Yee Hong Newsletter

May is definitely about honouring the amazing individuals who care for our residents in our homes and for those living in the communities we serve. On Doctors Day and throughout Nursing Week, we celebrated the incredible contributions of our nursing teams and doctors across Yee Hong! Their kindness and expertise shine bright, lighting the path to how we support seniors to live their lives to the fullest. Thank you to all on the front lines and behind the scenes for your unwavering commitment to caring for our seniors and their loved ones.

As part of building the 2025-27 strategic plan, we held a family engagement session on April 4, 2024. Dr. San Ng, Yee Hong’s Chief Executive Officer, joined Julie Kwan (Director of Quality, Performance, and Practice) and Krista Finlay (Vice President of Communications, Marketing and External Affairs) spoke with family council chairs and other members from across Yee Hong to obtain their valuable insights to inform the development of our next strategic plan.

We received great feedback from family members. The majority of participants told us they were pleased with the high-quality care their loved ones are receiving at Yee Hong and that they felt listened to and acknowledged by our staff. Promisingly, we also learned that many of our session participants were open to supporting Yee Hong, either through fundraising efforts or other initiatives.

At the same time, we received some valuable insight into where Yee Hong needs to focus as we develop our plan for the next few years. Specifically, it is important to family members that Yee Hong has the right staff, volunteers, and technologies in place to maintain our high level of long-term care and that we are doing all we can to raise community awareness for many excellent programs and services we offer particularly our home and community services.

We express our appreciation to every family member who took the time to join us and help shape Yee Hong’s future.

On the topic of team building, Yee Hong held its senior leadership retreat this January at ClearBeing retreat centre in King City. Throughout the day, the Senior Leadership team connected over numerous sessions to tackle what it truly means to “Make Wellness a Priority” for ourselves as leaders and to promote that same wellness with our respective teams. We also had an opportunity to grow closer as a team through unique activities and a closing fire pit ceremony. The insights and knowledge gained from this day have since inspired both our 2025-27 strategic planning and 2024 operational plan commitments.

Thank you to MediSystem Canada and Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP for sponsoring this memorable leadership development event.

Yee Hong prides itself on being home to skilled, committed, and compassionate professionals who embody our mission to provide the best culturally appropriate care and empower seniors to live their lives to the fullest. In recent months, Yee Hong has taken steps to expand and strengthen our team, beginning with several leadership changes:

• Ivan Ip was named Executive Director of our Finch LTC Home. He will continue to oversee the Peter K Kwok Hospice and serve as Vice President of Organization and System Transformation.
• Lloyd Del Rosario has stepped into his new role as Executive Director of our Markham LTC Home.
• Tracy Cheung became Executive Director of our McNicoll LTC Home.
• Chau Nhieu-vi continues as Executive Director of our Mississauga LTC Home and Maria Chu continues as Executive Director, Community and Professional Services.

There are also several team milestones to share.  SEIU and OPSEU collective agreements have been ratified, including a $2/hour wage increase for RPNs. Across Yee Hong we are filling our vacancy rates by leveraging our Employee Referral Program, collaborating with employment agencies and educational institutes, and building and promoting our strong and respected Yee Hong Centre brand.

2024 is also the year we successfully launched Yee Hong’s Human Capital Management (HCM) System Project. This new platform will replace the existing Human Resources (HR) Information System (IS)/Payroll in March 2025 with a comprehensive Human Capital System (HCM) Solution that will accelerate our digital transformation. This new system will provide us with the tools to take our people onboarding, management, development, and analytics to the next level while also improving employee experience and achieving efficiencies including helping staff free up their time to focus on care.

Thanks to these initiatives and many others, we are meeting and exceeding our long-term care home and community goals. For example, Yee Hong has exceeded the 3.42 hours of direct care mandated by the Government and are already at 3.7 hours of direct care towards the 4-hour mandate by 2025. Our Community and Professional Services division achieved all of its targets for service delivery.  We look forward to sharing similar successes as we take further steps to build our team.

Construction on the Yee Hong Ng Siu Chan Centre has reached new heights. On Monday, April 22, Graham Construction crews at our Scarborough Finch Campus installed a new tower crane that will support the development of the five-story long-term care home.

With the tower now installed, work will continue on the building’s foundation over the next several months, after which work will begin on the structure.
As for our existing properties, Yee Hong is in the process of evaluating the interior and exterior condition of each of them to prioritize facility maintenance projects.

Launched on September 1, 2023, our Aging Well at Home project aims to assist Chinese seniors in connecting to social and health services, particularly those with limited English proficiency, and supporting them to live safely and independently at home. The project, created in collaboration with GAIA Community Care and Wellness Society in British Columbia (BC), is expected to serve 4,400 individual clients in both BC and Ontario (ON) from September 2023 to June 2025.

