Halton Healthcare Recieves Leadership Award for Dementia Care and Education

Halton Healthcare is the recipient of a 2017-2018 Advanced Gerontological Education (AGE)Recognition Award with distinction (category of Acute Care/Hospital) for providing staff knowledge, skills and confidence in caring for patients with dementia. The award was received from AGE for Halton
Healthcare’s commitment to Gentle Persuasive Approaches (GPA) education, an innovative dementia care education curriculum based on a person-centred care approach.

“We are very proud to receive this award and we continue to embed Gentle Persuasive Approaches into our everyday practice,” said Sylvia Rodgers, Senior Vice President, Clinical Programs and Chief
Nursing Executive, Halton Healthcare. “Since 2016 nearly 500 individuals have been trained in GPA which initially focused on nursing and more recently expanded to include unit clerks, diagnostic imaging
staff, volunteers and housekeeping staff.”

“All behaviour has meaning. When a patient is upset, they are responding to something in their environment,” said Martha Budgell, Safer Elder Care Professional Practice Clinician, Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital. “The training has helped our staff to better understand and appreciate that an elderly patient with dementia or delirium may be visibly upset because they may simply be tired, hungry
or in pain. Our staff can approach them confidently and in a calm manner using their newly acquired skills and tools.”

The AGE Recognition Awards Review Panel noted Halton Healthcare’s exceptional commitment to GPA, for modelling the respectful person-centred care through dementia education and being a leader in
sustaining a person-centred model of care.