Wishes of Pine Villa residents granted
Calendar revolves around Independent Plan Program
Monday August 30, 2010 -- Lisa Bailey
Pine Villa residents are ticking off wishes on their ‘bucket list,’ or list of things they want to do in life, with the help of recreation and leisure staff.

This initiative is called the Independent Plan Program (IPP), and was launched six months ago as part of an ongoing effort to engage residents at the Thomas Health Care home in meaningful activities and enrich their lives.

Manager of recreation and leisure Karen Cerantola says IPP has generated a lot of excitement at Pine Villa because residents are achieving goals that they haven’t previously.

Resident Margaret Leishman at the farmers' market in Hamilton.

Helping to make this happen are not only staff but also people in the community as well as residents’ and staff’s families.

And IPP is bringing the 38 residents and team members, who already know each other well, even closer together.

“We know exactly what they want to do,” Cerantola says, adding these things bring joy and a sense of home to residents because they would generally be able to pursue them.

Administrator Lisa Paladino says IPP “is a great idea.”

“It just goes a little bit above and beyond the every day. There’s a lot that we can do for (residents) (with) a little extra effort,” she says.

To begin the program, every resident was asked to identify five things they would like to do. These wishes are now considered in planning Pine Villa’s monthly activity calendar.

“We try to make sure all of our outings and program plans are based on what somebody actually really wants to do,” Cerantola says.

Many requests are similar so group outings can take place. Some residents, for example, recently visited the beach, where they took off their shoes and savoured ice cream.

Other residents dream big but team members adapt them to make them feasible. Instead of heading to Toronto for a dog show, for example, a resident who was a judge will get to assess canines owned by staff.

About 10 wishes have been granted so far, Paladino says, including a trip to the mall by a 105-year-old resident who hadn’t left Pine Villa in at least five years.

Outfitted with some new clothes, she had lunch and threw pennies into a wishing well during her day out. When it was over, the resident said she had fun and would do it again.

“For her, it was a big accomplishment,” Cerantola says, adding the resident’s family was surprised by her wish but happy she fulfilled it.

Another special outing was in the works that Paladino says team members couldn’t wait to see and do. A former trucker, now in his 80s, was to ride in an 18-wheeler owned by a team member’s father and sip his favourite store-bought coffee.

Wishes granted are chronicled on a board called ‘Look Who Went Out This Month’ that staff in other departments can see.

Cerantola says the goal is grant at least one wish for everyone then start on the list again.

IPP goes hand in hand with the staff’s ability to meet their goal of every resident participating in at least 10 programs a month.

IPP was highlighted during a recent tour of Pine Villa by Ontario Long Term Care Association CEO Christina Bisanz.

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