During its first six months (until March 31, 2024), the project has served 725 clients, reaching 33% of its total target in ON. It has also connected with nine outside organizations/groups in the community for service connections. The project incorporates AgeTech elements, such as fall prevention alerts and medication reminders, to ensure safety and social inclusion for seniors at home. Friendly visiting volunteers provide emotional support and companionship, addressing additional needs like internet support or home repairs.

Future plans include reaching out to more communities and recruiting more clients to join the project while introducing Yee Hong Home Support and Community Services as a support for aging well at home.

Yee Hong’s volunteers are critical to our ongoing success. So, it was with great pleasure that we honoured them during National Volunteer Week with our own Volunteer Recognition Day on April 13, 2024. We are fortunate to have the support of over 10,900 volunteers, both within our homes and across our home support and community service programs and initiatives. On this special day, nearly 160 volunteers (including a 92 year old volunteer) were recognized for their long-term and/or high-volume service during our reception gathering and lunchtime Award Ceremony. Special thanks the Honourable Member of Parliament – North Scarborough, Shaun Chen and the Honourable Minister of Seniors & Accessibility, and local MPP for Raymond Cho who shared their messages of support and appreciation.

Once again, Yee Hong’s deep appreciation goes out to all of our volunteers who take the time to help our staff carry out their work, assist with our many events, and bring additional joy, compassion, and companionship to the lives of our residents.

On March 5, Dr. San Ng, Yee Hong’s Chief Executive Officer, was invited to join Zoom TV as a panelist for an Alzheimer’s’ Roundtable Panel. The episode, hosted by Libby Zimmer, was themed Dementia: Empowering Your Mind Against Dementia, and included Ngozi Iroanyah, Director, Health Equity and Access, Alzheimer Society of Ontario; Dr. Samir Sinha, Geriatrician; Dr. Adriana Shnall, Program Director of the Koschitzky Centre for Innovations in Caregiving at Baycrest; Adriana Crespo, a caregiver; and Dr. Graham Collingridge, Director, Tanz Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases.

This broadcast provided an amazing opportunity for Dr. San Ng to lend her thoughts on a deeply relevant topic to Yee Hong. The episode is now available to watch on YouTube.

This March, we launched our Dementia Guidance Online Resource Hub for Chinese Communities in Canada. This free, user-friendly, and comprehensive online resource provides culturally appropriate dementia care support through articles, videos, educational resources, inspirational stories, and links to dementia care communities across Canada.

The Hub is a collaboration between Yee Hong Centre and the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, and was funded by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Dementia Strategic Fund. We created it to provide all Canadians living with dementia and their caregivers with the information and inspiration to live their fullest lives.

The Hub includes five main sections with culturally appropriate Chinese translations:

• Understanding Dementia: information on dementia symptoms, Canadian statistics, prevention strategies, and myths and misconceptions.
• Living Well with Dementia: insights and advice for nutrition, physical and social activities, proactive planning, interventions, and safety considerations related to dementia.
• Support & Services: links to dementia-care services and related programs, including Yee Hong’s specialized supports.
• Sharing the Journey: inspiring stories from individuals with dementia and their caregivers.
• Activities and Resources: A collection of activities, workshops, and training resources to empower individuals with knowledge while fostering joy and social connection.

Yee Hong hosted a number of memorable events over the past several months:

In February, staff, residents and clients across Yee Hong marked the Year of the Dragon with special events throughout our homes, including live music performances, crafting activities, floor decorating, and a Lunar New Year photo booth, among other memorable activities.

(Residents enjoying lunch at our Markham Home)

The Celebration of Spring 2024 Fundraiser Dinner & Dance, led by the Mississauga Family Council on April 13, was also a resounding success. Held at the beautiful Garden Banquet & Convention Centre, the evening saw Yee Hong’s friends and supporters come together for delicious Chinese food, live entertainment, dancing, and prizes—all in support of raising funds to revitalize our 20-year-old Peace Garden at our Mississauga home. Thank you to our Mississauga Family Council for your leadership and everyone who attended who made this a night to remember.

Feedback from our families is always worth celebrating. And earlier this winter, our fifth-floor staff at our Mississauga home were surprised and honoured to receive a homemade banner from the family of a late resident to express their sincere appreciation for the care their father and husband received. It’s touching moments like these that demonstrate the difference Yee Hong’s teams are making in the lives of our residents, their caregivers, and community members.

It was an evening for celebration and staff recognition during Yee Hong’s 29th Anniversary Celebration. On November 23, 2023, nearly 500 people came together at the Brighton Convention Centre in Toronto to mark another year in Yee Hong’s journey. The event featured a 10-course Chinese banquet-style dinner, as well as entertainment, games, and prizes. It was also an opportunity for Yee Hong leadership to raise toast to the many people who make our hallways and homes special.

Yee Hong’s McNicoll home in Scarborough is also ringing in 29 years in 2023, while our Mississauga home marked 20 years on December 14.

We are home to a team of skillful, compassionate, and dedicated people who embody Yee Hong’s values within our homes and their community. Keeping this team whole is a priority, which is why we’re taking steps to enhance our recruitment strategy. These include: