Alzheimer Society Newsletter Fall 2014

NEWS ’n‘n
VIEWS
NEWS
VIEWS
Fall 2014
It’s time for the annual Coffee Break fundraiser! Help us raise
$30,000 by hosting a Coffee Break, purchasing Krispy Kreme donuts
or Coffee Break cutouts at local stores.
Here are the Krispy Kreme selling sites (call us if you’d like to help!):
(613) 962-0892
South Hastings
(613) 332-4614
North Hastings
(613) 395-5018
Belleville: Alzheimer Society Office,
Centre Hastings
Marmora Valu-Mart
Canadian Tire, Empire Square, Market Wellington Foodland
(613) 394-5410
Brighton & Quinte West
Square
Picton: Alzheimer Society Office,
Trenton: Bulk Barn & Wal-Mart
Home Hardware, County Farm Centre,
Stirling Foodland
Giant Tiger, Metro
Tweed Valu-Mart
Rossmore: Gilmour’s Meat & Deli
Inside this issue:
A Changing Melody
2
Rediscover Me
3
Feasibility Study
4—5
Finding Your Way
6
Directory
Meagher Award
7
This Just In…
Circle of Care in
Action
8
This newsletter is
produced with
financial support from
South East LHIN
Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte
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Fall 2014
Help for Today
A Changing Melody
Living with dementia? This is for you!
A Changing Melody is coming our way. The Alzheimer Society has participated in regional forums
since 2010, all held in Kingston. This is the first forum held in Hastings-Prince Edward. area.
What IS a “Learning and
Sharing Forum”?
It’s a safe and positive
environment where persons with
dementia and their family partners
in care can come together and
learn from one another and from
other experts in dementia care, on
how to actively improve the quality
of their lives.
What’s different about A Changing Melody?
A Changing Melody is not a typical conference or forum, organized by a group of paid professionals. It is
primarily organized by local people living with dementia and their family partners in care.

The role of staff is not to be the ‘expert’ in dementia, but to empower and encourage active participation
of others. The voices of persons with dementia must be at the forefront of the forum and included in all
decision-making.

The primary target audience for the forum is persons with early-stage dementia or who are experiencing
memory loss and family partners in care (e.g. spouses, children, grandchildren, or siblings).

Secondary audiences will include a range of health care and social-support professionals.

The planning of A Changing Melody adopts a true partnership approach with persons with dementia and
their partners in care.

The keynote speaker is a person living with dementia, sharing his challenges. Steve Moran is from
Brighton. Last year at the age of 52, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease with a posterior cortical
apathy component. Steve had 2 daughters in university at the time and he was working full time. Steve has
never spoken publicly before, but with encouragement from his neurologist in Toronto he is going to
share his story with us.
When & where?
Saturday, September 20, 9:30 am—3:00 pm Royal Canadian Legion, 347 Main Street East, Picton.
Carpooling is available.
How?
Registration is $25 per person and includes continental breakfast, lunch, snacks and registration materials.
There are three ways to register::
Online at www. alzheimer.ca/bhq
Phone Heather at 613-962-0892
email: [email protected]
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Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte
Hope for Tomorrow...
Time for a Break
Fall 2014
Caring for someone with dementia? This is for you!
Back by popular demand! Caregiver Retreat.
Rediscover…Me
Isaiah Tubbs Resort,
Near the Sandbanks
Wednesday,
October 8, 2014
10:00 am —3:00 pm
$25.00 includes lunch
Caregivers often can’t see how they can get away for a day. Here are some suggestions:

Contact your CCAC Care Coordinator to arrange for care on October 8th, 2014.

Your children are wondering how they can help. Call them now and ask for a one-day favour
on October 8th. They’ll begin to understand your world.

