Etxean Ondo Residences - the Rezola experience

Over the last two weeks, our colleagues have made two posts on our blog in which they have told us about the application of the Person-Centred Care Model through the Etxean Ondo Project and, on the other hand, the specific experience of the implementation of this model at the Fraisoro Centre.

Our experience began in March 2011 in a Day Centre Unit and in September 2012 in a Coexistence Unit in the residential area. In this post we will try to explain our experience by focusing on two basic aspects that mark the development of Person-Centred Care in our care model: Life History and Daily Activities.

The Life History.

Knowing the life history of people is essential to provide comprehensive and focused care. Knowing the tastes, hobbies, customs, etc. of the people we care for makes it easier to provide individualised attention and respect their life path. Each person is unique and therefore their attention should be in accordance with themselves.

Understanding their daily needs allows us to plan, together with the person, the care to be given. It can also be used to support the older person in making decisions.

To begin this project, the Centre collected the life stories of each of the people who were going to participate in this pilot experience. Although it was a practice in our model of care to collect part of this information, it is from the beginning of the project when it begins to be done more exhaustively, relying on an initial questionnaire designed for this purpose, through which it was easier for us to detect daily needs to which we could respond, since it does not make sense to collect information if the information collected is not going to have a favourable impact on the person we are caring for.

Etxean Ondo Coexistence Unit - Basque Government
Etxean Ondo Coexistence Unit - Basque Government

Activities of daily life

For all the centre's staff it was essential to guarantee the implementation of interventions related to daily life, in accordance with the tastes and preferences of each user, in line with their life history.

These activities are aimed at promoting the autonomy and well-being of the people participating in the project, regardless of the degree of functional and/or cognitive dependency they present.

For this reason, over the last two years, Rezola has implemented various everyday activities (cooking, shopping, going outdoors, gardening, etc.), which have made it possible to meet the needs detected earlier.

As an example, the following table shows the different skills to be worked on through each of the daily activities developed at the centre.

After our experience, we would like to share with you the first conclusions reached by the Centre's team:

• With the collection of the Life History we have been able to obtain relevant information in relation to the biographical trajectory, favouring a more personalised treatment and contributing to improve the self-esteem and satisfaction of the people. It is considered that the History should be extended and improved through the individualized work of the professionals on a daily basis.
• The implementation of interventions associated with the characteristics and preferences of older people implies the development of organizational and environmental modifications of the centres and changes in the guidelines of action of the professionals.
• Through the daily activities focused on the tastes, hobbies and preferences of the person, an increase in the commitment and interest in carrying out the activities is sought, less presence of passive behaviour and a greater gratification obtained thanks to the participation in the programme.
• The implementation of some of the daily activities, often considered as simple, has a great therapeutic value and must be carried out as professional interventions by the care staff properly trained and involved.

Once again it is shown that without the training and involvement of staff, this way of caring for and accompanying people in our centres would be unfeasible.

We ALL make this project a reality!