Our Difference

We understand the decision to transition to long-term care is one of the most important decisions you will ever make. We want to ensure your decision is a positive one. Below are some of our home’s points of difference:

The calendar is always full. You can be as active as you like.

For some people, the key to living better is filling every day with meaningful activities that bring people together, build bonds and create shared experiences.

Whether it’s tapping the power of music to engage a resident with dementia, attending worship services, participating in exercise classes, or reminiscing with a friendly volunteer, there’s always something going on at Extendicare Countryside.

Here, residents lead active and engaged lives.

This is home. Your home.

We want you to feel at home. We’ll support you in becoming an active and engaged member of your new community and enjoy life to the best of your ability.

We have a welcoming and inclusive environment.

Not only do we work very hard to integrate residents into our community and feel at home, we’re also committed to making families feel at home here too. The following are some of the measures we take to help our residents settle in and also help family members feel comfortable and get involved:

• Meet Your Primary Caregiver: Upon admission, new residents and their family members meet their Primary Caregiver who then introduces the resident and family members to other staff members and residents in an effort to immediately begin establishing a relationship of trust.
• Family Participation: Family members are encouraged and welcomed to participate in activities with their loved one.
• Resident Care Plan: Family members, along with their loved one participate actively in all aspects of the development of the resident’s Care Plan.
• Family Council: Our Family Council actively engages families to attend and participate in information and education sessions where they can meet other family members and feel welcomed. We also listen to our Family Council when they bring forth suggestions for improvements to our home.
• Resident Newsletter: Between Friends quarterly newsletter is available to residents and families to keep them informed on current events at the home.
• Open Door Policy: At Countryside we have an open door policy. Whenever a family member wants to talk, we’re here to listen, and our social worker is always available to talk privately about coping with the stress and emotions of caregiving.

We connect you to the community.

Maintaining strong connections to others is essential to keeping people active and involved.

Getting you out into the community and bringing the community into our home is important to your quality of life. Here are some of the ways in which the residents and staff get involved with the community, and how the community connects with us:

• Resident Outings: We organize a minimum of 3 outings every month for residents. They can include everything from shopping excursions, lunch, movies and theatre to attending cars shows, dinner and more.
• Christmas Lights Tour: Residents are taken on a tour of the city to enjoy the bright festive lights.
• Hockey Games: The Sudbury Wolves donate tickets so residents can go and enjoy a hockey game.
• Summer Outings: During the summer months outings include boat cruises, barbecues and picnics in the park.
• Community Polling Stations: During elections a polling station is set up in our home for our residents as well as members of the community.
• Student Placement Opportunities: We provide placement opportunities for students in the RN, RPN, PSW and Social Work programs at Laurentian University, Boreal College and Cambrian College.
• Memory Books: We co-ordinate with local high schools a program in which students get to know our residents and create “memory books” with them in both English and French.
• Elementary Student Visits: At Halloween local elementary school students come to our home to trick-or-treat and at Christmas local students come in to stage their Christmas concerts for residents, staff and family members.
• Emergency Department Outreach Program : Working closely with our local hospital, we have developed and implemented an Emergency Department Outreach Program to reduce the number of visits our residents make to the ER. An ER nurse comes to the home to assess a resident before they go to the ER. Often, the resident can be treated in the home, eliminating the need for trips to and from the hospital. And if they do need to go, we try to get them in and out as quickly as possible.

Our Family Council is very active at the municipal level advocating on behalf of all seniors for improved services such as transit.