Ask your friends at church, or your neighbours to take your loved one out for the morning or
the afternoon—sharing the care.
Listen to what past participants say about the day away, and why you should use the
suggestions above:
“I hope you’re doing this next year!”
“It was the best day ever!”
“I enjoyed being able to talk with others.”
“I didn’t realize how much I needed a break.”
“I could relax and do whatever I wanted.”
For a registration form, call Heather at 613-962-0892 or email: [email protected]
Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte
3
Help for Today
A Feasibility Study
Fall 2014
Executive Summary
In 2013-2014, the Alzheimer Society of Ontario funded a feasibility study for the five Societies in the
Southeast Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), looking at organizational options which would
better serve families and prepare Societies for the rising tide of dementia. The full report is
available for reading at the office. This is the executive summary.
A Feasibility Study on Organizational Options for
Alzheimer Societies of the Southeast LHIN
The participants
The participants in this project were the five Alzheimer societies within the Southeast LHIN. They are, from
northeast to southwest, the Alzheimer Society of Lanark County (ASLC), the Alzheimer Society of LeedsGrenville (ASLG), the Alzheimer Society of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington (ASKFL&A), the
Alzheimer Society of Belleville–Hastings–Quinte (ASBHQ), and the Alzheimer Society of Prince Edward County
(ASPEC).
The project
A report on the feasibility of different integration options to ensure that valued, quality services are accessible and
sustainable over time, at required levels of service, to populations affected by Alzheimer's disease and related
dementias (ADRD).
The process
The five Boards appointed members of a task force to work with and direct a single consultant jointly engaged by
the five boards.
The deliverable
A feasibility assessment of a limited number of practicable, high level options for organizational configurations
and/or collaborations in the SE LHIN, based on evidence.
 The "evidence" reviewed will be data from the existing chapters, best practice literature, consultation with
Alzheimer Society boards and staff, and limited consultation with partner agencies and funding partners.
 Any proposed structures must support equity across the service area, based on demonstrated need.
The funding
Funding for the project was secured from the Ontario Trillium Foundation and guaranteed by the Alzheimer
Society of Ontario (ASO). For the sake of convenience, the consultant contract was administered by the ASBHQ.
Background
Like Alzheimer societies across Ontario, the five Societies in the SE LHIN have experienced dramatic
increases in service demand and limited public sector funding. There have been discussions in the past decade
between Executive Directors of the Societies about collaborations and structural reconfigurations, but they have
not resulted in any concrete outcomes. More recently, some boards have begun discussing the virtues and risks
associated with some form of consolidation and/or deeper collaboration. While this background paved the way,
the motivation that has brought the five boards together for this project was primarily external. The Alzheimer
Society of Ontario has for some time been concerned about the ability of various societies in Ontario to contend
with projected growth in service demand. In the context of its mandate to create and support integrated networks
of services, the LHIN has also communicated a desire to engage the societies in a review of how their relationship
with and within the LHIN is structured. There was therefore a certain sense that if the boards did not take the
wheel themselves, some other party or process would.
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Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte
Hope for Tomorrow...
Fall 2014
Executive Summary, cont’d
The ASO recommended a feasibility study to look at organizational options, secured funding from
the Ontario Trillium Foundation, and in August 2013, recommended a consultant to the boards. It was
acknowledged that such a process would need to be led by the boards and any consultant retained needed
to be acceptable to and accountable to the boards themselves. Subsequently, in September and October,
the recommended consultant, Mr. Don Ellis, met with each board or representatives thereof and in the
last week of October 2013, a contract and terms of reference were agreed to.
Task Force
Each board was asked to identify two persons to participate as members of a task force. They were
to be active members of the review and links between the work of the task force and their own boards and any other partners they chose to engage.
In each case, the boards chose to appoint one board member and their respective Executive
Directors. Two executive directors - at the ASLG and the ASPEC - were about to retire. Since agreement
was reached with the ASLC and ASBHQ boards to have their Executive Directors function as interim
Executive Directors at the ASLG and ASPEC respectively, those two Executive Directors participated as
members from two societies each.
The consultant assembled a corpus of information from the five societies and other entities and
persons from within the Southeast LHIN as well as from entities and individuals external to the Southeast.
Executive directors and some board members participated in the assembly of this information which was
then shared with all task force members.
The task force met four times, in November, December, January and February. At its last meeting,
Janice White, the Chairperson of the Alzheimer Society of Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington
offered to make their facilities available for a larger meeting of members of all five boards. That meeting
took place on Saturday, April 5, 2014 in Kingston.
Outcomes
With the retirement of two Executive Directors (ASLG and ASPEC) and the agreement to share
management services with neighbouring Societies (ASLC and ASBHQ respectively), it became obvious
that there should be some further probing of what degree of integration makes the most sense. The
boards involved in these arrangements have agreed to extend the interim arrangement of shared
management leadership, and members present at an April 5, 2014 meeting of representatives of the five
boards committed to recommend to their respective boards certain types of collaboration up to and
including mergers, with identified key joint meetings and timelines.
Representatives of the four boards with shared executive directors (ASLC/ASLG and ASBHQ/
ASPEC), along with representatives from the ASKFL&A, also committed to recommend to their
respective boards an MOU to be signed by the respective executive directors, committing them to a
schedule of quite specific forms of collaboration.
These outcomes reflected the fact that most of the boards felt they needed to digest what they
have learned from the exercise, and that they wanted to “date before they considered marriage.”
These outcomes may appear tentative to outsiders, but in fact, they reflect significant movement and
