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Toronto Long-Term Care Homes and Services believes in the value of education and in the creation of high-achieving, learning environments – for staff, volunteers, residents and families. Knowledge increases our ability to solve problems, explore ideas and issues, build trust, create effective teams and solutions. Through education, we draw on each other’s culture, experiences, expectations and knowledge to make improvements.

Long-Term Care Homes and Services has designed  programs and training opportunities to ensure our staff provides professional services that are at the leading edge in long-term care. Now, through the Long-term Care Education Series, we can share this training with colleagues across Canada.

Each program in the Long-Term Care Series offers trainers an easy-to-use, made-in-Canada training solution to critical long-term care issues. Each program has been designed for use by an interdisciplinary team, based on our commitment to the interdisciplinary approach to care.
Training programs include trainers' notes, overhead transparencies, PowerPoint presentations, videos and other supporting materials needed to deliver the training. Each program also includes sample policies and procedures followed by Toronto Long-Term Care Homes and Services, so that other organizations may adapt, if desired.

It's our goal to continue to be leaders in long-term care, and you are invited to share the knowledge we have learned along the way with others.

List of programs

• Dysphagia: Difficulties Managing Swallowing
• Managing Cognitive Impairment
• The Resident Planning Process
• Palliative Care for the Elderly
• Dehydration in the Elderly

Dysphagia: Difficulties Managing Swallowing

Price: $200 (plus shipping and handling)

Enhancing resident meal times is a priority for long-term care facilities. Staff must ensure that residents are able to eat safely, remain well nourished and enjoy their meals. This poses a special challenge for residents with swallowing disorders.

This program reviews training material to help trainers:

• describe the basic anatomy and physiology of the normal swallow
• review the principles of positioning for all residents
• describe strategies for safe and comfortable feeding for all residents
• describe the signs and symptoms of swallowing difficulties
• demonstrate some special techniques which may be prescribed for residents with swallowing difficulties.

This training program includes: manual, detailed trainer's notes and text to accompany overhead transparencies, a master copy of transparencies, and Toronto Long-Term Care Homes and Services' policies and procedures for managing resident swallowing problems. Training material can be divided into two 45-minute presentations, and the package includes suggested staff activities to support the learning.

Managing Cognitive Impairment

Price: $300 (plus shipping and handling)

Long-term care professionals are trying different approaches to managing residents' behaviour. This training program outlines some of these approaches, and is designed to:

• reduce the number of incidents of resident behavioural responses
• provide support for staff when an incident occurs

The training program features five modules. Each module is designed as a 45-minute presentation, and includes overheads and trainers' information to support the overheads. Topics include:

• guidelines for working defensively with all residents
• identifying factors that contribute to resident behavioural incidents
• steps in the aggression cycle and the appropriate interventions for each step
• techniques for removing oneself from an aggressive act
• policies, procedures and assessment forms used to assist staff in managing aggressive behaviour
• reviews the factors that contribute to behavioural responses
• describes the cycle of aggression.

The Resident Planning Process

Price: $200 (plus shipping and handling)

Long-term care facilities are committed to providing a coordinated and comprehensive approach to care that encompasses the values, strengths, desires and needs of residents. Care and services are based on a holistic approach which includes assessing the resident's social, intellectual, physical, psychological and spiritual abilities (SIPPS). This training manual will assist the multi-disciplinary team in developing a plan of care that responds to the unique characteristics of each resident.

This training program, which includes a 15-minute video, overhead transparencies and trainers' notes, describes each step of the resident planning process and contains policies and procedures that will help staff to assess, conference and plan resident care. It provides the trainer with all the tools needed to present this information in a quick and easy-to-understand way that stresses the importance of accurate resident assessment and planning.

Palliative Care for the Elderly

Price: $400 (plus shipping and handling)

Information available about palliative care focuses on cancer and AIDS - but that's not the reality in long-term care facilities, where most residents die of organ failure. So it's time for a new package that provides staff in long-term care facilities with the knowledge to support the palliative elderly resident.

This training manual is specially designed to meet this critical need, and is a useful tool for all levels of staff working in long-term care.

This manual includes five modules:

Module I:	Models of Palliative Care Acute and Chronic Pain Assessment
Module II:	Pain Management World Health Organization Pain Ladder Use of Analgesics
Module III:	Symptom Management
Module IV:	Communicating with the Resident/Family
Module V:	Spirituality Grieving Care Giver Support

Features:

• Trainer's notes for each module
• Paper copies of overhead transparencies
• Participants' handouts
• Toronto Homes for the Aged Division policies and procedures in palliative care.

Dehydration in the Elderly

Price: $150 (plus shipping and handling)

Dehydration poses a severe risk to the elderly, but it is frequently unrecognized by nursing, dietary and medical staff.

The purpose of this training manual is to deliver basic information on dehydration in the elderly, and to help identify and manage residents with dehydration.

The training manual includes trainer's notes, a master copy of transparencies, policies, a suggested reading list and is also in PowerPoint format.

This manual is designed to address the following learning objectives:

1. To identify the three types of dehydration.
2. To identify the causes of dehydration.
3. To describe the clinical signs and symptoms of dehydration.
4. To describe the methods and treatment of dehydration.

For more information, call 416-392-8906

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