St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa has been caring for Ottawa seniors since 1865, inspired by the compassionate spirit of Saint Marguerite d’Youville.

Expand opportunities to connect and engage in meaningful activities

“We need to respond and be open to what is meaningful for residents.”

Everyone needs a sense of purpose. When residents are able to give input and share responsibility for decisions about what happens in their home, they are more likely to become engaged in meaningful activity — and to feel that they live in a place that is truly welcoming. “Meaningful” activity may be helping to organize an event, participating in social and recreational programs, or simply sitting in the garden enjoying the sunshine.

Purpose and engagement also come from being connected — to friends and family, to other residents, to staff and volunteers. When residents do not have many connections (for example, if they have few family members or friends close by) or if they have less independence, they need more support to feel engaged. People also need to be able to engage in their own interests, which can shift over time as their abilities and capacity change.

Anyone who comes to live at St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa has a life story, a personal story. And that story continues to unfold while they are here. Our staff and volunteers understand that — and appreciate each person’s life journey.

Be a strong, healthy and resilient organization

“Staff want to be actively engaged in identifying solutions.”

Healthy and resilient organizations embrace change. Sometimes those changes are large and challenging — such as our recent move to a new building at a time when our resident population was growing. Sometimes the changes are smaller and more incremental, part of the continuous process of improving quality.

While the commitment to learn and change is strong at St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa, we need new, solution-focused processes to engage people across the organization in quality improvement. Strengthening our systems and the ways we work will bring greater efficiency, make us more effective, and contribute to staff health and wellbeing. All of these ultimately benefit our residents and their families.

To capitalize on the community’s strong support of St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa, we aim to grow our volunteer program, identifying the many ways people can contribute positively to our residents’ experience. We will also strengthen our working relationship with the St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa Foundation, whose fundraising and philanthropy are vital to our work.

Work to evolve our campus of services and supports

“We have a real opportunity to develop our campus to meet the needs of our community”

We aim to develop our campus to include services and supports that complement the long-term care we provide. It is clear that there are unmet needs in the community — and that our organization has great potential to meet those needs. With a parcel of land connected to St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa available for development, we have the opportunity to extend our mission to serve more of those who require care and support, provided we can generate the financial resources to do so. This will require strong support from the community and from the St. Patrick’s Home of Ottawa Foundation.

To advance along this path, we must be disciplined about clarifying our needs, developing plans, engaging partners and the broader community, implementing a capital campaign and managing development effectively.