Nang Soe Mon Oo

From Impossible to Possible

By Nang Soe Mon Oo – Spark of Life Master Practitioner and Nurse Clinician at Ren Ci Hospital, Singapore.

Since November 2018, Moon and her colleague Sahara have focused on implementing the Spark of Life Philosophy through the therapeutic Club Program specifically for people with advanced dementia in one of Ren Ci’s Nursing Homes.

Ren Ci organization embarked on Person Centred Care Model to enhance the wellbeing of clients during their stay in Ren Ci Nursing home. The team planned and organised a Spark of Life Rainbow club program as a pilot program in 2017. The Spark of Life Club Program, which we named the Rainbow Club, demonstrated the full essences of Person-Centred Care.

The Spark of Life Philosophy is a unique approach as the program enriches another person’s life based on love, empathy, and respect. Moreover, the Spark of Life Club Program enables facilitators to demonstrate as a role model to see the person behind the disease, disability, challenging behaviour and differences.

The Spark of Life Club Program was piloted for 5 weeks with six club members. The Bradford Wellbeing profile and Challenging Behaviour Scale were used to evaluate the wellbeing of the club members before and after Rainbow Club program.

Wellbeing profile scores of all club members were increased. The indicators show that the higher the score, the better the wellbeing of the individual.

Positive feedback was received from club members and their families as well as care staff from the nursing home. The team strongly believe that the Spark of Life Club Program enables care staff to shift their mindset from impossible to possible. With the positive and encouraging outcomes from the pilot program, the team has decided to continue with the Spark of Life Club Program  with the full support from our organization management team.

We also use Spark of Life Five Core Emotional Needs during discussions to address challenging behaviour. They enable care staff to see the person behind the behaviour and address the emotional needs as a first line intervention.

With the current practice, the management team and care staff are able to feel and see the impact of the Spark of Life Philosophy on the client’s quality of life. Moving forward, we are planning to train more staff as Spark of Life Club Facilitators to reach out to more clients.

I am grateful for the continuous education and support from the leaders of Dementia Care International. I feel that I am fully supported by the leaders as they ensure that I am working in the right direction in implementing the Spark of Life Club Program. Moreover, the Spark of Life Professional Development education sessions are a great tool to learn new things from both leaders as well as other Spark of Life Master Practitioners around the world.

I am glad that I have learned the Spark of Life Philosophy and am able to use it for daily practice. The most important thing is that both leaders are very kind and encouraging. With their leadership we are able to advance our practice to enhance our client’s quality of life.

The Spark of Life Philosophy is not only enriching the quality of life of the clients but also the care staff. I hope more and more health care providers around the world are able to adopt the Spark of Life Philosophy to enhance another person’s quality of life.