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Category: News

  • Your 2017 T4/T4A Tax Slips are now Available Online

    Unlike previous years, Bethany will NOT be mailing out printed copies of T4/T4A tax slips. Please make sure you print your own copies of these slips from the Employee Self Service Portal.

    Your 2017 T4/T4A tax slips are now online via the Employee Self Service Portal, saved in the same place as your pay slips. These tax slips can be accessed either at work or from home.

    Please note that if you have changed your employment status during the year (full-time, part-time, or casual) you will receive a T4 for each status. If you have multiple T4s, they will all be saved in a single PDF file called “T4 2017.”

    An electronic T4/T4A is an environmentally friendly solution that eliminates lost or stolen personal information and significantly reduces the risk of identity theft. Your information can be accessed 24/7 from work or home. Your electronic T4/T4A will remain online, secure, and accessible.

    How will I access my T4/T4A tax slips?

    To access your T4/T4a tax slips from a computer within the Bethany network, Click Here.
    To access your T4/T4A tax slips from a computer at home or outside the Bethany network, Click Here.

    T4_Slips

  • Bethany Launches Service Excellence Recognition Awards Program

    At Bethany, we action our values each and every day. Now it’s time we recognize one another for our “best of the best” efforts!

    Our new Service Excellence Recognition Awards program lets us acknowledge the very best efforts from across Bethany! Efforts that soar far above the average, taking our people-centered work to brand new heights. By nominating your most excellent co-worker(s), you validate their best efforts to champion our Standards for Service Excellence.

    Click Here to learn more and nominate a colleague.

    Join us in celebrating Bethany’s “best of the best” Service Excellence! And hurry…your opportunity to nominate closes March 5!

  • A Message from the CFO

    As I write this message to you late on Friday afternoon, my thoughts turn to the last few days and to a couple of things in particular – first, how cold it has been this past week, and second how much snow has fallen around our homes and Bethany’s buildings, as well as on the roads in between.

    In the almost four decades I have lived in Alberta, I can think of only three other times when Calgary had such a large snowfall. One was in the early 1980s when there was a fierce snow fall in the north end of Calgary (and, as my colleagues of the time delighted in telling everyone, no snow in south Calgary); the St. Patrick’s Day snow storm in the late 1990s; and the September 2014 snow storm when so many of Calgary’s trees were damaged, some irreparably.

    I believe that one of the measures of a person’s character is shown by how they react to an emergency, such as the large snow fall we had this past week. I am very proud to report that so many of the People of Bethany that I spoke to last week demonstrated the wonderful quality of resilience in making sure they were at work to meet the requirements of their roles. For some, that meant leaving earlier from home to get to work on time; while for others, it meant taking public transit in favour of driving themselves, or having someone else give them a lift. As well, some of our scheduled work had to be re-arranged to make sure that services to our residents, tenants and other clients were not impacted by the cold and snow.

    Thank you to all of you who demonstrated resilience, in your own way, to continue fulfilling Bethany’s mission of ‘Creating Caring Communities’.

    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.

    Take care,

    – Alasdair

  • A Message from the VP, People and Culture

    As many of you may know, I am a huge NFL fan. February 4 was Super Bowl Sunday, and my beloved New England Patriots were in the championship game taking on the “underdog” Philadelphia Eagles. It was a great game of football, and in the end, the underdogs came out on top. On Monday morning, I had a steady stream of people coming to my office offering commiserations for my team’s loss. Interestingly, I am not commiserating. Quite the opposite. Great teams competed and the best team on the day won.

    I was inspired by Philly’s story. When their star quarterback suffered a season ending injury, the coach’s son found a picture of Coach Pederson taken when he was back up quarterback with the Green Bay Packers years ago, and it became Coach Pederson’s mantra to the team throughout the playoffs: “An individual can make a difference. A team can make a miracle”.

    These words are very relevant for all of us at Bethany. I am inspired every day by the great team work and commitment to providing outstanding service to those we serve. Together, we do great work, and we all should be proud of everything we do at Bethany. Football games come and go, but Bethany’s mission of Creating Caring Communities will live on forever.

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

    Kindest regards,

    – Lisa

  • Bethany and CCHL Sign Three-Year Strategic Alliance

    New partnership agreement serves as an avenue to promote excellence in the health leadership field 

    Bethany Care Society has entered into a strategic alliance with the Canadian College of Health Leaders (CCHL) to increase the leadership capabilities of health care managers in Canada.

