These therapies serve as a compliment to traditional medication therapy, says Program Manager Sandra Colwell, and can reduce arthritic pain, ease anxiety in residents with dementia, and just generally brighten moods and create a more home like atmosphere.

Reiki massage, a popular therapy at Versa-Care, is provided free by local Reiki master Rosemary Lee. Lee gives 20 minute sessions of the Japanese non-touch massage therapy.

(Reiki, developed by Japanese businessman Usui Shiki Ryoho in the early 1900’s, works by releasing ‘life-force energy’ in the body. The practitioner ‘massages’ the client by placing hands gently over the body, but not touching it.)

“Everybody really enjoys it,” says Colwell, adding that although the effects of it are rarely pronounced, that at the least it has a gentle, anxiety-reducing effect. For palliative residents there is often a minor reduction of pain, she says.

Another pain-reducing therapy in vogue at Versa-Care is hot wax hand treatments. A treatment designed mostly for residents with arthritic pain, paraffin wax treatment significantly warms up stiff joints (which increases mobility) and/or reduces post-acute swelling. And while Colwell says that the hotness of the wax makes it inappropriate for some residents, for others the treatment allows them to undertake activities that would otherwise cause them considerable pain.

Colwell, an applied science in gerontology major who has been at Versa-Care for 10 years, has seen alternative therapies gradually become a regular feature in nursing home care. The difference in the industry now, says Colwell, is the philosophy towards de-institutionalizing the character – the living and physical environment - of nursing homes.

“We’re no longer a mere ‘facility,’” says Colwell. “And we try to be as creative as possible.” In making itself as much like a home as possible, Versa-Care has introduced the KIN (keep it normal) program, in which alternative therapies, pets and inter-generational programs like Grans and Tots (where grandchildren and children from the community take part in various activities with residents) are integrated into daily routines like baking, sewing and other hobbies, making the lived environment one that is both stimulating and calming.

Pets – in the form of a white Great Pyrenees named Chance, a black cat named Prince Peter, and numerous birds and tropical fish, create an exciting living environment, one that Colwell feels encourages children to come into the home and visit their grandparents. This in turn helps to invigorate residents.

Versa-Care has other creative alternative therapies on offer, like monthly African drumming (“it gets a bit noisy,” says Colwell, “but it can be a means of communication for residents who have suffered strokes or other cognitive impairment”), chair-massage (a unique form of upright, upper-body massage), and tai chi, a gentle slow moving form of exercise.