Shalom Village introduces rehab day program to alleviate hospital back up
Program provides seniors rehabilitation in a community setting
Monday June 16, 2008 -- Camille Jensen
A new program offered at Shalom Village is freeing up hospital beds and giving seniors an opportunity to receive rehabilitation in a community setting.

Goldies2Home is a convalescent-care day program introduced at Shalom Village in January. The program is for patients well enough to leave the hospital but still need continued rehabilitation services.

Patients, mostly seniors, receive early discharge from the hospital to return home and attend the rehabilitation day program at the Hamilton long-term care home.

The program provides physiotherapy, occupational therapy and personal support services to help patients integrate back into their daily lives. Activities include meal preparation, cooking, education on medication, support with personal care needs and daily activities of living.

A unique aspect of the Goldies2Home is that it runs in conjunction with the home’s adult day program.

Krista Walsh, executive coach at Shalom Village, says holding the rehab program at the same time as the adult day program offers rehab patients a more interactive environment.

“What makes us different than a day hospital is you don’t come in and just wait to do your different services, there are things going on in between,” says Walsh.

Participants can join in with the other activities which include music, outings and most importantly, social engagement.

“We’ve seen people that have come to the program that are very isolated and having the other therapies has made that much more of a difference,” says Walsh.

Patricia Morden, chief executive coach at Shalom Village, says the Goldies2Home program is a solution to the community’s lack of alternative settings for patients who require varying levels of care.

The program was initiated at an Alternate Level of Care (ALC) committee meeting hosted by the Niagara Haldimand Brant Local Health Integration Network (LHIN).

Morden, who sits on the ALC committee, says they wanted to create a solution to the hospital backlog without adding more beds.

Shalom Village partnered with Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) to transport less critical patients from the hospital into the Goldies2Home community-care setting. The program is funded by the LHIN on a six-month trial basis.

Halfway through the project, both Morden and Walsh are encouraged by the results of Goldies2Home. The program has proven to reduce time spent in a hospital bed by up to one month.

“This is a really important program in the community and I think there is a lot of potential for the future of the health-care system,” says Walsh.

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