Vermont Square resident Lucille Nagel chats with Trinity-Spadina MP Olivia Chow, who visited the Toronto long-term care home June 24.
Vermont Square dedicates week to activities for residents
Intergenerational program, Wii competition and visit from MP highlight week
Thursday July 2, 2009 -- Deron Hamel
Vermont Square dedicated the week of June 22-26 to a variety of activities for residents, which brought smiles to faces and provided everyone with several engagement opportunities, says programs manager Adele Lopes.

Highlighting the week, which featured a themed program each day, was an intergenerational program, a Nintendo Wii sports competition and a visit from Trinity-Spadina MP Olivia Chow.

Lopes says the events “brought smiles to residents’ faces” and they were excited at having the opportunity to spend time chatting with Chow, who has made a point of visiting the Toronto long-term care home in the past.

One of the things residents spoke with Chow about was the possibility of starting a petition to send the province in an effort to get more physiotherapy hours in long-term care.

Residents also enjoyed the June 26 visit from the children at nearby Palmerston Community Day Care. This is a partnership the home has had for some time, and one that has long been a hit with residents, says Lopes.

“They love it when the kids come from the day care. It was really nice to have all the residents downstairs with the children,” she says. “The residents get that fulfillment of reliving their past, and it was nice to see the smiles on their faces.”

On June 23, the home held the launch party for its Nintendo Wii. Residents got to play some of the various sports games included with the video-game system for the first time. Residents were taken by the new way of playing sports, says Lopes.

“It was interesting to see how the residents took to the game,” she says. “They were excited that they didn’t have to go to a bowling alley for a game.”

Other events held at the home during the week include a fashion show and Movie Madness Bingo, a program where activity staff plays songs and the boxes on the bingo cards contain song titles that have to be matched.

Based on the successes of this year’s event, Lopes says she would like to see the program advanced next year, citing taking residents into the community as a possibility.

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