Author: garnettm

It Takes A Village…

It has been an exciting few weeks as Bethany prepares to open our newest care center, Bethany Riverview. Many of us have been working on this project for a long time and we are very excited that the site is almost ready to welcome our first residents. However, it is really important to reflect on the work that has gone on to get us to this point.

Today I want to thank the “People of Bethany” for your hard work because each of you has contributed to Bethany Riverview in your own way. Everyone who works at a Bethany site has continued to work hard every day in service of our residents. By coming to work and living into our mission you have allowed others to focus their time on Bethany Riverview. Our tenants at Riverview Village have been patient and supportive as this project has unfolded. Construction has been disruptive and constant for over two years but you share our excitement as we prepare to open this new home. Our corporate team has continued to contribute by supporting the organization and then packing and moving to our new corporate team space at Bethany Riverview. Over the last few years our Board of Trustees and our Bethany Care Foundation Board have worked tirelessly to make Bethany Riverview possible.

So as we prepare to welcome our first residents at Bethany Riverview, our first “Campus of Care for Seniors”, please take a moment to congratulate each other for your contribution. After all, it takes a village to build a caring community.

With gratitude for all that you have done…thank you for living into our mission every day.

Jennifer

As always I welcome your comments at jennifer.mccue@bethanyseniors.com

Moving Through Life

“We miss you! Do you miss us?”

Bethany Corporate has undertaken its move to Bethany Riverview in Riverview Village over the last couple of weeks, and this has been a bit of a common refrain. Many of the corporate team headed to Riverview Village a week ago, while others remained behind awaiting their move day. We get used to seeing the same colleagues daily and it’s definitely felt different for all of us over the past week.

It’s a shared human feeling – missing people and wondering if we’re missed when we’re not around!

It made me think about our Bethany families. If we miss our daily interactions with work colleagues after just a week apart, imagine what a big life change it is having a loved one move into care and how much missing goes on in people’s hearts and minds.

That’s why Bethany’s model of everyday excellence is so vital. We all play a part in helping residents and families move through their life transitions. We journey alongside them as they miss each other and the way things were before. Our staff and volunteers give families a sense of peace and comfort that their loved one is cared for and safe. Our donors make it possible for Bethany to add a dog park, a garden or an art program that brings some of those things that are being missed back to the everyday experience of our residents.

Our move to Riverview Village will enable our corporate team to be closer to the residents and families we serve every day and to live into the mission of Bethany more fully. We’re excited for the journey ahead!

Thanks for all you do!

– Gail

In most prior years, I have found the summer to be a time when we tend to demonstrate a more relaxed attitude. Children are off school, most of us take some vacation time away from work to travel or enjoy our various pastimes, and the days and evenings are warmer and longer, enabling us to get out and enjoy our own communities. Even when we are at work, our commute is generally easier as traffic tends to be lighter during school breaks.

This year, however, it appears that things around us are more intense. Our communities have been hitting record high temperatures in the past couple of weeks. There have been several wild storms delivering heavy rain that has caused flooding, hail that has damaged crops and cars, strong winds that have blown down trees, and forest fires that have resulted in local damage as well as widespread air quality warnings. Beyond those extreme but natural events, we also read about the high number of tragic accidents on Alberta roads and a number of potential email frauds that are attacking our desk top computers on an almost daily basis. It seems that, with all of these things happening around us, when added to our work responsibilities and the other daily chores, we are constantly under stress to survive.

At times like these, I like to think back and draw on prior events that can help me get through what might appear to be a temporary crisis. What springs to my mind at this time is the old saying “Keep Calm and Carry On”. According to Wikipedia, this saying was first created for a motivational poster produced by the British government in 1939 in preparation for World War II. The poster was intended to raise the morale of the British public, threatened with widely predicted mass air attacks on major cities. Interestingly, however, although 2.45 million copies of the poster were printed, and although the air attacks did in fact take place, the poster was hardly ever publicly displayed at that time. A copy was rediscovered in 2000 at a bookshop and it has since been re-issued and widely marketed by a number of private companies. Those companies were able to find the ‘silver lining’ in the ‘cloud’ that brought about the initial purpose of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster.

I believe that one of the most important qualities we have as individuals is the ability to find the silver lining in any cloud that may appear to be over us. I would like to challenge all of us, when a problem or issue appears in front of us, to ask the question – how can I not only address my problem but also turn the change that is required into an opportunity to be more successful?

As always, I welcome ideas, suggestions and any questions that you may have.  Please feel free to send them to me at alasdair.smith@bethanyseniors.com. I would love to hear from you about the improvements you have made as a result of overcoming an issue or concern.

