Research into Practice at Northwood
YoungGen Project
The LivMoreYoungGen project is a progression of other Northwood initiative and projects. The goal of the YoungGen Project is to create a sustainable model of care for residents under the age of 65, who have capacity, and want to live their life in a way that matters to them. It’s not just about technology, although technology is a big aspect of the project. Some examples of goals YoungGen may have are:
- Go to the gym
- Order groceries
- Take their medications
- Do their laundry
- Meet a friend for coffee
- Manage a bank account
The project that fed into this initiative includes:
Projects linked to YoungGen:
- Living More with SMART Technology – Exploring the feasibility, usability, sustainability, and scalability of SMART solutions to support increased quality of life in Continuing Care: a pilot study.
PI: Dr. Susan Kirkland - “Experience of Aging: Younger Adults with Disability in Long-term Care Facilities”
PI: Brittany Backer - “From Surviving to thriving: Younger Adults in Long-term Care”
PI: Dr. Meisner - “Caring Canines along a Continuum of Care”
PI: Dr. Ardra Cole - “Developing an Assessment Tool for Younger Residents of Long-term Care Facilities”
PI: Dr. Janice Keefe
“Piloting a Supplementary Assessment Tool for Younger Residents in Long-term Care Facilities” - PI: Erin Samson
If you are curious and want to learn more about YoungGen or some of the featured projects, please reach out to andrea.mayo@nwood.ns.ca
Findings pulled from these projects:
Experience of Aging Results:
- Physical and social mobility,
- Civic participation and inclusion,
- Intimacy and imagination, &
- Dignified risk
Developing an Assessment Tool for Younger Residents in LTC:
- Support younger residents entering their care, and to improve the quality of life of these residents as they begin their time in LTC.
Piloting a Supplementary Tool for Younger Residents in LTC:
- The implementation process for an assessment tool like this needs to be refined based on the needs of each facility and its residents, and well-defined processes should be in place before implementation to ensure that the information collected using the assessment tool can be utilized in a way that is effective and efficient.
Care and Construction
Project linked:
Dr. Janice Keefe and colleagues had two projects that were linked to each other at Northwood. The first being “Care and Construction” and “Care and Construction II”. The aim of these studies were to assess the difference in nursing home models with respect to their impact on resident quality of life. These projects found that nursing homes that had a sense of “home-likeness” within the nursing home was associated with higher resident quality of life. Further, that facilitates with a self-contained “household” design were found the have an indirect impact on residents quality of life through relationships and home-likeness.
Northwood has learned from those findings and you can see examples of its implementations throughout the campuses. Here are some examples of “household design” and “home-likeness” at Northwood:
- Personalized Rooms
- Main Street
- Cozy Corner
- Kaye’s Place
- True Doors
- Pet Therapy
- Café Initiative
- Community Garden initiative
