Leadership in Long-Term Care and Retirement Living, a new certificate program developed by Conestoga in partnership with the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging (RIA) and its Schlegel Centre for Learning, Research and Innovation, was recognized by the Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA) as the Best New Product or Service of the Year at the group’s Quality and Innovation Awards Gala held in Toronto on November 23.
OLTCA is Canada’s largest long-term care association, representing more than 440 charitable, not-for-profit, private and municipal long-term care homes funded and regulated by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. The Best New Product or Service of the Year award recognizes the new product or service that is judged by OLTCA members as most likely to have a positive impact on long-term care if more widely adopted.
Leadership in Long-Term Care and Retirement Living is a 180-hour certificate program designed to build essential leadership and management capabilities for health-care professionals working in home care, continuing care, specialized geriatric services and acute care settings.
The program is suitable for groups or individuals and meets the requirements for a program of instruction for administrators in regulations under the Long-Term Care Homes Act. It is supported in part by funding from the Government of Ontario to the Schlegel Centre for Learning Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care.
Participants develop their knowledge and skills through a combination of in-class and online learning, and build Personal Leadership Portfolios to highlight their capabilities.
More than 100 health-care leaders in Ontario have completed the program, with approximately 70 more currently enrolled. The program is also delivered in Alberta under the program name of Leadership in Continuing Care. Two hundred students have completed or are currently enrolled in the Alberta program, with another 50 scheduled to begin in 2016.
The next intake in Ontario is scheduled for Winter 2016 and will take place at Conestoga’s Doon campus. For more information, contact Regina Dryngiewicz.
Conestoga works in partnership with the University of Waterloo and Schlegel Villages, a leader in long-term care and retirement living, through the RIA, working together to enhance the quality of life and care of older adults through research, education and practice.
In October 2015, partners and the community celebrated the opening of a new Centre of Excellence for Innovation in Aging that includes Ontario’s first purpose-built teaching long-term care home connected to a research and training facility. For more information, visit the RIA website.
Conestoga’s commitment to advancing seniors care through education, workforce training and applied research is part of the college’s Advancing Health Communities strategic initiative, one of four centres of innovation and excellence identified in the college’s 2014-2017 Strategic Plan and designed to serve as catalysts for industry, workforce and community development.