The Reflection Room®: Creating Space for Grief, Bereavement, Community and Healing in Long Term Care Homes

Co-hosted by the SE Research Centre, Family Councils of Ontario, and Ontario Association of Residents Councils

Webinar on LTC home installations

About the Reflection Room®:

As we move towards a post-COVID-19 future, finding new ways to address grief and loss in LTC home communities is an important priority. As part of the province’s grief and bereavement strategy, the Saint Elizabeth Foundation, SE Research Centre, and Ontario Health Central Region Long-term Care Planning Table have been collaborating to offer the Reflection Room® experience to LTC homes, at no cost, with the goal of supporting residents, caregivers, and staff.

The Reflection Room® is an evidence-based art installation that uses storytelling to generate open dialogue about grief from various forms of loss, including loss of social contacts and of course dying and death, within LTC home communities. It is an immersive, calming space for residents, caregivers, and staff to take a few quiet moments; read other’s reflections about their experiences with dying, death, and grief; and share their own reflections if they choose. Hosting this dedicated space for reflection in LTC homes is one way that residents, family and friend caregivers, and staff can be supported in acknowledging and processing the loss and grief that has been experienced throughout the pandemic. The Reflection Room® also offers an opportunity for participants to remember, recount, celebrate, teach, learn, and connect; all these can help move towards collective recovery and healing.

Several LTC homes have been involved in an early roll-out of this initiative, all citing positive feedback that the Reflection Room® requires minimal time or space to set up, and yet has served as a powerful way to give space and reflection time to LTC home communities. We are excited to be officially launching the Reflection Room® opportunity more broadly, and so we invite you to attend our virtual launch to learn more about this opportunity and how it can come to your LTC home.

What you will hear about:

• How and why the Reflection Room® was developed by the SE Research Centre
• The role of the Reflection Room® as part of the province’s Grief and Bereavement plan, given the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
• Testimonials from LTC home leaders in Central region who have been involved in the early roll-out of this project, as they share their experience of hosting a Reflection Room® and the impact it has had on their community thus far
• How residents, family and friend caregivers, and staff can get involved in coordinating a Reflection Room® installation in a LTC home.

Rebuilding communities through the Reflection Room®

Webinar on the preliminary findings of the LTC home installations

Presented by: Family Councils Ontario and SE Research Centre

LTC homes have been heavily affected by the pandemic. Residents, families, and staff of LTC homes are still working through the emotions of their pandemic-related losses.

Since June 2021, 49 LTC homes have chosen the Reflection Room as a resource to help support their community to reflect on their grief and loss and heal from the pandemic together.

In this webinar, the SE Research Centre will share preliminary results of the use of the Reflection Room, and representatives of LTC homes will explain how and why the Reflection Room is a simple but meaningful resource for LTC homes during this time.

Speakers:

Neeliya Paripooranam is the Project and Communications Manager for the Reflection Room® project at the SE Research Centre.

Celina Carter is a nurse with a PhD in public health. She is a senior research associate at SE Health and specializes in how to communicate about the end of life and implement person-centred care

Heather Climenhage and Frances Thielen are social workers at Sheridan Villa, one of the Region of Peel’s Long Term Care Centres. Along with another creative colleague, they implemented a successful Reflection Room this year.

Jason Jakobs is a graduate student at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, where he is completing a MTS degree with a concentration in Thanatology which includes end-of-life care and grief counselling. He served as the Reflection Room Liaison at Parkwood Mennonite Home and LTC.

If you have any inquiries about the Reflection Room®, please contact the Saint Elizabeth Foundation at foundation@sehc.com