The residents of long-term care at St. Joseph’s Hospital were in the spotlight on Valentine’s Day this year.
The St. Joseph’s Hospital Foundation wanted the residents of the special care home to help celebrate Valentine’s Day, and to get the residents involved in something fun and entertaining. The foundation asked residents for their love advice, and posted pictures of the residents, with name, age and love advice, on the foundation’s Facebook page.
“Obviously this year there are a lot of family members that can’t come and see their loved ones, so we thought this was a good way to not only get the residents involved and the recreation team in long-term care involved, but also to feature some of the residents on our Facebook page to really share the love advice that they have to share with the community,” said Breanne Van de Woestyne, the executive director at the hospital foundation.
It’s also a chance for family members to see a loved one they might not have seen for the past year.
“It was something that was fun for us to do, and we were just excited to work with the long-term care team to put it all together,” she said.
The response was great, and the residents had fun with the responses.
Some of them are really good and serious advice about love and a successful marriage, but others are humourous.
“It really highlighted the personalities in something so small, it really projected what the residents are really like. Especially the funny ones. You can just really see their personality come out,” she said.
The residents were able to smile despite all that they’ve been through during the past 11 months due to COVID.
The photos were a big hit on social media as well. The foundation has had more than 5,000 views of the pictures that were posted.
“The biggest thing that was really special to us was to see the family members that live here who tagged family members from all over the country who haven’t seen their loved ones and these residents for a long time. It was really cool to see them having conversations on the Facebook photos,” she said.
The hospital is always looking for ways to get involved with the recreation team in long-term care and with residents, and she expects similar initiatives will happen in the future.
Van de Woestyne and everyone else at the hospital were stunned with the response, and to see it shared beyond the community. But it’s something they were happy to be part of by spreading positivity.