Take care,

– Alasdair

With the August long weekend behind us, we are now more than half way through summer and on the countdown to Fall. I hope you are all getting opportunities to enjoy our far too short Alberta summer while also enjoying and engaging in the great work going on across all of Bethany. Jennifer McCue’s recent update “More Hurry….Less Speed” reminded me of the personal cost of busyness, and the need to slow down and still get things done. It also reminded me of one of my favourite books, “Thriving in a 24-7 World” by Dr. Peter Jensen. I shared some information on this book with you all in 2016, but thought it was worth repeating again as Dr. Jensen provides some great guidance on leading more enjoyable, less stressful lives without sacrificing achievement.

Although time if finite and out of our control, Peter speaks about energy management that is within our control – it’s about striking a balance between moments of high performance and periods of renewal. Getting enough rest and recovery, leveraging our stressors and enjoying the presence of our loved ones are positive actions connected to energy management which help us perform better but also live a healthier and happier life. Who doesn’t want to be healthier and happier? Having a sense of purpose and meaning can be a great source of energy. It’s difficult to be motivated when we feel as if we’re being pushed and shoved by what’s happening moment after moment, hour after hour, throughout the day. A vision or purpose gives us a sense of direction and keeps us on course, it helps make sense of what’s important to us in our lives and what we are doing. Bethany’s Vision 2020 provides us all with direction and purpose.

I am personally committed on focusing on what I can control: getting enough sleep, honouring our purpose, embracing humour and positivity, learning to let go, focusing on one thing at a time and doing it well, and spending quality time with family and friends. I would love to hear what strategies you are using to manage your energy, reduce the cost of busyness and the need to slow down and still get things done.

If you have any questions, or would simply like to share your ideas, please contact me directly at lisa.watson@bethanyseniors.com.

Kind regards,

– Lisa

Please be advised that as Human Resources prepares for the Corporate office move to Bethany Riverview, there will be a period of time when paper employee files are in boxes and not accessible.

We will begin packing the employee files into boxes on Tuesday August 8th, and will not have access to them until they are unpacked in our new offices by the end of day Tuesday August 14th.

During this time, please note that HR will not be able to complete any paper employee file requests, including:

• Privacy Requests
• Portability letters and reviewing employee increment hours
• Accessing employee documents (including certificates, degrees, benefits enrolment forms, past employment letters and status changes.)

Requests received the week of the office move that involve employee files will be completed in the order they were received starting on Wednesday August 15th.

With our new Riverview office location, please note the most efficient way to contact HR with requests and employee transactions is through our HRServices email or direct line:

Email: HRServices@Bethanyseniors.com
Direct Line: (403) 210-4640

Your co-operation with this process is appreciated and will help our HR team respond in a timely manner to requests.

Thank you,

Human Resources

As I write this message at the end of another very busy week, I am reflecting on the importance of taking care of yourself.  There are often times when we tend to put the health and well-being of others ahead of ourselves as we strive to get things done. While this is well intended, I have learned over the years that this is not a good practice. If you don’t take care of yourself, no one else will, and eventually you will get to a place where you feel run-down, worn out or overwhelmed. When you get there, it is difficult to offer help or support to others.

Experts suggest we sometime neglect to take care of ourselves because it can be hard to make healthy changes and also because it can sometimes be associated with being selfish to put yourself first. However, if we ignore ourselves and our needs, it can take a heavy toll on our well-being.

How you take care of yourself looks different for everyone; it is as unique and individual as you are. What works for one person might be stressful for someone else. What makes you feel calm and relaxed? Whether it is taking a long walk, meditating, time at the gym, or setting aside “me” time every day, the important thing is that you figure out what it looks like for you. If you don’t take care of yourself, it is hard to take care of others and those that are depending on you.

As we head into a very busy fall at Bethany, I encourage you to think about this. What can you do for you?  You all play an important role in the organization and your health and well-being is critical. After all, “you can’t pour from an empty cup”.

As always, I welcome any ideas or suggestions you may have.  Please send them to me at nancy.hughes@bethanyseniors.com.

Regards,
Nancy

As many of you know, the FIFA World Cup came to an end with France being crowned world champions. The FIFA World Cup is the most popular sporting event in the world and takes place every four years. This time it was held in Russia with 900 million television viewers watching the final.

Any team that makes it to the final and goes onto win obviously has supremely talented individuals. However, individual talent alone will not win the tournament. In fact, it’s rare for the best players in the world to play on the winning team. This year the top two players in the world, Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, were playing for teams eliminated early in the tournament.

Teams that win the tournament all share qualities that distinguish them from the rest. One of the most powerful lessons that can be learned from the World Cup is the positive relationship team cohesion has with team performance. This has been proven time and again with highly cohesive teams overcoming the seemingly more talented teams.

More than 40 years ago, Canadian sports psychologist Albert Carron wrote that team cohesion is “a dynamic process which is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick together and remain united in the pursuit of its goals and objectives.”

