Birtle Personal Care Home latest to participate in door mural project
The ‘Adopt a Door’ initiative within Prairie Mountain Health places personalized murals on personal care home doors to help make residents feel more at home. One of the program’s overarching goals is to make it easier for residents to find their way to their rooms. Recently, Sunnyside Personal Care Home in Birtle held an informal event to showcase the new doors.
Tracey Howe and Ashley LeFranc are Recreation Workers at Sunnyside PCH.
“We were very excited to see our residents’ family members and members from the community attend our open house. After touring folks around, attendees were invited to our dining room for coffee and a visit. The residents really enjoyed seeing everyone,” they said.
Each door costs $250 to ‘adopt’, covering materials, labour, and the installation company’s mileage. Clear plastic covers were added to protect the door murals, with their cost covered by donations to the Recreation Department.
Residents, local organizations, and community members who purchased their own murals, or donations received in memory of past residents, were used to design individual murals. The remaining murals were selected by the recreation department in consultation with the nursing staff.
“We were very pleased that murals for all of the resident doors were purchased. We received donations for a few extra doors, so we decided to have murals placed on all the doors along the hallways, including the hair salon and bathtub room. We also placed a couple of street signs to name the hallways.”
“The residents loved their new doors and enjoyed watching the doors be completed. It has really brightened up our hallways.”
With the ‘Adopt a Door’ project complete, Tracey and Ashley are already moving on to the next ‘beautification’ initiative.
“Our next project is to paint the hallways and common rooms to make our personal care home feel more home-like. In spring, we will renovate the flower beds and begin our annual ‘Adopt a Planter’ fundraiser,” they said.