Baycrest

8 • BrainMatters • Spring/Summer 2023 TO BUILD A REVOLUTION IN LONG-TERM CARE, BAYCREST TURNED TO THE FAMILIES A new dementia care model is changing the way the world looks at long-term care. It's called Possibilities by Baycrest™. It is a new approach to delivering care for those living with cognitive issues, and it is now being piloted as a care approach at the Baycrest Terraces. But it would not have happened without the input of three caregivers, recruited from the Centre of Aging + Brain Health's Senior Advisory Panel (SAP). SAP provides advice and support to innovations in aging and brain health from the perspective of their own lived experiences. For more than a year, Ian Goldman, Rene Pardo and Bev Shukyn served as the Possibilities Lived Experience Family Advisory Group, and had an active hand in ensuring that the Possibilities model was ready to operationalize. All three consultants have first-hand experience as caregivers to their own loved ones, some of whom have spent considerable time as residents at Baycrest. Given their experiences as caregivers, they understood that creating this transformational approach for residential living environments in support of persons living with dementia — and their caregivers — needed to be done right. Thanks to them, Baycrest was able to launch this new model of programming and care delivery that will help optimize brain health while recognizing the person and supporting them for the best possible, individualized aging journey, wherever one is at cognitively. "It was a privilege to participate in the thinking and design of this program," Bev told BrainMatters. "It was interesting to use my experiences in caring for my mom… to help inform this process and to hear from Ian and Rene about their experiences." She added, "I feel the main thrust of this program is to really focus and pay attention to individual needs and to deinstitutionalize people's experiences as they age. The whole concept of curating individual experiences seems to be an exciting new direction and I hope that it can be incorporated into other settings." I feel the main thrust of this program is to really focus and pay attention to individual needs and to deinstitutionalize people's experiences as they age. Bev Shukyn

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