Stay Safe

description

Stay Safe is a behaviour change campaign designed for Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) to improve health and safety at their Extended Care facilities. Working in collaboration with Lan Yan and Craig Fleisch, our grad project explored the issue of safety at VCH through ethnographic research. Through co-creation sessions and job shadowing, we were able to see that a larger, overarching issue was at hand, being a lack of community. Without a community, care aides are less inclined to ask for help when needed and often end up working alone, increasing the risk of injury. Building a community would create a support structure for all levels of need in the facility. However, as each facility is different, one solution may not be appropriate for everyone. To deal with this, Stay Safe offers three unique directions through which to build community. 

Stay Safe endevours to bring forth a new culture into the Vancouver Coastal Health setting, a culture devoted to creating a sense of community, respect, safety and wellness for all involved with residential extended care. Through building friendships, support, respect and wellness, a facility can become stronger. It is important to note that this campaign is maintained by everyone in the facility and not just management, allowing for equal opportunity, discussion, and growth.