Butterfly Approach offers hope for future in Long-Term Care in Ontario
Meaningful Care Matters welcomes the publication of Ontario’s Long-Term Care Covid-19 Commission Final Report in its honest and powerful reflections of the impact of the last year on people living and working in long-term care.
It was particularly heartening that the report did not just highlight what went wrong, but also offered tangible recommendations based on ‘best practices and promising ideas’ highlighted during the Commission’s hearings.
One of the approaches mentioned was The Butterfly Approach, currently being implemented and supported by Meaningful Care Matters in a number of facilities across Ontario, and also in Alberta. The Butterfly Approach is both a philosophy of care and a clear roadmap on how to achieve this in practice. While there are other models of care which might include some similar features, The Butterfly Approach is one of the most comprehensive culture change models to be implemented thus far in Canada, the UK, Ireland, Australia, and the USA.
In the Commission Report, The Butterfly Approach was commended in particular for its small family-feel household living, which was positive both in terms of quality of life and close relationships between people, but also in terms of infection control during Covid-19. Other key elements include a lessening of ‘them and us’ institutional features and less focus on tasks to be done and more on interaction and occupation. This has been particularly welcoming for people during the pandemic where loneliness and boredom became the norm in many long-term-care homes.
All the contributors who talked about the Butterfly Approach stressed the need for motivated and passionate leaders to drive the change needed. Peter Bewert, CEO of Meaningful Care Matters agrees; “It has never been more important to nurture and re-energise inspirational leaders in long-term-care. Many are exhausted after a devastating year of loss and trying to support a depleted and demoralised workforce. However, the Butterfly Family of partners implementing the Approach in Ontario have been supporting each other, and will continue to do so. Meaningful Care Matters has a strong team ready to help existing Butterfly Homes, as well as support services who want to find out more about this transformative approach.”
For more information on Meaningful Care Matters and The Butterfly Approach, visit https://meaningfulcarematters.com/.
The full Long-Term Care Covid-19 Commission Final Report can be found here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WayWKgziPA2TnQGIGBU2CMx3WsP-DkSl/view.
About Meaningful Care Matters
Meaningful Care Matters specialise in helping care homes to access a variety of services facilitating the effective and sustainable implementation of person-centred care models, for the health, social/aged, and disability care settings.
The care and culture consultancy group has recently launched Meaningful Connections Community, a comprehensive online platform offering individuals and care providers an opportunity to share, collaborate and debate issues impacting person-centred care cultures.