increased comfort levels between the boards. While the process began with the defensive goal of selfpreservation for some, it has now broadened out to a consideration of how the passion, knowledge and
resources of these five societies can best be leveraged to the benefit of persons affected by dementia both
locally and throughout the region. There is a strong sense that they can become more than they are today if they move prudently and are well supported.
Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte
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Help for Today
Finding Your Way
Fall 2014
New project across the province.
The Alzheimer Society of Ontario has received funding to improve safety for
persons with dementia through increased community awareness and preparedness
for missing persons incidents.
What are the goals of this project?
 Improve community safety and reduce missing incidents for persons living with
dementia
 Increase the potential for safe returns, by improving early response and reducing the
time taken to return individuals home safely
 Improve outreach to targeted ethno-cultural communities with non-official language
mother tongues (communities include Chinese, Punjabi, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese)
and seniors low income across Ontario
 Reduce care partner stress
How will it work?
Darlene Jackson, one of our Education and Support Co-ordinators, will be organizing a
community meeting with broad participation —from law enforcement to politicians to
health professionals, plus the experts themselves: persons living with dementia and their
partners in care.
The meeting will be an opportunity to look at ways to create and support a dementiafriendly community and to develop an action plan to reduce the risks of missing person
incidents as well as increase the capacity of the community to respond to an incident when
it does occur.
Stay tuned for details on date, time and venue.
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Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte
Fall 2014
Hope for Tomorrow...
Meagher Award
With increasingly busy times at the office, combined with only one nomination for the
Meagher Award, we decided to forego a 2013-14 award. You can nominate someone at
any time for this year’s award.
If you have a caregiver who really brightens your day with his/her service in your home, you can
nominate them for the Meagher Award. The winner receives a $500 cheque, along with a plaque
and a dementia care resource (eg book, video). You can send in the nomination at any time and we
will save the nominations for contacting at a later date. Usually the Meagher Award is part of the
Annual General Meeting agenda in June.
MEAGHER AWARD: FOR EXCELLENCE IN HOME DEMENTIA CARE
Send to: Alzheimer Society, 470 Dundas Street East, Unit 63, Bay View Mall, Belleville, ON K8N 1G1
I nominate: __________________________________________________for the Meagher Award.
He/she works for (circle one): VON Para-Med ComCare RedCross self-employed Other __________
Nominated by:
Name_____________________________________ Phone _______________________________
Address________________________________________________________________________
e-mail _________________________________________________________________________
(Circle all that apply)
I am a: family caregiver health professional PSW supervisor co-worker other ___________
Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte Staff Directory
Bay View Mall, Unit 63 - 470 Dundas Street East Belleville, ON K8N 1G1
613-962-0892 -800-361-8036 Fax: 613-962-1225
North Hastings: 613-332-4614
Laura Hare
Kristel Nicholas
Darlene Jackson
Sarah Krieger
Sharon Brewster
Hannah Brown
Centre Hastings : 613-395-5018
Executive Director
Education & Support, South Hastings
Education & Support, Centre Hastings
Education & Support, North Hastings
Education & Support, Brighton/Quinte West
Fund Development
Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte
Brighton/Quinte West: 613-394-5410
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
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Help for Today
This Just In...
Fall 2014
Circle of Care in Action
Memory Clinic in Belleville—three sessions complete
With an increasing number of patients with signs of dementia,
and an unacceptably long wait time for specialist appointments,
Dr. Linda Lee from Kitchener-Waterloo recognized a need for
change in the way these persons were cared for. She developed a
memory clinic model using a collaborative approach with family
doctors, nurses, social workers, pharmacists, occupational
therapists and other specialists. Results were astounding.
Referrals to specialists for more complex or unique cases were
reduced from 100% to 8%. From its status as a research project,
the clinic now offers an accredited inter-professional training
program. Currently there are over sixty clinics established across
Ontario with many more under development. The Belleville memory clinic serves patients of the Queen’s
Family Health Team and has had sessions in June, July and August where they saw thirteen patients. The
Alzheimer Society is fully a member of this collaborative team who constantly keep the patient at the centre of
care. Our Education and Support Co-ordinator updates the patient’s electronic file with support activities. The
patient’s care team can see the benefits of community support services along with the usual test results that a
patient file holds. Participation at the memory clinic has meant increased referrals to Society services and more
importantly, improved support for persons with dementia and their families.
In September, the Prince Edward Family Heath Team will start their training with Dr. Lee and our Society will
also be part of the memory clinic program there. The first full clinic will run in December.
CrossRoads To Care—good neighbours means improved client care
Being neighbours to Community Care for South Hastings, Providence Care Community Outreach Teams and
VON’s Adult Day program means that each agency is becoming much more aware of what the others do.
When Community Care staff are doing a home assessment for a new client, to decide which of their services are
most appropriate, they are keeping the Alzheimer Society services in mind...especially when memory loss or
confusion becomes apparent during the assessment. This means that the client has more than one organization
supporting them - with only one visit.
Providence Care’s new Psychogeriatric Resource Consultant (PRC) will be meeting with our Education and
Support Co-ordinators shortly to plan how their services and ours can complement each other with a goal of
seamless support for persons living with dementia.
Being located next to the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) has its advantages, too. This week, a CCAC
Care Coordinator popped in to pick up Medic Alert Safely Home brochures. The week before, we delivered
information pamphlets for use at Quinte Health Care for the discharge planners. With the CCAC back door
only a few metres from our front door, this all happens in minutes.
Thanks for being patient during our move and period of adjustment. The good news is that the popular term
‘client-centred care’ is not just a word at CrossRoads To Care; it is words turned to action.
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Alzheimer Society Belleville-Hastings-Quinte