Seniors home brings young and old together - LI7

For this week's learning item I chose the case study my group and I had to analyse and discuss in class. The case study dealt with the problem of absenteeism in the elderly care sector in Denmark. The primary problem was the high rate of sick leaves by the staff which affected both patients and profits. Policies implemented to solve this problem focused mainly on better communication, internal campaigning and culture change. As it remained unclear what led employees to be absent so much, business owners had to come up with a solution based on incomplete data. Therefore, in this learning item, I plan to discuss one care centre for elderly based in Seattle in order to offer an innovative solution and draw out conclusions. By looking at an external example I will try to portray how companies can use that approach when designing and implementing new organisational processes.

Providence Mount St. Vincent in Seattle is an innovative senior care living community that addresses the physical, social, cognitive and spiritual care for elderly. Alongside 400 elderly residents, the centre hosts 125 children and infants enrolled in their child care program. This centre is one of a kind where young children and elderly spend most of their days communicating with each other, playing games, singing songs and learning. The aim of this project was to help improve the social well-being of elderly and make their lives more interesting, interactive and better. It also teaches the children respect for elderly and the overall circle of life at the very early stage in their lives. The outcome of this project was remarkable. Everyone interviewed in the clip said that they loved to spend their time with children especially because it was reminding them of their own childhoods and keeping them busy during the day. Some residents tend not to receive many visits from their families and these children were there to help with that. Also, this situation gave a sense of purpose to elderly residents which in their case is what bothers them the most. The feeling of uselessness and abandonment was replaced with love and joy.

On the other side, children were given as much attention as they required because mutual interest was always present. Elderly were also happy to teach the children about various things instead of shouting at them and raising them as they have done with their own children. As atmosphere was relaxed and friendly both sides were enjoying the time spent together. In the terms of staffing, this approach proved to be beneficial. Children require a lot of attention at such a young age and most nurseries lack the staff to actually provide the service needed. In this sense, having a number of elderly individuals watch over the children and on the top of that spend time with them and play is solving two problems at once. Children are given care both from staff and elderly residents and elderly residents are occupied by the children and receive help from staff when needed. Even though two groups are at different stages of their lives it is evident that they have more in common than not – free time, seeking interaction and attention, having fun, relaxing, discovering, etc.

In the business sense, Providence Mount St. Vincent senior and child care facility was able to solve various problems at once. For a number of residents in this care centre, they employed less staff as well as reduced the amount of work a member of staff had to do. All residents are happy and spend time with each other allowing the staff to spend more time with the patients in a greater need of their assistance. Likewise, time spent planning the activities for children was reduced because most elderly have experience in that area and are happy to spend time with children. Overall, this example helped me learn that thinking outside the box and trying new things can yield beneficial results. Companies don't need to always be at the top of their game to be able to design and implement new organisational processes. On many occasions solution is already found by someone else and is waiting to be applied. Likewise, sometimes the obvious differences between people hide many similarities which can positively affect everybody involved. High sick leave rates in the Danish care centre were perhaps created by the gap between carers and elderly residents. Lack of understanding sometimes cannot be overcome by training, penalties or rewards, but can be bridged by the different approach.

Link for the video

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