D1

By KYLE MULLIN
For The Daily Gleaner

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The administrators of York Care Centre are using simple technology to help their residents peer into yesteryear. A website called Lifebio is used as an electronic scrap book where interviews, pictures and music can be cobbled together to create a fitting dedication to those living there.

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Stephen MacGillivray Photo

From left, Daphne Noonan, manager of therapeutic recreation and narrative programs co-chair at York Care Centre, and Jana Jones, unit clerk and narrative programs co-chair, look over a biography of one of the residents at the manor.

"First and foremost, we want to honour our residents' rich histories and experiences by allowing them the opportunity to tell their story and to reflect upon all that they have accomplished in their lifetimes," said Daphne Noonan, manager of therapeutic recreation at the centre who co-chairs the narrative program after helping to spearhead the project two years ago.

"Secondly, we want to challenge assumptions of aging and in particular aging in a long-term care facility, by allowing our staff, volunteers and everyone in our community to see our residents in a truly holistic sense."

The key to bucking cliches and offering a true picture of the participants in the narrative program is to present the residents' stories in their own words.

Interested staff or family members of those residents attend a training session at the centre that prepares them to conduct the interview process.

Once the residents answer each of those questions, their life stories can be written and uploaded onto the Lifebio website, which presents them on PDF style pages that can be printed or emailed to family and friends. The finished biography can also be shipped as a hardcopy version from Lifebio's office in Ohio for about one dollar per page.

The biographers then sample highlights from that narrative to create a slide show tribute that summarizes the resident's story. Key quotes and pictures from the narrative are interwoven with fitting music to bring the biographies to life for family and friends who gather to watch them at the centre's monthly narrative ceremony.

For the past two years the Killarney Lions' Club has paid for York Care Centre's subscription to the Lifebio site. Noonan said using the site is not an overly technical or sophisticated process, but it helps accomplish the trying task of offering a proper dedication to the centre's members.

"The online memory journal is very user friendly, so for those who are not technology savvy, it is very simple to use," she said. "(And) the... tributes... are treasured by all participants and are a great example of how technology can be used creatively to tell a story and to educate others about our residents' rich histories."

Forward Thinking is a Thursday feature that explores research and development, as well as new technologies in our community. Send your comments and story ideas to news@dailygleaner.com.