enjoy playing a game on the Obie system, as home administrator Kelvin Ooms watches them have some fun
Diamond House Personal Care Home in Warman has found an interactive way to keep their residents engaged while supporting cognitive enhancement during the pandemic.
The personal care home has invested in Obie for Seniors, which is a smart interactive projector that provides stimulating games specifically designed to enhance the lives of seniors.
“The system itself, has never been in a senior care home in Canada,” said Diamond House Personal Care Home administrator Kelvin Ooms. “So Golden Health Care is very proud to be the very first senior care home to introduce it to senior living.”
According to Ooms, the idea was to install the Obie projector at Diamond House as a pilot project to see if it was something that Golden Health Care wanted to invest in for its other personal care home facilities in the province.
The Obie projector has been in the care home for about a month and, after hearing positive feedback from the residents, it encouraged Golden Health to go ahead with its plan of having the system installed in the other personal care homes the organization is in charge of. “Once we got this system installed, we soon realized very quickly that it significantly added to the quality of life of our residents,” said Ooms. “In fact, they were talking about it when they even weren’t at the table playing the game, they were telling other residents about it during supper hour and they were asking when they could play another game.”
Along with the cognitive aspects, the device presents an outlet for seniors to engage with each other safely, since other recreation activities that Diamond House usually provides is very limited due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ooms mentioned that one of the main objectives at Diamond House is finding different ways to provide that quality of life for its residents, and he is also very happy to see the residents actually have some fun during these unprecedented times.
“We had five residents around a table and they were looking across each other, they were laughing, and they were having so much fun,” said Ooms.
“You forget about all of the anxieties in life, you forget about not being able to see your family, and you forget about all of the things we’re living with right now. When we have our residents laughing, and having fun with something like this, that’s what it’s about, that quality of life.”
With the Obie, games can be played on a table, wall, floor or any flat surface. At Diamond House, the projector is installed on the ceiling and they have it set up where residents can play at a table.
“Once they’re done, we wipe down the hand rails of the chairs, we wipe down the surface of the chair and table and we’re ready for another game with a new group of residents,” said Ooms.
Socializing and being active is important to the residents at Diamond House and, while the pandemic has limited the larger group activities, Obie for Seniors is something they can enjoy in a safe matter.
It’s also a good outlet for residents to enjoy each others’ company even if they just choose to watch people play.
“The residents that are a little bit more shy and keep to themselves, so far this has been great for them,” said Diamond House activity coordinator Amanda Collins.
Even though Obie is a great way to stay in engaged during these tough times, the device is still going to be around post-pandemic.
“Eventually, if we are able to start bringing in visitors again, it’s going to be a great tool for them to play with their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. It’s something fun they can all to do together no matter what age you are,” said Collins.
For residents who may have disabilities such as impaired vision, they can also enjoy what the Obie device has to offer.
“They can still kind of see shapes and colours a little bit. So the tulip game, which has lots of colours, they just waive their hands and the tulips still grow,” said Collins. “They can still actually interact with it which is awesome.”
Before the pandemic, residents enjoyed lve music performances and the staff has found an alternative way to fill that void.
“There is a group that started doing videos for (long-term care) homes, and it’s been awesome. They do prerecorded concerts that we can play on YouTube and it’s a great way for them to still see musical performances,” said Collins.
There are six separate living areas at Diamond House, which arecalled houses, that have up to 15 residents living in that household. So residents in those respective living areas can still eat together, do small activities together, such as crafts, but they cannot interact with people in the other households of the personal care home.
“That’s probably been the hardest because they do have friends in other houses, so not to be able to visit (with everybody) has been very tough, but it’s getting better,” said Collins.
Visitations right now are limited to compassionate reasons only, but Diamond House has tablets for residents to use so they can still visit with their family members in a virtual way. There hasn’t been a case of COVID-19 at Diamond House and the staff at the personal care home are doing a great job in following proper protocols to keep the virus out.
