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Preparing for the Future: How Sunnybrook is Prioritizing Age-Friendly Care

Tailor-to-Older-Patients
Written by Molly Giroux

Recently, Sunnybrook was recognized with the Level 1 Age-Friendly Health System Participant designation and the Level 2 Age-Friendly Health System Committed to Care Excellence designation  by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI).

In recent years, Sunnybrook has focused on developing and implementing age-friendly care strategies across the hospital. Here are some of the ways we are providing safe, high-quality, individualized care for older adults.

Individualized care plans

Providing age-friendly care begins with understanding and aligning with each patients’ goals, values and preferences. At Sunnybrook, teams start by asking older patients what matters to them and how we can enhance their care experience.

Whether staff are in the early stages of developing a care plans, preparing a patient for discharge or discussing end-of-life care, these conversations allow our teams to provide dignified, compassionate, respectful care that personalizes to each patient’s unique wants and needs.

Senior-Friendly Champions

To provide increased support to older patients, any and all Sunnybrook staff have the opportunity to become a Senior-Friendly Champion. Senior-Friendly Champions are staff that have received additional education on how to support and care for older patients in a dignified manner. Senior-Friendly Champions work on-unit with patients and their families to ensure their needs are met while in hospital.

Healthy Stay Volunteers

The Healthy Stay Volunteer program is another way we support older patients while staying in hospital. Our Healthy Stay volunteers work with older patients to ensure they maintain a healthy mind and stay physically active.

Healthy Stay Volunteers assist with everyday tasks such as helping older patients make phone calls, assisting with food trays and ensuring patients get up and moving. Volunteers also offer companionship, visiting patients to complete a puzzle, read a book, or have a conversation.

Family and caregiver education

Supporting an older adult can be hard on family members and caregivers. To ease this burden, Sunnybrook offers comprehensive educational courses and training to family members and caregivers or older adults through the Senior Friendly Portal.

Through the portal, family members and caregivers can learn about the importance of maintain mobility, keeping patient hydrated and how to prevent physical and mental decline during hospital stays. Offering these resources means family members and caregivers can play a more active role in patient care.

Proper use of medication

Understanding a patient’s full medication history is another way we are working to support older adults. To do this, staff gather information from multiple sources including the patient, family members, caregivers, pharmacies and medical records.

Care teams focus on minimizing risks associated with the use of multiple medications by assessing both the short and long-term effects, the patients care goals, preferences and life expectancy. By doing this, we are able to accurately prescribe and de-prescribe medication to make sure we meet the patients evolving care needs.

Looking to the future

Prioritizing age-friendly care is not only essential in response to our aging population, but also a core principle that guarantees every older patient received the compassionate and dignified care the deserve throughout Sunnybrook.

By integrating age-friendly practice and policies, Sunnybrook is empowering its staff, physicians, students and volunteers with the knowledge and skills to provide exceptional care for older adults. As our populations ages, Sunnybrook is proactively preparing to meet the needs of older adults with confidence and commitment.

About the author

Molly Giroux

Molly Giroux is a Communications Specialist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Have a question about this post? Get in touch.