Part of Highlands House’s Service Offering

Quality of Life

Benchmarked Care

Highlands House has formed part of the Seniors Quality Leap Initiative (SQLI) since 2020. We benchmark our services against 13 leading North American aged care facilities using the interRAI Minimum Data Set to measure the quality of our services and find ways to continue improving. Such facilities include Baycrest Health Sciences (Toronto), Schlegel Villages (Ontario), Hebrew Senior Life (Boston) & San Francisco Campus for Jewish Living. We are the only African member organisation. We are participating in resident quality of life improvement, pain management improvement, inappropriate use of antipsychotics reduction, innovation adoption and best practice sharing initiatives. We have been participating in Quality of Life surveying since 2014.

Occupation-Centred

At Highlands House, our Occupational Therapy (OT) team has input on every aspect of a resident’s life, leading us in an integrative approach to care planning covering occupations and activities that provide for and enhance quality of life. Our OTs contribute to care planning and run a bi-annual 2-hour interRAI assessment with each resident, getting to know you and your needs and informing how we can assist and improve your experience. This detailed report covers cognition, communication, vision, mood and behaviour, psychosocial and functional status, continence, medical reporting, nutrition, skin, and activities and interests.

Dr Leon Geffen, our Executive Director, and Jeanti Steenkamp, our Senior Occupational Therapist, lead our benchmarking efforts. You can read more about their experience by clicking here.