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Celebrate Seniors Month by Sharing your Working for Seniors Story

Jun 3, 2024

St. Joseph’s Health System Celebrates Seniors Month and asks you to Share your Working for Seniors Story

Seniors Month in Ontario offers up a chance to recognize, celebrate and champion the important work of seniors and those who care for them. This June we invite you to reflect on how you are Working for Seniors and living the legacy of the Sisters of St. Joseph.

Our mission – Living the Legacy. Compassionate Care. Faith. Discovery — calls us to serve the dear neighbour, address health inequities and remove barriers for priority population groups across the System. For many of us, our dear neighbour is a senior. Residents aged 65 and older are part of the fastest-growing age group in Canada today. Seniors make up about 19 per cent of Ontario’s population and estimates show that the senior population is expected to exceed 11 million people by 2043.

St. Joseph’s Health System is a provincial leader in integrated elder care and one of the largest providers of not-for-profit long-term care in Ontario. The System’s vibrant campus of care model allows older adults to live well and enjoy community, while being an incubator for innovations in new models of integrated elder care.

Here’s a bit more about St. Joseph’s Health System elder care footprint:

870 Long-term care beds across three campuses of care (St. Joseph’s Villa Dundas, St. Joseph’s Life Care Brantford and St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph.
40 units located at First Place, an apartment building managed by CityHousing Hamilton with 24-hour Personal Support Workers support
10,000 Healthcare workers are part of St. Joseph’s Health System, many of whom care for seniors every day.
125-150 Annual admissions into one of St. Joseph’s Villa Dundas long-term care beds
500+ Seniors housing units, including:
- 107 St. Joseph’s Estates life-equity model housing on St. Joseph’s Villa campus
- 87 unit mix-income rental apartment building (Silver Maple Apartments)
- 28 unit market rate semi-detached rental townhomes (Silver Maple Townhomes)
- 80 1-and 2-bedroom affordable apartment units (Residences of St. Joseph’s)
- 200+ Supportive housing apartments
30+ Community programs, including respite care, specialty care for complex continuing, rehabilitation and palliative care, Day Programs, Bereavement Support Programs, 2SLGBTQIA+ Grief Support Program, Behavioural Supports Ontario, Hospice, Palliative Community Outreach Programs, Seniors Mental Health Outpatient and Outreach Programs, Stay Well Program and Exercise Program for Seniors, and more.

Strengthening elder care and reimagining long-term care networks is a key priority for St. Joseph’s Health System. One of the ways the System is delivering on its Strategic Plan, Care Redefined. Teams Reimagined is by harmonizing long-term care practices among member organizations.

For example, St. Joseph’s Life Care Brantford and St. Joseph’s Health Centre Guelph welcomed an Integrated Vice President of Finance this spring to work collaboratively across teams to share resources, systems and policies, ultimately bolstering services for patients, residents and staff. Another example is Project AMPLIFI, which connected clinical data of all six St. Joseph’s Health System member organizations, improving transitions for older adults moving between hospitals and long-term care homes. Long-term care teams across St. Joseph’s Health System are working collaboratively on approaches to quality improvement, policy development, resident and family feedback, and best practices across all sites.

To celebrate Seniors Month, all healthcare workers are invited to participate in the Share your Working for Seniors Story campaign, running until the end of June. Share your story about why you work with seniors, what you enjoy most, some of the challenges you face, and possible solutions.

Click here to Share your Working for Seniors Story.

Finally, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton is hosting Seniors Month Education sessions that are open to all healthcare workers in any St. Joseph’s Health System member organization. Click here for more information and to register today.

Thank-you for all you do to strengthen and reimagine for elder care for our patients, residents, families. And thank-you for continuing to support of one another.

Mieke Ewen, VP Elder Care, St. Joseph’s Health System and Chief Operating Officer, St. Joseph’s Villa, Margaret’s Place Hospice, St. Joseph’s Villa Estates

Elizabeth Buller, President & CEO, St. Joseph’s Health System.