The Living Homes Initiative (LHI) - “Working Together to Uplift the Lives of the Elderly”
Dr. Axel Johannes Kravatzky , Jodene Elizabeth-Anne Akeung
Trinidad &Tobago Chamber of Industry & Commerce (TTCIC)
Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
2006, Sep 6
Annotation: Aegis Management Solutions Ltd (AMSL) used AI in this case to bring all the stakeholders involved in homes for the elderly (homeowners, staff, residents in homes, family members of residents, suppliers, NGOs, government) together, to work to transform the culture of homes for the elderly across Trinidad and Tobago.
We were the lead sponsors of this initiative and had the belief that by using AI, these organisations and communities would be urged to transform faster, by focusing on their best & most powerful experiences, rather than on their problems and what is lacking. To do this, we lead a process that identified, appreciated, and amplified the best of “what is”- in order to help them pursue the dreams and possibilities of what “could be”. Our focus was exclusively and purposefully on the strengths, passions and life-giving forces that are found in the Homes for the Elderly System - those factors which hold the potential for inspired, positive and most importantly, sustainable change.
The Caribbean has one of the oldest senior citizens populations in the developing world. By 2050, one in four people in the Caribbean will be aged 60 plus, a significant proportion of whom who will be the “oldest old”- those aged 80 and over. With this in mind, we (AMSL), along with the Home for the Aged Sub-Committee of the T&T Chamber of Industry and Commerce (The Chamber), Community Improvement Committee partnered to carry out this project, in the hope that it will offer this component of the country’s population with homes that are productive and happy places of positive living- “Living Homes”.
Building on a 1999 Competition, the ‘Living Homes’ Initiative (LHI) was launched at The Chamber in December 2005. LHI seeks to transform the culture of homes for the elderly to ones of “Living Homes”, by:
a) developing a shared understanding of what constitutes standards of quality for ‘Living Homes’
b) raising awareness about which homes have inspiring qualities about them
c) helping all existing Homes increase their quality of service through-
i. building on the root causes of success that have enabled the most inspiring to achieve what they did
ii. increasing available resources.
As a side note, we hope to make this initiative a renewable process, with the project cycling over at least a two year span and perhaps to beyond.
From the launch in 2005, we called for a Core Group of volunteers, with approximately 25 members (which eventually settled down to 10), to train them in the core principles and theory underlying AI, in preparation to send them out to perform their interviews and then further to analyse and synthesise the stories gathered.
This first “cycle” in our project spanned over six months, with 5 workshop days for training and review as follows (see attached Resources):
• Days 1 and 2 (Feb 2006) – Core Group Training (AI Foundations)
• Day 3 (Mar 2006) – Core Group Review (AI Foundations and Interview Protocol Review)
• Days 4 and 5 (May, July 2006) – Group Synthesis and Analysis of Interviews
After the first 3 training days, the Core Group of 10 volunteers engaged stakeholders through interviews from May to July, 2006. Fundamental to the life of this part of the process was our focus on gathering all the stakeholders who are vital to making to make the experience of homes what it is, to systematically inquire through structured, in-depth interviews into the experiences that they consider to best exemplify “Living Homes”.
For the interview process itself, we looked at a cross-section of stakeholders involved in elderly care, with about 210 stakeholders invited to participate in our interview inquiry. Of the 210 stakeholders written to, 85 responded, agreeing to be interviewed. In the course of a little more than 1½ months, the 10 Core Group volunteers were then able to conduct more than 40 in-depth interviews across Trinidad and Tobago with home owners, residents, staff, government agencies, suppliers and family members.
The volunteers then synthesized and analyzed all the information and drafted a set of four (4) Living Homes Standards along with enabling “Root Causes of Success”, as part of a “1st Draft” definition of what are the standards that define living homes (similar to Provocative Propositions), as well as using them in defining the awards for our Awards and Appreciation ceremony.
The culmination of this process for 2006 was an “Awards & Appreciation Ceremony” at the end of July, 2006 which highlighted the organisations that best exemplified the standards that define what it means to be a Living Home and also where we presented special “Living Homes Awards” that recognized their achievements. The awards presented to all the stakeholders who participated in the interview process were not the traditional “prizes” that benefit the homes on a short-term basis. Rather, they were quite literally taken from the 4 standards created and sought to amplify the current strengths already present within the homes, in order to bring about further and more sustainable transformation (see attached Resources).
Members of the media, and the various stakeholders were invited to attend this function. As part of it, the Core Group volunteers were able to read aloud their stories of the chosen exemplars for the Standards; this proved to be extremely poignant and moving. The following notes the 4 Standards in full, as well as the corresponding exemplars that were decided as best exemplifying each standard:
Living with Passion – is the meaningful use of time through physical, mental, social, cultural, creative, intergenerational activities which support the elderly individual’s identity. Interaction is key, as is quality of life and optimum functioning. It is about who you are, who you were, and who you want to be
2006 Exemplars:
• Teaching Sewing (St. Vincent de Paul Home for the Aged)
• Looking for a Partner (St. Peter’s Home)
• A Mother’s Love (Simplicity Geriatric Home)
Collaboration: Conduits for Involvement – When NGO’s. Government, Business and the Community can collaborate as one, they serve as useful conduits for information and resources, and this is a recipe for success.
2006 Exemplar:
• Geriatric Adolescent Partnership Programme (GAPP)
Transformative training – is training that is conducted in such a manner that it positively influences the behaviour, attitudes and lifestyle choices of a Living Homes Team (owners, caregivers, residents, suppliers, volunteers, family members, etc.), so that quality care is delivered in an environment that fosters motivated staff, satisfied residents, and supporting family members.
2006 Exemplar
• From Cleaner to Supervisor (Soroptimist Home for the Aged)
• Calissa’s Change (Family Home for the Aged)
Communication:
Advanced Generation Education (A.G.E.) – is the collaborative process of creating awareness among the general population about the needs and perspectives of the elderly through different media, such as print, radio, TV, internet, community organizations, documentaries, etc.
2006 Exemplar:
• The Division of Ageing, Ministry of Social Development
Online Resources:
Aegis Management Solutions Ltd
Living Homes
Trinidad & Tobago Chamber
Resource Files:
Living Homes Resource Documents (pdf )
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