October Meeting: Village of Wentworth Heights

The Village of Wentworth Heights is a Schlegel Village and a member of the PiDC project.     The Schlegel Villages have championed their own AI process and are at the Destiny phase of their work, similar to the Deliver phase of the AI process that the other CCC groups are using (See PiDC toolkit for more info on the AI process and Culture Change).  Part of this process has included a three day Appreciative Inquiry Summit in which members of front line staff and the leadership team, alongside family members and persons living with dementia worked through the discover, dream, and design phases together.    

The Village of Wentworth Heights works with a Village Advisory Team (VAT), similar to a Culture Change Coalition (CCC). This team, which has called themselves "Reaching for New Heights" (RFNH) works together to meet their identified aspiration statements, such as ‘offering flexible living and dining’ and increasing ‘shared and meaningful activities’.

During the October meeting, the Reaching for New Heights team, including residents living with dementia, and staff members such as Personal Support Workers, RNs, food services staff and managers, recreation specialists, and management came together to review data from a survey of residents which was used to ascertain quality of life information about the lived experiences of residents in the Village and in other Schlegel homes. RFNH members discussed the results and worked to discuss possibilities for building on positive results and for expanding those successful methods to other areas of the survey results which were understood to ‘need work’.  RFNH members spoke of their experiences in ways in which, for instance, Schlegel staff members worked together to improve recreation and other experiences for residents.  The Village of Wentworth Heights is very enthusiastic about the process thus far and is looking forward to ongoing collaboration.