What is the New Dream Garden?
The Dream Garden is a modern, interactive green space that accommodates, engages and inspires residents and their families. The accessible Dream Garden features beautiful new canopies, barrier-free gazebos, a southing fountain, various seating areas, and raised beds that enable all residents to participate in horticultural programming.
The Dream Garden is a space for residents and the whole community. This hub of activity is changing the face of the Bess and Moe Greenberg Family Hillel Lodge.
The Dream for the Dream Garden
The dream for the Garden first emerged from consultations with residents, their families and community leaders that began in 2019. The consultations sought to identify how best to meet our community's evolving long-term care needs.
Among the key needs identified was ready access to functional greenspace— a place where residents and family members can gather either alone or in groups, experience the outdoors and interact with nature.
Health Benefits
Evidence continues to mount of the significant health benefits associated with spending time regularly in gardens and other green spaces, particularly for residents of care facilities.
Gardens can alleviate isolation, for instance, as they often become social centres that residents, families and staff enjoy. Gardening activities can decrease anxiety and blood pressure, for instance, and inspire a sense of purpose. To access these and other benefits, growing numbers of hospitals, retirement residences, and long-term care homes develop and maintain extensive gardens and landscaped grounds.
Person-Centred Care
The Dream Garden is part of Hillel Lodge’s comprehensive, multi-phased plan to significantly improve the day-to-day lives of our 121 residents.
At the plan's core is an innovative model known as person-centred care.
Under this model, each resident’s values, preferences and goals guide every aspect of their care.
Person-centred care aims to manage chronic and complex health conditions while enabling residents to live every day to the fullest.
A Family-Centred Sanctuary
For many Hillel Lodge residents, the courtyard is their only accessible outdoor space.
This is their backyard.
The previous space was over twenty years old and no longer met the residents’ needs.
The new Garden is truly a DREAM come True.
Residents can easily access the space with their wheelchairs and walkers. It is fully accessible and offers special raised garden beds for people with mobility challenges. It is a hub of activity and a source of joy.