CENTRAL BUTTE, Sask. — Football dominates the conversation during lunch at the adult day program held at Regency Manor in Central Butte.
Joyce Langer leads the discussion. She is in charge of activities for clients during their day at the care home.
“I usually have current events, a crossword puzzle, a joke and discuss whatever might be the flavour of the day,” Langer said.
She talks about the typhoon relief efforts in the Philippines as people gather around the table in the middle of the activity room.
She also shares a story about how she had to listen to a Saskatchewan Roughrider game over the radio because she had to help her husband, who had become stuck while hauling bales.
The adult day program at the care home picks up seniors who do not require a high level of care but need help with some personal tasks.
“I just come once a week for my bath because it’s not safe at home,” Kathy Schick said.
She lives in Central Butte and has been part of the day program for more than a year. Schick receives a bath and a meal and also visits her husband, Karl, who is a resident here.
“I don’t drive over during the week to visit him because I have trouble driving,” she said.
Marion Songer, who also lives in Central Butte, joins a group of old-time singers on Mondays by playing the piano.
“I get a good bath and I get a good meal. I’m content,” Songer said. “It’s fun.”
For $12.50 a day, the program provides lunch and daily activities for clients in the mornings and afternoons. Langer takes care of the activities while staff member, Debbie Kinnee, picks up the seniors and provides special care aid, including baths.
“After I come back (from lunch), I have a program for the afternoon they take part in and it can be varied,” Langer said.
“I usually have a few of the long-term care residents that also take part in the afternoon program.”
On this November afternoon, eight clients and residents of the care home are painting a winter wonderland, which is fitting, considering the blanket of fresh snow that covers the ground outside.
The day program has been in Central Butte since before the care home moved to its current location from the town’s Regency Hospital in 2002.
The program takes in an average of three clients a day. The facility has enough staff to include as many as 10 seniors but is limited to a smaller number because the tub rooms must also be shared with the manor’s 23 residents.
Clients are picked up from Elbow, Tugaske, Park Bay, Chaplin, Riverhurst and Central Butte.
A day program like the one offered at Regency Manor allows senior citizens to stay at home longer.
“I think for a lot of people, it’s socialization of not being stuck at home and an opportunity to have a bath in a bathtub, not a shower,” Langer said.
“And to get their hair done,” Kinnee added. “For the women, that’s really a big deal. If they don’t have family that take them regularly, it’s a big deal.”
