Dialogue key to progress through shift to social living
Kristian Partington

EDMONTON - When delegates from across Western and Northern Canada gathered in Edmonton for a conference focused on person-centred care in long-term senior’s living environments, Schlegel Villages shone as a Canadian example of what’s possible.

On the opening day of the conference, three compelling speakers from the United States shared their culture-change experience with the crowd of around 400, followed by Schlegel Villages and University of Waterloo Research Institute for Aging (RIA) consultant Jennifer Carson.

Jennifer shared the story how a strong commitment from the organization’s leadership to honour the experts on the front lines of care have helped make the shift towards a social model of living successful at Schlegel Villages.

It’s a commitment to the process of transformation through dialogue, she told the audience, led by the concept of Appreciative Inquiry, which brings all stakeholders together to discover strengths and envision an ideal future that builds upon them before designing attainable aspirations to make that future a reality.

The fact that the process has been led internally and with input from everyone connected to the organization, from the support office to residents, front-line team members and families, has been a major factor in the success, delegates heard.

“You could hire an expert from the outside to come in and assess your organization or you can get together and assess yourselves,” Jennifer said at the beginning of the presentation.

“At Schlegel Villages we wanted to take the approach where we assessed ourselves because we thought, just by virtue of dialogue and hearing different perspectives, it would begin to raise our consciousness, which is the first step towards personal transformation.”

Delegates heard that during the initial stage of assessment, while organization members collaboratively discovered a number of strengths, they also identified some practices that were institutional in nature.

“Once an intentional process of dialogue began,” says Jennifer, “and people grew in their awareness of various stakeholder perspectives, as internal strengths and hopes were acknowledged, even before any operational adjustments were effectively put in place, personal transformations fuelled a shift in service delivery."

Today, she told the audience, the organization continues on the path towards a more social model of living in the villages, and constant dialogue remains the key to progress.  

We’d love to hear how dialogue shapes progress to meaningful transformation in your villages. Please contact 800-294-0051, ext. 24, or e-mail kristian(at)axiomnews.ca to share your story.