Skilled Care at The Cedars: Life Stories

Life in the Neighborhood: Your Life Story Matters

Kim Doyon, Life Enrichment Coordinator at The Cedars

 Life stories recognize the uniqueness of each person. Today the development and use of life stories is one important key to delivering person centered care at The Skilled Care Center. The Cedars staff believes that by placing the resident and their biography at the heart of care, we can better impact quality of life and care for our residents. Life story work is an activity that reviews the past experiences, life events and routines, and creates a biography of the person.  The life story helps us understand the resident and will help to promote relationships and facilitate delivery of care.  Many of our life enrichment activities are based on life stories and what residents deem as important. 

The Cedars asks the family members for help with the development of a life story for each resident.  The Life Enrichment Department provides a thorough life story form to assist them in documenting family demographics, past experiences, likes and dislikes, events and routines.  These life stories will be a foundation for providing spontaneous activities on the Neighborhoods, development of group activities and will be utilized in social activities. 

Everyone has a chronicle of life to tell…and everyone‘s history is rich. We embrace the opportunity to learn more about each residents.  Although the staff receives some of this information while transitioning into The Cedars, there is so much more to learn about our beautiful residents. We ask that families please take the time to connect with the Life Enrichment Department so that they may assist each and everyone with the development of their loved one’s Life Story.  If you have any questions about the value of Life Stories, please contact me at kdoyon@thecedarsportland.org or 207-221-7000 for more information.