Good Care, Elder Care: QuickStart Guide to Finding the Right Day Care Centre for Your Elderly Loved Ones

This article was brought to you by:

Choosing the right day care centre for your elderly loved ones is one of the most important decisions you will make. This is especially so if they happen to have certain requirements or special needs.

The right environment and programme not only ensure their safety, but also take care of their well-being and personal growth.

With so many options available, the process of choosing the right day care centre can feel overwhelming. Should you prioritise location or programmes offered?

What about safety standards and caregiver-to-recipient ratios?

This QuickStart Guide is designed to simplify your search by highlighting the essential factors to consider and the questions to ask.

From understanding accreditation standards to visiting potential centres, we will walk you through the steps to find a facility that meets your loved one’s needs and gives you peace of mind. Let us get started on making an informed choice that ensures comfort, care and connection for those you hold dear.

REASONS FOR ENGAGING DAY CARE CENTRE SERVICES

From our experience, there are various reasons why families and seniors look to engage in day care centre services, but the most common reason that we often hear from families is that they are looking for a place where their loved ones can come to enjoy meaningful and heartfelt interactions and activities.

For seniors themselves, some of them have shared that they often feel lonely or isolated at home, even though they might be living with their loved ones, as their children are often busy working, only returning home at night after work. This often leaves them alone for most parts of the day.

A day care centre like ours, or as we like to call ourselves – a club, we are here to work alongside families to bridge the gap in care that their senior loved ones might be experiencing at home, such as a lack of mental stimulation, social interactions and/or physical exercise.

On the other hand, for a niche group of clients that we service, we found that their families engage us as they are worried about their loved one’s cognitive decline (i.e. onset or speed of mental decline).

Their concerns include whether we are able to help to stop this decline, the things they need to do to take care of their loved ones well, and the impact on their loved ones’ lives if they do not seek the right intervention at the right time.

In this respect, we work closely with the families to manage their expectations as well as reassure them that we are here to provide the necessary support they require.

It is an unfortunate reality that we are not able to stop elderly cognitive decline once it has begun; but as a senior care centre, our programmes and activities are designed to help slow down the speed of decline, and/or maintain and prolong the level of cognitive abilities that the client is currently at.

We have also found that some families face a lot of caregiver stress. When their elderly loved ones are with us, it is a form of respite for the family/caregivers. It is a time to recharge their batteries so that they can take better care of their loved ones.

THE TYPES OF CLIENTS OF HOVI CLUB ORCHARD SERVICES

Broadly, we can categorise our clients into the following:  Clients looking for active ageing.

1. Clients with varying levels of neurocognitive disabilities (NCDs) (e.g. onset or severe dementia).
2. Physically-impaired clients who need a handicap-friendly environment. Our facilities and environment, such as wide walkways, open-space concept, handicap-friendly toilets, etc., cater to clients who use mobility aids and/or are wheelchair bound.
3. Clients who have difficulty leaving their home due to mobility issues or self-isolation due to NCD. For these clients, home-based care is very important. As part of our club services, we do offer activity-based home care as well.

Home care is a viable first step option that we use to befriend the senior, allowing us to form a bond with them in a safe space of their choosing.

But more importantly, our centre manager, along with our care staff, will work with the family to eventually bring the senior to our club, where they can meet their peers and expand their social circle to a healthy and comfortable level for them.

PERSONALISED AND INDIVIDUALISED CARE

As a Finnish brand, Hovi Club Orchard focuses on being client-centric, where the client is not only placed in the centre, but their opinions are valued and help to shape the care that we provide them with.

Personalisation is key when it comes to clients with NCDs as it can be dynamic in terms of the level and type of care they require. At Hovi Club Orchard, each client is celebrated as an individual and no two care plans are the same.

Each Individualised Care Plan (ICP) is created through a collaborative effort between our dedicated team, the client’s loving family, as well as their doctors and medical specialists.

