OHCA The Oregon Caregiver Fall Winter 2020

www.ohca.com FALL/WINTER 2020 The Oregon Caregiver 7 FEATURE the neighborhoods. Instead, Cormier says the staff will be organizing their own little mini lights parade with decorated golf carts that will patrol the perimeter of the building. And this year, Santa may even pay the residents a visit. Cormier says her team has had great success during other holidays this year, adding that residents respond well to the parades, musical performances, and one-on-one time with staff. On Halloween, residents dressed up in costumes and crafted their own decorations, while staff delivered sweet treats to each room. For Thanksgiving, Cormier brought the Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade to Jennings McCall by marching through the halls with a blow up turkey and other big balloons for residents to enjoy safely from the comfort of their rooms. “Having a little silliness really makes a big difference for people; that’s usually the route I try to go when I’m planning things because making people laugh is so important right now,” said Cormier. Ringing in the holidays is much more special when the time is spent with loved ones. At Seasons Living assisted living and nursing facilities across the country, the focus is getting families involved as much as possible. The company has even created a new position to solely connect with families. “An important part of what we do is keeping that connection,” said Desa Silbaugh, the digital marketing specialist at Seasons Livings. “[The pandemic] has opened our eyes to activities that we hadn’t even thought of and we’re just going to keep doing, so I think that’s been a really fun and unique aspect of this.” To bring some holiday cheer to their residents, one of their buildings will be creating a video compilation of family members singing Christmas carols. It is an idea that never would have come to fruition had the pandemic never happened. “We don’t have a black-and-white templated activity program for all of our buildings. We like to empower our buildings to do programming—we give them great ideas,” said Vanessa Ceryance, the company’s director of people and culture. “This has CONTINUES » A Jennings McCall Center caregiver prepares some tasty treats to deliver to each resident on Halloween. Several residents at this Seasons Living building covered their doors with spooky Halloween decor. A Jennings McCall resident gets crafty for fall. A resident at a Seasons Living building creates a scrapbook board during craftime. Caregivers and Staff at the Jennings McCall Center organized an indoor Thanksgiving Parade for residents to enjoy.