Understanding who the person is and the experiences they have gone through is part of getting the connection. They did have a life prior to coming here. They come here with a past, with a history. It's important that they bring that with them and the staff can appreciate that person in their entirety. They build a stronger relationship to the residents, they have a closer connection, and they, in my opinion, become better caregivers.
Through Our Eyes started a couple of years ago when we had this sense that there was a disconnect between the current forms of education on Resident's Bill of Rights and the resident's lived experience. We created an advisory group to dig deeply into this topic. Bottom line, what we wanted to know is the current method of the Resident's Bill of Rights education.
Does it work? And unanimously, the answer was no. We decided that something needed to change. Through Our Eyes, bringing the Resident's Bill of Rights alive is a comprehensive program, including a DVD, a manual, worksheets, and activities to support the development of an education session for our long-term care community.
It's focused on the Resident's Bill of Rights from the perspective of residents. The Through Our Eyes program is designed to bring together a resident and a staff member over several weeks. At each of the meetings, the staff member and the resident work up to the process of delivering an education session. The process of the education isn't only to create an education session, but it's really to facilitate relationship building between the resident and the staff member.
Because when you build a personal connection, you begin to care for that person on a deeper level, and it really allows you to provide that individual with respect and with dignity. So this is Mary Lindsey, our resident star of the Through Our Eyes program. This is Naomi, and she is the Life Enrichment Director, and she gets us to do anything she wants.
She's charming. We were approached to be part of the research project of the Through Our Eyes. We met and talked and went through the binder and the different resources and worksheets and kind of game plans, what was unique and what we needed for our group. I think the greatest opportunity was being allowed to present to literally everyone that we work with, and being able to pass that message along.
We have a lot in common, but a lot different too, you know, and it's interesting, your life doesn't end. It begins in a different way. Through Our Eyes provides all the tools and strategies for a home to engage any resident who is along that spectrum of cognitive wellness. So even a resident who is living with significant cognitive changes can be incorporated into the program as a teacher.
So Through Our Eyes is a tool that not only provides education in the home, in the long-term care community, but it also creates a bridge peer-to-peer where residents can get to know one another and better represent the collective voice of the residents living in the home. This is Willard Guisek. He's a resident here at Westmount Gardens Long-Term Care, and co-facilitated the Through Our Eyes educational program for resident rights with myself and Lana.
Speaking with his wife, she said Willard's nature is that he would want to help in any way. So we created the "I am" statement with information from Willard's wife and went from there. I am not done yet. I am still here and I am whole. I am Willard Augustine MacIsaac. It was an honor to advocate for him and involve him in something that's important to all residents, regardless of abilities, because everybody needs a voice.
Whether it's you or me or the neighbor next door, everybody needs a voice. I think the Through Our Eyes project for me has brought a whole new perspective into my work, into my life, and has reignited that passion that got me here. I just love being involved. The residents need to know that there is a line of communication between them and the staff.
We did a usability test over the last nine months or so. What came out of that is, yes, 100% of the facilitator teams in all 11 homes said they would recommend the program to other long-term care homes and they would use it again and again. And it was well proven that the resident perspective spoke louder than just the words itself.
Every resident has a story, but you have to be willing to listen to them. And Through Our Eyes is bringing all of that back alive. Our job is to urge our members to participate and to take this program and own it in their homes. Next steps going forward is just driving how important this is into our sector, how important this is for every resident we care for and how important it is for our staff and our volunteers and our leadership to get on board and see things through our residents' eyes.
We want to be able to get the message out. Go for it. It's great. Do it. You won't regret it. I think what was surprising was the emotion from staff, really how it hit their heart. You could see some light bulbs go off, some things that maybe they hadn't thought of. It was a positive change and it was a good change. To know that we're able to help make a difference and get to know you and to start that new chapter in your life and to make it a fun one, I think is a really important and moving kind of experience.
OARC's vision for the Through Our Eyes program is really to see it rolled out in every long-term care home across the province. Seeing the success and seeing how homes have embraced this opportunity shows us at OARC that long-term care is ready. You are ready to make a change. You are ready to embrace the notion of recognizing residents as experts in their experience. You are ready to engage residents in a way that perhaps you haven't thought of before. You are ready.
