Wellington County’s long-term care home has received a national excellence award for resident programing.
Wellington Terrace was recognized through Senior Care Canada magazine’s 2016 Excellence Award program for it’s recently-initiated Dementia Care Enabling Garden program.
“A fenced yard with a perimeter perennial garden, a patch of grass and a stark concrete patio has been transformed into a space that invites residents outside,” states an article that forms part of a four-page spread on the facility in the magazine’s First Quarter 2016 issue.
The garden was created over a three-year period with the aid of staff, students and volunteers.
“It allows residents to play, relax, work, share a thoughts and engage in meaningful activity,” noted Wellington Terrace life enrichment manager Colleen Cudney during a presentation to Wellington County council on Jan. 28.
The garden was built around a 1945 McCormack Farmall Tractor donated by a local farmer and tractor enthusiast. The facility includes vegetable and flower gardens in raised beds, a clothes line and other structures designed to promote activity and interaction.
The garden compliments key features of the Terrace property including “the beautiful settings that we enjoy, a pavilion overlooking a pond and a woodlot, two trails and a paved walking path,” explained Cudney.
Warden George Bridge commented the raised beds are similar to those used in community gardens in his homc community of Minto and are much appreciated by seniors “who couldn’t garden anymore because they couldn’t bend down.
“Then you add what I think is the big ingredient, which is staff and volunteers,” said Bridge.
“To see what we do in Wellington County and how we treat our residents is just amazing.”
