Salem Home

who are unable to adjust to a personal care home. With an average daily medication cost of $1.74 per resident, medication is a last resort. Staff are trained in CARES, a training program which focuses on person-centered care, providing insight into the changes in cognitive skills as dementia progresses, and how to understand this in terms of behavior. With this approach to dementia care, it was found that there was a gradual decrease in behaviors. In 2019 out of the 93 percent of residents that had dementia only 37 percent were exhibiting behaviors. A further decrease to 33 percent was noted in 2020, which was interesting due to the drastic changes brought on by the pandemic. “We have already had conversations about what we want things to look like when we come out of this,” says Janzen. “Maybe, what we are doing is setting the residents up to have behaviors by thinking that the more activities there are in the building the better off the resident is. So, we are going to SALEM HOME be more deliberate in what we do, and when families are allowed, or the public is allowed into our building.” Throughout the pandemic, the facility has followed strict visitation protocols, whether under full or partial lockdown conditions. Karin Oliveira, Director of Residential Care Services, explains, “We say partial because we are allowing people in, like the designated family caregivers, and when we have end-of-life care, then we allow extra general visitors in, as well. Sometimes people have that idea that nobody was coming in and that the residents are abandoned or alone, and they’re not. We tried to maintain their socialization as much as possible. We continued to have activities. We just changed the way we do the activities. Instead of having large group activities, we’re doing the smaller groups in the care area, so the residents are not mixing with other residents in the building.” Supporting staff during the stress and anxiety