In each case, we encourage knowledge sharing with the family as we believe that this will ultimately benefit our clients and the care they receive.

A MORE INTIMATE AND PERSONALISED SETTING

Having a cosier set up with a small client-to-staff ratio allows our care staff to facilitate meaningful interactions and get to know each senior on a deeper and more personal level.

We have tools, like our very own journal My Own Life Story, that we actively use to capture key information on each client. This allows every member of our team to have the same level of understanding for each client, such as their likes and dislikes, which then allows for personalised care.

Our activity group sizes consist of a healthy mix of large group activities to small groups and even individual activities. This is to cater to clients with deferring needs and NCDs. By doing so, we facilitate and create the optimal environment and opportunities for every individual client to interact and participate – at a level that is best suited for them.

HOVI CARE’S ACTIVITIES AND PROGRAMME

Our activities centre around our three core pillars of wellness: Physical, Social and Cognitive Wellness. These pillars embody the gold standard of holistic care that is derived from the FINGER study. The FINGER study focuses on five areas:

1. Diet
2. Physical activity
3. Cognitive stimulation
4. Social activity
5. Cardiovascular risk factor monitoring

In terms of our three core pillars of wellness, for Physical Wellness, our activities are designed to encourage practice and exercise of things like fine motor skills, balance, coordination, reflexes and strategy planning. All of which vastly helps with Activities of Daily Living (ADLs).

For Social Wellness, every client has different social needs. Some prefer larger groups, while others prefer smaller groups. Some may even prefer one-on-one activities.

When it comes to group sizing, our activities acknowledge all these different preferences. Our team ensures that on any given day or session, the activities are planned such that each preference is met and that all activities meet our clients’ social needs.

For some clients with more severe stage NCDs, the activities they do will be catered more towards social rehabilitation and integration, such as relearning to be comfortable in group settings or life skills that they might have lost due to their NCDs.

Finally, in terms of Cognitive Wellness, this involves brain stimulating and engaging activities that require focus, attention, and even some strategising to complete. Activities like brain teasers fulfil this need.

They range from number games to spot-the-difference and even reminiscence games. Reminiscence is a key part of our programme, especially for our NCD clients as it brings up familiar memories and emotions. For some clients, they might share personal experiences and memories with us.

For others, it allows them to experience a long forgotten but familiar time in their lives and relive those memories. All of which allows them to connect with others through their own terms.

Apart from our three core pillars, another aspect of the FINGER method that we look at is nutrition. Our meals are prepared in house and follow the HPB recommendation for MY Healthy Plate.

Besides that, for clients who require further intervention or monitoring of their nutrition, we work closely with the family and the advice of their doctors/nutritionist to introduce more nutrient-dense food or supplements into their diet.

For clients with NCDs, it can be challenging to ensure that they consume their daily nutritional requirements. We try to help by sharing with the families some nutritional tips and tricks to enable their elderly loved ones to embark on a successful nutritional journey every day.

We also share with them food options and alternatives that are of a higher nutritional value.

LOCATION AND ACCESSIBILITY

Hovi Club Orchard is located in Camden Medical, along Orchard Road. We are located at a central location close to many amenities like the Orchard Boulevard MRT Station, Singapore Botanical Gardens and the nearby Tanglin Mall.

Being in a medical building also allows us to collaborate with other medical professionals like physiotherapists to create a one-stop solution for our clients, eliminating the need for them to spend more time shuttling between various services and care centres.

For our clients who arrive by car or cab, Camden Medical has a spacious and well sheltered drop-off point, with a medical concierge that can assist with loading and offloading, if required.

You Might Also Like:

Mark of Misery: Teaching Caregivers to Recognise Signs of Distress in Elderly Parents by Tracie Lazaroo Are you at risk of a heart attack? Learning the Long Game: 5 Daily Mistakes That Steal Our Longevity Lasting Legacy – Conversation with a CEO: Xandro Lab Founder Dr Eugene He NMN: The Longevity Ingredient That is Changing the Game