Current Research

Empowering Ontario Long-Term Care Residents to Shape the Places They Call Home: Co-Design Research Project with OARC

OARC is currently engaged in a 2-year research project made possible by two successful grant applications, with funds received through the Springboard grant program by the Canadian Frailty Network joint with Perley Health and a Patient-Oriented Research grant provided by the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR).

Our project will involve 3 progressive phases:

1.  A scoping review of existing literature (specifically, an examination of articles with examples of residents being engaged in home-level decisions).
2.  Direct consultation with residents and team members in Ontario long-term care homes in the form of online exploratory conversational interviews or homogenous focus groups.
3. Co-design and development of a toolkit/resource for long-term care homes to facilitate resident involvement in their home operations and decision-making.

Progress updates and the outcomes of this work will be shared through OARC’s communications channels. The study results will also be published in an academic journal and presented at long-term care sector and gerontological conferences, webinars, and workshops. Outcomes of this study have the potential to influence practices within long-term care homes by inspiring an organizational culture where residents help shape the place they call home. We look forward to sharing more with you in the coming months!

Knowledge Translation in Action:

January 2025 – Research featured with the McMaster Collaborative for Health and Aging, as part of their Collaborative Conversations series. A recording of the “Collaborating for Change: A Co-Design Approach to Resident Engagement in Long-Term Care Homes” session can be viewed here.

November 2024 – Research shared with LTC resident and sector partners across Ontario via live webinar hosted by OARC. Access the recording of the session, “Ask a Resident First – Resident Engagement in Research” here.

November 2024 – Highlights from Phase 1 and 2 of the research project shared with the Advancing Workforce Analysis and Research for Dementia (AWARD Network). Access recording here.

March 2024 – Research project featured on brainXchange webinar hosted in partnership with the Alzheimer Society of Canada and the Canadian Consortium of Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA). Access recording here.

February 2024 - OARC is pleased to share our published protocol paper, which outlines the scope of our research project.

For more information about the current research, please contact Chloe Yeung (Lee), Quality and Evaluation Specialist at: cyeung@ontarc.com

The research team involves OARC Resident Leaders and an engaged group of long-term care sector and academic partners:

• Chloe Yeung (OARC Team Lead), Research Coordinator
• Jennifer Bethell (Research Lead), Affiliate Scientist, KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – University Health Network, Assistant Professor (Status-Only), Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto
• Beryl Collingwood, RN, Senior Leadership, Long-Term Care
• Jim Gilhuly, Resident Leader/OARC Board Director
• Devora Greenspon, Resident Leader/ Co-Chair, OARC Resident Experts Advisors and Leaders (REAL) Group
• Julia Fineczko, PhD Candidate, Doctor of Nursing, University of Toronto
• Sobhneek Hothi, Research Assistant/ Health Sciences Student, University of Toronto
• Dr. Carrie McAiney, Associate Professor, School of Public Health Sciences, University of Waterloo/ Schlegel Research Chair in Dementia and Scientific Director, Murray Alzheimer Research and Education Program at the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging
• Dr. Katherine McGilton, Senior Scientist, KITE Research Institute, Toronto Rehab Institute - University Health Network/ Professor, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto
• Gale Ramsden, Resident Leader/ OARC Board Director and Co-Chair, Resident Experts Advisors and Leaders (REAL) Group

OARC Team:

• Julie Garvey, Administration and Finance Manager
• Jennifer Langston, Operations and Project Manager
• Melissa Matheson, Education and Home Support Manager
• Melissa McVie, Director of Communications
• Dee Tripp, Executive Director
• Stephanie Ventura, Director of Education

This research is supported by a Springboard Grants Program: Early Career Researcher Grant from the Canadian Frailty Network and Perley Health (Principal Investigator: Jennifer Bethell) and a Patient-Oriented Research Training Grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (Principal Investigators: Ontario Association of Residents' Councils; Devora Greenspon; Melissa McVie; Dee Tripp; Jennifer Bethell).