November 22, 2019

The Ontario Centre for Learning, Research and Innovation in Long-Term Care (CLRI) at the RIA is helping the long-term care sector in Ontario deliver high-quality, person-centred care and improve staff retention through training funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and the Ontario Ministry of Long-Term Care’s Personal Support Worker Education Fund.

This is the third year the Fund has been in operation. It provides funding to long-term care homes for their team members to take the Excellence in Resident-Centred Care (ERCC) program. The goal of ERCC is to support better care and better outcomes for older residents in long-term care. It has also been shown to improve team retention by increasing self-confidence, job satisfaction and morale.

“This program was developed to facilitate change in how we care for older adults – to move to a person-centred model. I am thrilled that the Personal Support Worker Education Fund is helping spread ERCC to long-term care homes across the province, ultimately strengthening the sector and improving quality of life for team members and residents alike,” says Josie d’Avernas, Executive Director of the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging.

ERCC is delivered in partnership with Conestoga College and the Schlegel-UW Research Institute for Aging and covers a number of key topics including palliative care, safety and mobility, continence, infection prevention and control, oral care, nutrition and hydration, and pain and comfort.

The education model for ERCC is train-the-trainer. Through the fund, select PSWs complete the ERCC Trainer Course to become trainers and deliver the ERCC Team Member Course to others in their own long-term care home.

New this year, team members other than PSWs are also eligible to take part in ERCC Team Member Course.

Applications are being accepted beginning November 25, 2019 and training runs from early December 2019 to March 31, 2020.

The Fund has been in operation since 2017 and has been used to train more than 12,000 personal support workers in 303 long-term care homes across the province.

To learn more about the fund and to apply online, visit the PSW Education Fund website.