The key to this cohesion is having shared goals that everyone is committed to achieving. This requires that individual team members don’t allow their personal goals to undermine the agreed team goals. Usually, when a team under-performs it’s often because individual team members have put their individual needs ahead of the team’s. This is often the result of a lack of communication about the shared goals and not any intentional individual effort to undermine these goals. Understanding team goals alone is not enough though. The players also need to know their specific roles in the team. This second part is crucial to achieving team cohesion. One without the other will again lead to under-performance therefore every team member needs to know the team goals and their role in achieving them. The manager of the French national soccer team knew this and by clearly communicating the team goals and defining every player’s individual role he was able to help the French team win the tournament.

Organizations like Bethany Care Society and Bethany Care Foundation also have shared goals some of these are long term in nature and others short term. Studying the cohesion displayed by successful sports teams reminds us of our need to continually be working on creating and maintaining cohesive teams. This is something I personally consider on a daily basis. I ask myself the question “what’s the team goal and what’s my role?” If I am unclear, I will ask to ensure that I am in sync with my teams. Asking this simple question helps me to focus on doing the right things. I hope it helps you.

I encourage any ideas, suggestions and any questions that you may have. Please feel free to send them to me at spencer.harmer@bethanyseniors.com.

Take care,

– Spencer

The Founders’ Bursary Awards are awarded to the children of Bethany employees that recognize a student’s excellence in scholastic achievement, outstanding leadership, and a commitment to the community.

Two scholarships in the amount of $1,500 are awarded each school year to the children of Bethany employees.

The deadline to apply is July 31, 2018 so get your application in today!

For more information and application forms go to:

Bethany Founders’ Bursary Award Forms

More Hurry….Less Speed!

My grandmother always had some saying to capture what was going on in the moment.  I spent many summers with her at her farm house, no running water, wood stove, no TV, being totally bored!  I was always wishing for something whether it was to invite someone over, go swimming or anything to make my day more exciting.   She was constantly telling me to stop wishing my life away!  She also expected us to help her and she was constantly telling us to slow down because in our haste to complete our work we were not doing a good job, we often we created more work for her because we didn’t take the time to do it right the first time.  More hurry….less speed she used to mutter over and over to us!  We had no clue what she meant.

Recently I have heard many people tell me how busy they are.  We all have a lot going on in our lives both at home and at work.  We are so connected because of technology that we are constantly juggling multiple things at the same time.  I have done some reading lately on this phenomenon of busyness and support those who suggest that we have become convinced that busyness and activity are a good thing, and are seen by some as a “badge of honor” …something to celebrate.

However, busyness comes at a cost.  When we are busy we don’t stop to think and reflect.  We may take action too quickly without understanding the implications.  We make more mistakes.  We make ourselves feel more pressured and stressed. We don’t communicate well and sometimes in our busyness we mdon’t have any idea how our behavior is impacting those around us.  Busyness can actually slow us down, causing us to repeat tasks, forcing us to repair mistakes.  Slowing down is shown to increase productivity.

Some suggestions for how we slow down and still get things done:

1. Prioritize – not everything has to be done at the same time.
2. Pace yourself
3. Work smarter not harder
4. Make sure to take short breaks to refresh your mind
5. Get outside –enjoy the beauty of nature

As my grandmother taught me, when you are constantly rushing around, you end up taking more time to accomplish your work; slow and steady was the way my grandmother lived her life and I think we all could benefit from her approach.

Jennifer

As always I welcome your comments at jennifer.mccue@bethanyseniors.com

The Foundation toured a small group of prospective donors through Bethany Riverview on Friday and they were wowed by the thoughtful design and all of the features of the building that have been intentionally created for complex dementia care. As we parted company at the end of the tour, though, it wasn’t the building we were talking about, it was the care that the building will make possible. Jennifer McCue talked to our guests about, how, with our dementia residents, ‘moments’ become so meaningful.  Tiny slivers of memory, a joyful experience, the feeling of satisfaction when a puzzle comes together or a carefully tended plant produces a flower, the comforting purr of a kitten near one’s ear. Moments.

After one of the very first Rotary presentations we did two years ago, a daughter shared with me that seeing her mom’s temporary joy at noticing a tiny little vase of sweet peas on the table helped her shift her mindset from one of loss to one of gratitude…for moments.

We can all benefit from that perspective.

A lot of our work at Bethany is about creating moments. For our residents. For their families. For our donors.

It’s such a busy time right across Bethany – there’s so much happening at every single one of our sites. Everyone is working so hard.

But summer is the perfect time to create a few moments for ourselves. If your summer plans include a game of golf, a barbeque, a family getaway, or even a frosty glass of lemonade in this heat…take the time to notice, and savour, your own moments!

Thanks for all you do!

Gail