Pinecrest Medical Care Facility Wins Statewide Nursing Home Competition for Its Person-Centered Garden Activities

The Resident Council of Pinecrest Medical Care Facility, a skilled nursing facility in Powers, Michigan that serves the Upper Peninsula, is a winner in the "2013 Spotlighting Person-Centered Services" contest.

The competition is sponsored by One Vision: Moving Forward, a statewide initiative focused on ensuring that Michigan's nursing home residents receive person-centered services and have the opportunity to direct their own lives as fully as possible. Resident and family councils at the more than 400 skilled nursing homes across the state were invited to enter.

Person-centered services honor the importance of keeping the person at the center of the care planning and decision-making process.

The councils were asked to share a "person-centered activity" inspired or supported by one of the five "clarifications" developed by One Vision to help nursing homes remove barriers to person-centered care.

At Pinecrest, using the guidance provided in the One Vision "Potlucks, Homemade Food, and Garden-Raised Foods Served to Residents" clarification (pdf), residents got involved with a garden planted with help from a local Girl Scout troop.

"Your activities are an integral and essential part of making the Pinecrest community a great place to live, visit, and work," Hollis Turnham, PHI Midwest director and a One Vision co-facilitator, wrote in the award letter on behalf of the One Vision stakeholders (pdf). "You brought to life for us the resident-raised gardening clarification. We see your community as spontaneous, inter-generational, fun, and engaging."

The One Vision stakeholders highlighted how the vegetables were "clearly great eating" and noted how the residents were actively engaged in the harvest, preserving the vegetables and sharing stories about their own gardening experiences in the past.

The Vision One "Potlucks, Homemade Food, and Garden-Raised Foods Served to Residents" clarification provides guidance regarding safe food-handling practices when foods are harvested from the facility's garden and brought to the kitchen for preparation, and also regarding garden maintenance.

The four other One Vision clarifications already developed to address regulatory policies and facility practices in order to overcome barriers to the implementation of person-centered practices and other culture change initiatives in Michigan's skilled nursing homes are:

• Mattress Pad Use
• Medications at Times and Places Convenient for Me
• Person-Directed Furniture Placement
• Holiday Decorations

"It is our goal to get these clarifications into the hands of Resident and Family Councils to bring to life residents' dreams, aspirations, and desires in daily activities throughout all Michigan nursing homes," the contest application states.

"The residents were quite happy when I informed them during a resident council meeting that they had won the award," said Pinecrest Activities Director Cheryl Rochon. "They want to spend the money on 300-piece jigsaw puzzles and use it for extra money for bingo. Since many of our residents enjoy bingo, the members of the resident council felt that it would be the best way to reward the most residents."

Upjohn Community Care in Powers, Michigan was also a winner in the first round of the "Spotlighting Person-Centered Services" contest. One Vision plans to select 10 more Spotlight award winners in the coming months. The next application due date is February 15, 2014. All winning family and resident councils will be awarded $100.

The One Vision initiative is funded with civil monetary penalties awarded to PHI Michigan by the Michigan Department of Community Health to convene committed stakeholders who represent resident advocates, providers, provider associations, government agencies, and employee organizations. The group works within a consensus framework to address and resolve challenges to advance the One Vision agenda. One Vision is also addressing the challenges that Michigan regulators face in carrying out their responsibilities as they assess the state's wide array of culture change initiatives.

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PHI, the Paraprofessional Healthcare Institute, works to transform eldercare and disability services, fostering dignity, respect, and independence — for all who receive care, and all who provide it. The nation's leading authority on the direct-care workforce, PHI promotes quality direct-care jobs as the foundation for quality care.

Cean Eppelheimer, PHI Midwest Organizational Change Consultant, 517-927-1875, ceppelheimer@phinational.org

Deane Beebe, PHI Media Relations Director, 718-928-2033, 646-285-1039 (cell), dbeebe@phinational.org