Together, we innovate.

MHC Recreation Manager, Jennifer (right) and recreation student, Kevin (left).

MHC’s Long-Term Care program was the fortunate recipient of a Winnipeg Foundation Community Grant earlier this year. Thanks to their instrumental support, the acquisition of additional resources, technology, and training materials has truly made an immeasurable impact on the lives of our residents, patients, and caregivers.
 
Since the onset of COVID-19, new and evolving public health directives have often meant our residents have been faced with less one-on-one time with recreation leaders, heightened visitor restrictions, and fewer opportunities for outings. With the guidelines for acute care evolving constantly as the pandemic progresses, programming must evolve along with it – all without losing the therapeutic benefit to the residents and patients.  Additionally, family and visitor restrictions have meant the Long-Term Care team has truly become like an extended family for our residents and patients, making these activities all the more meaningful.
 
With a focus on innovation and a person-centered approach, the Long-Term Care team proposed revised programming to make greater use of personalized items (to reduce sharing) and technology to continue providing meaningful activities.
 
In May of 2021, MHC was fortunate to have the assistance of a Recreation student doing a summer placement to assist with the implementation of the revised programming. This allowed our current recreation team members to focus their full energies on residents and patients. In addition to procuring items and creating innovative Therapeutic Activity Kits, our Recreation student was able to plan a training session and create a resource package for Shared Health support workers on how to use the items with residents and patients.
 
Many thanks to donors like the Winnipeg Foundation for making innovations like this possible!

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