Engagement with purpose is driving a remarkable improvement in the quality of life for people living with dementia at ACH Group’s Milpara Residential Care Home.
Residents at Milpara’s Memory Support Unit, Banksia are experiencing a dramatic increase in engagement and quality of life and a major reduction in falls since the introduction of the Rhythm of the Day program in 2023.
The program has embedded a sustainable model of care to support residents with advanced dementia to reengage in everyday life through expanded social engagement, physical activity, and cognitive stimulation.
Spearheading the program is a new full time engagement lead Rita Grexa who has delivered the expanded program for the past 18 months with remarkable results.
“What this program has done is encouraged people to enhance their independence by reengaging with the activities to suit their abilities,” she said.
“The results have been staggering and we’ve seen a substantial increase in almost every quality of life and quality of care metric since we’ve started the program.
“I truly believe that our residents in Banksia, and their families, have never been happier.”
Learning and Development business partner Teresa Moran said a recent review of the program had highlighted its success.
“So many of our fundamental indicators of residents living a good life haven’t just improved, they’ve improved out of sight,” she said.
“Residents are showing an improvement in feeling happy, more independence, more to do and more support to make their own decisions.
“By embedding engagement so centrally into an advanced dementia environment we now have empirical proof of the positive benefit it can have for residents.”
Rita said at the heart of the program was encouraging residents to reengage with their daily routine through activities.
She also said that returning to normal routines was essential in tracking a resident’s cognition.
“One of the resident’s favorite activities was making up individual COVID-19 testing packs for people who visited Milpara,” she said.
“Making these packs gave them a sense of purpose and achievement but for me it was invaluable to monitor how residents were at counting, sorting, and organizing.
“We did this on a weekly basis, and you could see their work ethic and sense of achievement and self-worth grow.
“It is through these observations of everyday activities that I can make insightful notes about a resident’s behaviour.”
In addition to the work of Rita, the program has also included significant environmental modifications with new wall art, room name signs, and seating, creating a more home-like environment for residents.
The program has also rolled out daily in unit physical exercise and a variety of one to one and group engagement activities for residents from board games to discussion groups.
The increase in activities has also seen Milpara increase the frequency of families visiting their loved ones and being involved in their activities on a regular basis.
ACH Group plans to implement the Rhythm of the Day to all residential care homes.