Quality of Life Award Nominee
Angela Mullins joined #TeamSCV at Sayre Christian Village during a strange summer, one unlike any she had experienced in her 11 year career in the senior living industry.
Angela joined the team in 2020 after 4 months of COVID visitor restrictions were already in place with a tricky task of uniting all the activities team members under one Life Enrichment umbrella for the campus, previously not done at SCV. That task grew increasingly difficult as we restricted staff movement throughout the campus to mitigate the spread of COVID.
But before 2020 ended, the Life Enrichment Team had already begun to work as a unit to share resources and information while also leveling up the program, even throughout COVID outbreaks.
Team Player
The team pivoted COUNTLESS times under her direction and we noticed that while enrichment teams across the nation were struggling with how to keep residents engaged under the 1:1 protocols during COVID visitor restrictions, the SCV team kept finding ways to be creative. Staff on her team feel empowered to make decisions that improve the lives of residents and are encouraged to utilize their own talents to bring joy in unexpected ways.
“Angela has been the backbone of our department through very challenging times. She has supported and encouraged our team to carry on when we were tired, burnt out, at at times feeling like we wanted to give up,” said Mark Sparkman, Activity Director at the Healthcare Center.
Because of her leadership and the way that her teams’ creative programs have been widely shared online, she has attracted a full-time team of professional artists, a music therapist, musicians, singers, and staff that were constantly working to love, care, and calm the nerves of anxious residents and their families living through a pandemic.
Volunteer Engagement
Through Angela’s leadership with volunteers, she was able to create a volunteer army of churches and ‘unit mothers’ to help the team pull off unique activities like visits from the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, Planters Peanutmobile, countless parades that allowed families and the community to encourage and support from a distance, they created an entire forest in the Life Enrichment Center for the Healthcare residents to ‘hunt deer,’ helped organize a drive for Cooking Club needs for individual pans and bakeware, and was a driving force in the Easter Basket & Valentine Candy-Gram fundraisers that surprised & delighted recipients of the ‘grams’ while also earning funds for music therapy instruments and park benches for increased social distancing throughout the campus outside. Once residents were vaccinated and communal activities were possible again, Angela leveled up theme dinners and treated residents to experiences that far exceeded resident, family, and our expectations as a community.
Best Friends Approach
Angela is always pitching in wherever she is needed. In fact, this past spring, she was instrumental in helping the Assisted Living Memory Care Community come to life at Friendship Towers. During the middle of a very busy season, she took on the challenge to become a Master Certified Trainer in the Best Friends Approach™ so that she could train staff in a patient-centered approach to dementia care when they join #TeamSCV.
“I can’t IMAGINE how different life on campus would have been last year. Her godly-care for older adults is apparent by the way that she demands the best experiences for her residents, pandemic or not,” said VP of Marketing & Development, Elise Hinchman. Well done!