OMNI and Jarlette – that strives to be personalized, dignity-based, and seeks to create as home-like environment as possible.

RegencyCare places tremendous emphasis on the lived environment in their homes – with antiques, displays, and the inclusion of animals, children and outside community organizations like the YMCA into the fabric of day-to-day nursing home care.

“We want to get rid of the description ‘facility,’” says Scully.

Efforts to this end include an emphasis on activities which spur memories or ease depression or agitation. A recent camping trip by The Westmount home in Kitchener is one example. Another is a ‘grant-a-wish’ initiative that gave one resident at Meadowlands a chance to ride a horse bareback.

Interior designer Keri Popil scoured Ontario antique sales in order to decorate RegencyCare’s homes in the most memory inspiring way possible. Activities that are accessible to all – arm-propelled Duet bikes, for example – and have psychological benefit are encouraged. Psychotropic drug use is discouraged, says Scully.

RegencyCare was founded by Donna Scully - Bruce’s mother – who has had a thirty year career in the long term care industry.