Everybody Pitches In

 

National Nursing Home Week gave Hale Makua a chance to show off their teamwork skills with this year’s theme: “Everybody Pitches In.” Staff, volunteers, and residents all work together at Hale Makua as care partners. In Kahului, they demonstrated team spirit by dressing up in different colors each day of the week and by participating in activities.

The Kahului Activities team organized a Sports Day where staff and residents teamed up to compete in stacking cups, twirling streamers, and tossing rings onto Coke bottles. In the photo above, Day Health client Charles Kaeha rips pages from a magazine while his team members cheer him on. In the photos below, resident and professional Japanese karaoke singer Mitsonubu Kawahara sings “Yama”, and resident Winona Nunes sings “Hawaii Aloha” along with staff. These moments illustrate Eden Principle #4: “An Elder-centered community creates opportunity to give as well as receive care. This is the antidote to helplessness.”

 

National Nursing Home Week is celebrated in the month of May, and recognizes residents in long term and post-acute care settings, the dedicated staff who care for them, and the value of care planning where everyone "pitches in" for optimal outcomes. The observance is an opportunity to involve families, community members, youth, and others in a community-wide show of support and respect for these individuals and the staff who provide care or support services. 

This year’s theme was “Team Care: Everyone Pitches In!” Today’s skilled nursing care facilities (a.k.a. “nursing homes) encourage resident and family involvement in designing a personalized, resident-centered care plan: a program of medical, therapy, nutrition and social activities. Participation in care is the best way to ensure residents and families are satisfied with the quality of care that they receive.