For the prospective of the recipient this title may seem a bit overwhelming but from a business approach this is the right formula to ensure your loved ones are receiving the best care possible.

Most facilities will outline specific services available and it is very important to understand what your loved ones needs are and what the care home provides. Most are diverse in nature and many have a respite or trial program to see if it is a good fit and is still close to home to continue family visits.

Recently I had a fantastic opportunity to work at a care residence in Hamilton and would like to share my experiences from the business side of a care residence. Over the last five years my career as a Red Seal, Diploma and Certified Chef de Cuisine it has always been my dream to work as a corporate chef at Campbell Soup and why not I grew up consuming all the wonderful flavours and wanted to add my experience toward new flavours. With a move to southern Ontario and with a few years working in a Active Living Seniors residence I had many responsibilities from food services, supervisor over laundry and housekeeping my title was Hospitality Manager, I have to say, I loved my work and the daily challenges.

If walls could talk the experiences would be colorful. I enjoyed working with three fantastic teams and I keep in touch with some of them even 7 years later. In Ontario to work in the same environment a Nutrition Manager certification is mandatory to do the same work. I went back to school. Fortunately my work experience and courses assessed allowed me to accelerate to the second year of this two year program. It was a lot of work but the reward is that it opened more doors and I had the opportunity to split my course experience at both a hospital and a care residence.  I found the hospital environment to be monstrously bureaucratic, mechanical and tertiary in nature and the people were over worked and not especially happy. On the other hand the care residence although much smaller facility split into long term care and seniors care and was located next to the community hospital. This residence was the perfect environment for my new area of work because I was working with the residents one on one to perform assessments and make necessary adjustments to dietary needs while making sure their experience would be as good or better than they already had. I was convinced this is what I need to do now to use my past experience to benefit a growing(nearly booming) industry that should still keep it personally positive to the recipients. The thing is we should have known over 50 years ago this would happen as baby boomer began to require this type of service and maybe over the last 50 years care home communities have evolved to what we know today.

Back to my most recent work at the Hamilton care residence. Once again with my past work I had the great pleasure to work with a great team of both in the kitchen and on the floors from PSW, nursing professionals as well as management. The interesting dynamic for this care residence operated by two organizations, Organization B looked after food, IT systems, with a supply of experience and management to the same. Organization A looked after resident and residence care, also supplying support, professionals and management for the same. A truly well thought out approach for each organization to bring the best they can with focus and sustainability. I worked for Organization B as a Nutrition Manager. My work involved interaction with management, other nutrition managers, dieticians, PSW’s, nursing for  feedback, the food services team and our suppliers (this is the short description). Being an experienced chef helped my communication effort with food preparation and knowing what suppliers had to ensure we provided the best product toward our established menus. It also eased the process of menu changes while keeping the authorized dietary requirements for the residents in the various categories of service for the same.

My article title with a 360 approach for this facility and any care residence you are considering for your loved one should  encompass a trial stay, dining at the facility, reviewing all the areas that will touch your loved one.

From the business side I witnessed that the 360 approach took everything into consideration to ensure each team working at the care residence had an effective communication line open. That people don’t sit in offices behind closed doors, that managers ask staff and residents questions and that any one can discuss what needs improvement, what is working and further what can we do to keep life interesting for the community.

Finally each team working at the facility cannot work in an isolated bubble. These teams must overlap to communicate concerns and improvements related by residents or from something they have witnessed.

Post Script As I continue to work in the world of residence care home I have recently joined OHHA and will be starting courses for Infection Control, Laundry & Linen and Housekeeping Methodology that will add PHH to my education list.

Patrick Howarth,
Interprovincial Red Seal Cook,
Certified Chef de Cuisine ’93
Certified Nutrition Manager ’14
Professional Healthcare Housekeeper (pending)