    Through this agreement, Bethany and the CCHL will work together to encourage managers in the health care field to obtain their Certified Health Executive (CHE) designation, the only certification program for Canadian health leaders. This program offers individual leaders several benefits including support for lifelong learning in health services leadership; assistance with career advancement; peer recognition and also serves as an essential career designation.

    “We are truly delighted to have signed this agreement with Bethany,” said Ray Racette, CHE, President and CEO of the CCHL. “Our partnership acknowledges that there is a commitment to ongoing professional development for health leaders at Bethany and recognizes how important it is for health leaders to become certified, and to earn the CHE designation.”

    For employers like Bethany, trained leaders gain enhanced knowledge to support the organization’s operations and have the ability to contribute to strategic growth. Employers also have the ability to use the CHE as an industry-wide benchmark when evaluating employee performance.

    “Bethany is proud and committed to the profession of leadership and management in the health services field, and recognizes the CHE designation as a preferred credential for its leadership team,” says Jennifer McCue, President and CEO of Bethany Care Society. “Our partnership with the CCHL supports our corporate commitment to promoting excellence at Bethany.”

    This collaboration will also allow for both organizations to better address the constantly evolving needs of health leaders and align themselves with the LEADS in a Caring Environment framework. This framework is a foundation for Canadian health leadership development and defines the knowledge, skills and attitudes a leader must have to positively contribute to the Canadian health care system.

    “As the CHE designation continues to gain ground as the preferred designation for health care leaders and is recognized as an industry-wide benchmark for evaluating employee performance, partnerships, such as this one with the Bethany Care Society, take a front seat in the ever changing health care field.  The value of investing in our leaders’ lifelong learning is essential and I am extremely pleased with the forming of this new alliance.” Says Sylvie Deliencourt, College Director, Certification, Leadership Development and Chapter Support.

  • A Message from the CMO

    The Christmas story is all about people. The cast of characters is well known: Mary, Joseph, various angels, baby Jesus, some shepherds and the wise men. These are the characters we put faces to, however the miracle of the story really comes alive when you bookend this cast between God and humankind (us). It is through these characters that God comes to us, making real in our world all that God is: love, light, healing, forgiveness, justice, peace, and fresh starts. Scene after scene God declares: you are worth it; I believe in you; together we are going to transform the world for good.

    In our Bethany community, we, the staff, are the cast of characters between this life-giving goodness and our residents and their families. Like those characters of long ago we too are quite ordinary people, and yet our words and actions have a profound impact on the lives of those we care for. In every interaction we too have the opportunity to declare how individuals in our care are deeply valued, and partners in creating the best quality of life while with us. In essence, we live out the Christmas story in every display of compassion and care flowing from this ancient story. Thank you for playing your part in this drama of life. May you be filled with the wonder of Mary, the obedience of Joseph, the joy of the angels, the eagerness of the shepherds, the determination of the wise men, and the peace of the Christ child.

    Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones!

     

    Blessings,

    – Daranne

  • Merry Christmas! A Message from the President and CEO

    During the year it is very easy to be so busy with our own departments and our own tasks. I find that the holiday season gifts us the opportunity to truly reflect back on all we have accomplished over the past year…and to contemplate all the successes yet to come in the year ahead.

    The momentum underway with our corporate strategic plan – Vision 2020 – is beyond extraordinary! It shows us what can happen when true collaboration, creativity, determination, passion and plain old hard work prevail.

    Less than three years ago, we embraced – and began implementing – Bethany’s vision for the future. At our annual leadership forum this past October, we learned that the results to date have surpassed even our own expectations. Now, fuelled by our successes and with a renewed sense of purpose, we are ready to embrace and celebrate this next year to come!

    As we embark on the projects slated for the year ahead, we are especially excited about two major projects: the spring groundbreaking of the first phase of construction for Bethany Cochrane’s redevelopment, and the fall grand opening of the purpose-built Bethany Riverview. Once completed, Bethany Riverview will be the centre of excellence for dementia care in southern Alberta.

    2018 will see us continue to steward the exceptional work underway at Bethany Calgary’s recently unveiled Alternative Level of Care Unit. I take pride in this being the first ALC Unit in the Calgary Zone for Alberta Health Services.

    The coming year will see us complete the organization-wide rollout of KRONOS and the Automated Shift Callout system. We have adopted these tools to help our managers spend less time on administrative duties and more time on the needs of our residents and staff.

    In the coming year we will continue to work diligently to improve the quality of life for our residents through Bethany’s many innovative programs occurring across our care homes.

    Our Service Excellence Program has taken significant steps forward this past year. 2017 has seen some immediate big results, like defining our Standards for Service Excellence and sharing them in the ongoing Huddles with management and front-line staff, the WAVE Recognition Boards now mounted across Bethany, investing in Leadership Development (LEADS) and the implementation of a very robust Performance Management Program. I am very excited to see this important initiative continue to evolve in 2018.

