So much emphasis is placed on celebrity and riches in our culture, as if people with both are the only people with stories to tell. But that’s not how we feel at the Homeplace of Henderson. We know that everyone has a story to tell, no matter if a person lived in a little house on Seventh Street his whole life or if she is the Queen of England. We are equally amused and enthused by both.
The stories of our residents—learning them and sharing them—is another key component of our person-centered care approach. It all starts when a resident comes to live with us. At this point, we take in necessary information to complete mandated paperwork for state regulations, insurance, and other purposes.
But then we take it to another level, when we learn more about the unique person that is coming to live with us. At this point, we gather more of the personal information of the resident. We want to know who they were years ago, jobs they held, places they visited, service they gave to country and community. And we want to know more—much more—whatever our new resident wants to tell us.
With this information, we’ll be working with a community partner, a professional writer, who will use resident’s feedback to craft a piece of writing about the resident. We’re still not exactly sure the precise format of the piece, but we do know that it will lay out the life achievements of our resident. This is just a small part of how we plan to celebrate our residents.
We envision placing these pieces of writing in visible spots of each resident’s room. This will allow fellow residents and staff to read about their friends. Residents will be able to make connections and find similarities with each other. We hope it leads to long conversations among our residents about their past. Growing up on farms, moving away to big cities, working in similar industries or service to our country—we know our residents will have things to talk about, and these stories give residents the spark to start.
They also allow our staff to better know each resident. In our employees’ coming and going into residents’ rooms, we stress that they should stop and take a read and learn about the resident they care for. No doubt they, too, will find something worthy of a conversation and will ask our older residents about the life they’ve lived.
Finally, our residents and families will have the opportunity to expand on their story with the professional writer. Residents or families can request that the life of the resident can be written about at length—from short biographies all the way to full-length books. We feel this could end up being an heirloom, passed down to later generations. Families might even learn things they never knew or never knew to ask.
We feel our residents’ stories truly are a gift to us and all we have to do is listen.
To contact the Homeplace of Henderson, email Jessica Beaven at jessica.beaven@homeplaceofhenderson.com or call at (270) 577-0534.