Evaluating How We Care For Our Seniors

What is evaluation?

Asking the important questions is where evaluation comes in. With the support of the Conconi Foundation, St. Paul’s Foundation, and the Comox Valley Healthcare Foundation, this work will provide the research and evaluation integral to transforming care for residents, their families, and those working within long-term care. CHÉOS researchers will work alongside residents, families, and staff who contribute their irreplaceable knowledge and lived experience to create stable, effective, and transformative care models that can be replicated in other areas of the province, country, and around the world.

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Put simply, evaluation is making sure we measure what matters. For seniors care, this means the values and principles that sit at the heart of the work. We know there needs to be change in the long-term care system, and the voices of residents, their families, and staff must be at the very centre of the conversation. It’s about transforming entire systems that have been established for decades, so the effectiveness of change can’t be measured simply by a “before and after” comparison. Instead, it requires a longitudinal, longer-terms approach, which is often not supported through mainstream health research funding.

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This isn’t the first time CHÉOS has led the charge conducting a principles-focused evaluation in long-term care. Providence Living’s Home for Us initiative aims to transform residential care from an institutionalized medical model to a more socially vibrant, relationship-centred care model that recognizes the uniqueness of each individual and the importance of relationships. Within Home for Us, emotional connections matter most, residents direct each moment, and home is not a place, it is a feeling. Through evaluation, the theoretical underpinnings of this model and how it may improve clinical and quality of life outcomes for residents and the experience of families and health workers are being established and measured by CHÉOS.

Creating Lasting Change

The Conconi Foundation and other funding partners are proud to support this long-term project that will completely reimagine long-term care living. This is about a larger culture change that fosters joy, meaning, and purpose for everyone who lives and works within the walls of a care home. With the unique opportunity to conduct this research and evaluation alongside the construction of Providence Living Place, Together by the Sea, this is an important opportunity to build an unparalleled legacy for the people of British Columbia and change the face of senior’s care from coast to coast.

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By supporting program evaluation, you are not funding the building itself. Instead, you’re funding the future. A future where social care models recognize where residents are from, what they’ve experienced, and how care can add new dimensions to their lives. A future where the learning doesn’t end and where evaluation is a continuous process to make sure the quality of care within this community is adapting to changing landscapes, learnings, and technology as time goes on. After all, you can have the newest, most state-of-the-art building in the world, but if there aren’t new ideas at work within the walls, it’s just a building. It’s what happens inside the minds of the people working and living within those walls that sparks truly wonderful, lasting change.

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The findings that take place at Providence Living Place, Together by the Sea can be implemented anywhere – in any setting – and reflect what residents, families, and staff want most and need through a process of joint learning.At CHÉOS, we can’t wait to begin this journey. For more information on how you can support this evaluation work to create new models of care, please click here.