Wonderful Smells Bring Back Memories

Of all the senses, smell is the sense that is best at bringing back memories. When you smell a certain scent it feels as though you slipped back in time and that you are actually at that scene again. Hale Makua Wailuku resident enjoy baking cookies and cinnamon bread. The aroma’s triggered fond memories from their past and added a reminisce element to the baking program.

Pic#1 From left Patrick Kato, Myra Yanigihara, Mitsue Nakahashi, Julita Kaiama, Doris Morisaki

Pic#2 Cookie and cinnamon bread with Myra and Mitsue in the background

Residents Celebrate February Birthdays

The Plunkers play music and perform the hula in honor of Hale Makua Kahului residents' February birthdays. Every month one day of the month is set aside to celebrate all of the residents who have birthdays during that month. Residents enjoyed cake and punch, and are given a lei on their actual birthday.

More Spontaneous Moments

Activities team member Maile Licos uses a ball to work with residents on motor and cognitive skills. The ball is covered in writing with topics and questions that let us get to know and interact with each other. Questions like “Describe your favorite hobbies” “Give a high 5 to the person across the room” “What do you wish for”.

Spontaneous Moment

Lynsey, Hale Makua Wailuku Activities Director, shared that today volunteers Wesley and Maile came to visit and talk story with our residents. They were helping route residents to the dining room for lunch and on impulse grabbed a ukulele and serenaded the residents during lunch. Residents Henry Kaina (in back) and Eileen Kailihou (front) sang along with them.

Spreading the Word About Luana

One of the Luana Core team's goals since 2009 has been to educate all of Hale Makua Health Services 500+ employees about Luaua. The Core Team has always agreed that getting employee buy-in is critical to the success of Luana, but has struggled with how to orient so many people to Luana and get them to really understand why this initiative is vital to the organization and our efforts in culture change.

While 40 employees under went the two-day Eden Alternative training to become certified, the vast majority of staff members are in various stages of how familiar they are with Luana, starting at knowing nothing, to being fairly familiar with the plagues of loneliness, helplessness and boredom. Many of the challenges that we've faced with moving forward with Luana have been with employees understanding the concept and buying into it. As you can imagine, it is very difficult to get over 500 employees on board if they're not really sure what Luana is about and how it benefits the residents as well as themselves.

I am happy to announce that we are on our way to educating all of our employees, starting with today's presentation to our Leadership Team, which consists of the organizations' managers. Joyce, Saundra and Ted of the Luana Core Team unveiled the Luana staff education presentation, which we are targeting to have presented to all employees by May 2010. The goal is to get all employees familiar with the basic principles of Luana, the three plagues, and the antidotes to the plagues, as well as share stories and examples of some of the antidotes in action.

Cooking for Chinese New Year

Kung Hee Fat Choy! Today residents celebrated Chinese New Year with freshly made crispy won tons. Residents Roberta Kapuaala and Bruno Wong, with Activities Assistant May Cordero, helped to prepare the won tons for frying before being served to their fellow residents.

The Joy of Gardening

Ella Rosetes from the West Neighborhood shared that since Kaiser Permanente's Martin Luther King Day of Service on January 18, 2010, several residents have been tending their herb and vegetable garden. One resident who used to grow lettuce on her farm was particularly excited about the prospect of being able to grow lettuce at her home again. She is seen regularly in the garden, enjoying pulling weeds,watering and fertilizing often for hours at time.

Pictured below is a resident tending to the rows of lettuce in the West Neighborhood resident garden. Also shown are before and after photos of the West Neighborhood courtyard with the Kaiser physicians, staff and their families hard at work.

Hale Makua Wailuku Celebrates Valentine's Day

On February 12th, Hale Makua Wailuku residents and staff celebrated Valentine's Day with a special lunch and dancing.

Photos:

• Activities Director, Lynsey, dancing with residents Zosima Medeiros and "Chico" Cruz
• Residents enjoy Valentine's lunch with music by Randall and Frank
• Resident Henry Kaina enjoys a Valentine's ice cream sundae
  

2nd Annual Miss Sweetheart Pageant

On February 12th, former Hana resident Alexandria Helm, Miss Pikake, was crowned Hale Makua Kahului's Miss Sweetheart 2010. Miss Pikake beat out seven other contestants including first runner-up, Marilyn Mitchell, Miss West, and second runner-up, Gloria Distefano, Miss North.

Alexandria, known to her friends as Ali, worked as a privates Home Nurse for 10 years then moved on to work at Malulani Hospital, which is now Hale Makua Wailuku. After leaving Malulani Hospital Ali worked at Kaunoa Senior Center for another 10 years. In 1932, she and her husband were the very first couple to be married at Christ the King Church in Kahului.

Photos:

• MC Brian Nagami asks 2009 Miss Sweetheart winner, Marion Watanabe, how she felt about making the front page of The Maui News for winning last year's pageant
• 2010 Miss Sweetheart, Alexandria Helm, waves to her adoring fans, and is escorted by Activities Assistant, May Cordero
• 2010 Miss Sweetheart, Alexandria Helm, pictured center with first runner-up Marilyn Mitchell on the left and second runner-up Gloria Distefano on the right
  

What is Resident-Directed Care?

In my last couple of postings I wrote about resident-directed care, also known as person-centered care. For those who may not be familiar with what resident-directed care is, I thought I'd try to give readers a short explanation and a few examples in this posting.

Resident-directed care is addressed in Eden Alternative Principle #8: "An Elder-centered community honors its Elders by de-emphasizing top-down bureaucratic authority, seeking instead to place the maximum possible decisions-making authority into the hands of Elders or into the hands of those closest to them." Please note that I use the word "residents" instead of the Eden Alternative word "Elders" as I believe that "residents" is all encompassing of the individuals we serve since not all of the people who live at Hale Makua would consider themselves to be an "elder".

How we refer to people who reside at Hale Makua has also been a hotly debated topic by the Luana Core Team. Should we use the word "Elders" as the Eden Alternative does, or is "residents" more appropriate for the diversity ages of those who live here. In the end we decided that the most Luana thing to do would be to place the "decision-making authority" in the hands of the residents.

Another example of person-centered care is something as simple as letting residents choose their afternoon activity. Last week Wednesday I had asked the Wailuku Activities Director, Lynsey, to take some photos of the residents making bread, which I thought was the scheduled afternoon activity. Of course with my one track food mind I read "bread making", not "bead making", where residents make jewelry from beads. Lynsey went on to explain that the residents had decided that they would rather sing karaoke instead of making beaded jewelry.

My final example of resident-directed care can be found in our Gardenia Neighborhood, where short-stay/rehab residents can order room service.The Gardenia Neighborhood has menus with a variety of food options and a phone that connects directly to the kitchen. Residents can order from the menu and have items delivered directly to their room.