    On behalf of the entire leadership team, I would like to express our heartfelt gratitude for all your hard work and dedication this year. Because of you – our People of Bethany, we are able to live out our mission of creating caring communities.

    Thank you for being part of the Bethany family, and for walking each day with our residents and their families through their journey of aging.

    I wish you all a safe, festive and very Merry Christmas!

    – Jennifer

  • A Message from the COO

    Opening Minds Through Art – The Benefits of Sensory Stimulation in Caring for Residents with Dementia

    Providing appropriate sensory stimulation to those with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia has been shown to be very beneficial in many ways. Sensory stimulation includes anything that stimulates one of our five senses and includes such things as music therapy, pet therapy and art therapy. Studies have shown that these therapies can decrease agitation and restlessness, improve sleep and generally improve quality of life for the individual as well as for caregivers.

    Bethany is working on an overall sensory strategy for the organization as part of our commitment to best practice in dementia care. At present, there are a number of initiatives underway across our sites and this week I would like to highlight the “Opening Minds Through Art” (OMA) program that has been implemented at Bethany Cochrane.

    OMA is an award-winning, evidence-based, intergenerational art program for people with dementia. It was developed about 10 years ago at Miami University’s Scripps Gerontology Centre in Oxford, Ohio and is grounded in person centered care principles. Each resident is paired with a trained volunteer who provides guidance during the art making process but who makes no aesthetic decisions for the artist. The sessions culminate in a gallery exhibition celebrating the artist’s accomplishments while educating the public about the creative capacities of people with dementia.

    The OMA program was introduced at Bethany Cochrane in the spring of 2017. Given the intergenerational nature of the program, student volunteers were recruited from the University of Calgary and Cochrane High and together with regular volunteers, worked with residents over the course of six weeks. A total of 12 residents participated in the program and the response was very positive. New friendships were forged and residents were able to leverage their creativity to create very unique art pieces.

    The gallery exhibition was held on November 28 and I had the privilege of attending. The event showcased the artwork created by the residents and the pieces were part of a silent auction intended to raise funds for the program so that it can continue running year round. I had the opportunity to speak with some volunteers and family members in attendance and all were very moved by the program and the positive changes they saw in the residents. I was particularly struck by a comment made by one of the residents who, when asked how she felt said, “like an artist!”

    I am excited about this work and the other initiatives we have underway that provide sensory stimulation programs for our residents with dementia!

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

    Regards,

    – Nancy

  • Bethany Riverview Update

    Since our groundbreaking in July 2016, we’ve been hard at work on the construction of Bethany Riverview. Building a 210,000 square foot, four-storey building is no small undertaking, especially when you consider the many features and spaces that are being created specifically for residents with complex dementia.

    When complete, Bethany Riverview will be the largest purpose-built dementia care residence in southern Alberta and designed to meet the evolving needs of our community, as well as the unique requirements of dementia care.

    In this month’s Riverview update, we have a look at a few of our construction highlights. Thank you to Prakash Sankar for providing this summary and to the 120 dedicated on-site construction workers for their commitment to keeping this major project on schedule.

    Exterior Construction Milestones:

    • Main roof water tight
    • Roof top units in place with duct work connected by the beginning of December
    • Atrium skylight glazing in progress along with exterior insulation finish
    • Official postal address allocated

    Interior Construction Milestones:

    • Mechanical room equipment install in progress
    • Prime/1st coat painting as well as millwork and vanities for easy side suites in progress
    • Mechanical and electrical fixtures on east side suites in progress
    • Passenger elevator work has started
    • Framing and rough-ins for main kitchen underway
    • Laundry room in the parkade has started

    Looking ahead, we will be working on the following areas over the next two months:

    • Atrium will be fully enclosed and scaffolding removed
    • Suites on two floors will be completed (if the specialty door delivery is on schedule)
    • Kitchen equipment will be delivered to site before Christmas
    • Passenger elevator will be in place and service elevator work will begin

    We will continue to share highlights and photos as we get closer to opening Bethany Riverview in the Fall 2018.

    Do you have questions about Bethany Riverview? Email askBethanyRiverview@bethanyseniors.com and we will provide answers in upcoming issues of Update.

  • 2018 Parking Permits

    2018 parking permits are now available. Parking Applications must be completed on an annual basis. Everyone picking up a 2018 parking permit must complete a Parking Application, even if you have completed an application in the past. Please ensure you have your new parking permit by December 31st.