In August 2005, the time arrived to begin the process of accreditation renewal by the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation (CCHSA). Instead, executive director Grace Sweatman started investigating alternatives that didn’t focus solely on meeting compliance standards, avoiding potential litigation and health care procedures, something that encompassed a human element of putting people first.

“We believe that we can meet the health care standards and accreditation within the context of a social model of resident-directed care,” says Sweatman.

Also Sweatman sought an accreditation process that accounted for all of the home’s 460 residents, not just those living in long-term care. Marketing material led her to the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF). She was the first Canadian long-term care provider to call the American-based accreditation organization. Christie Gardens will also be the first continuing care community in Canada to be surveyed in October in hopes of achieving a five-year excellence stamp of approval.

“Their focus is person-directed care,” says Sweatman. “That’s what we’re committed to. If your absolute vision is to seek the client’s input in their daily lives, at the end of the day you’re still going to, (for example) provide the same number of baths.” Only residents received the baths when they wanted them. “If we’re serving three meals a day why not serve the ones the residents want not what we think they want.”

When Sweatman connected with CARF she was invited to be part of a team comprised of not-for-profit and profit long-term care home operators, educators and consultants that developed new standards for person-directed long-term care. She attended the Washington session in August 2005. “I was absolutely overwhelmed,” says Sweatman, since it jived so well with her home’s mission. “That affirmed for me we were on a track that was right for us. The standards and concepts were comprehensible.”

She brought back what she learned to staff at Christie Gardens. “The staff tackled this with vigor.” Christie Gardens first completes a self-assessment of how its meeting the CARF standards and then will undergo an assessment by a CARF surveyor in the fall.

This is how CARF defines Person-Centered Long-Term Care Communities: “Person-centered long-term care communities (PCLTCCs) foster a culture that supports autonomy, diversity, and individual choice. Leadership, along with the community, cultivates relationships among residents, families/support systems, and personnel. They commit to responsiveness, spontaneity, and continuous learning and growth. Residents and personnel celebrate the cycles of life and connect to the local community to continue relationships that nurture the quality of everyday life.
In PCLTCCs, residents are the experts regarding life in their home. Residents participate in deciding about the rhythm of their day, the services provided to them, and the issues that are important to them in their home. Their families/support systems are welcomed. In partnership with residents and their families/support systems, personnel understand what services residents want, how the services should be delivered, and how they can help in their home. A PCLTCC is a place where residents want to live, where personnel want to work, and both choose to stay.”

As Sweatman puts it: “We’re trying to deliver a home-for-the-rest-of-your-life model.”