Chris Edwards
Recreation Facilitator, Riverview Health Centre
Chris Edwards has been working at Riverview Health Centre for more than 12 years as a Recreation Facilitator, part of a dedicated team of Recreation Facilitators, Spiritual Health Coordinators, and Social Workers engaged in maintaining social connection with patients, residents and their families.
COVID-19 has created a fundamental and profound transformation on how we connect not just as a society, but as a community of patients and residents in long term care settings like Riverview Health Centre. Chris has been instrumental in supporting those connections - while the mechanism of how we connect residents with family and loved ones may have changed, the importance of those connections has not.
Adapting our communication styles, both in and outside of Riverview, is a learning experience for us all. Chris works with staff and residents across the facility supporting first-time experiences with iPads and virtual visiting. While times are tough, Chris and his colleagues continue to facilitate important moments for residents: moments of joy, sadness, anger, and gratitude. As we continue to work together as a community, we strengthen our connection through understanding, learning and adversity.
Riverview Health Centre's mission is, "Nurturing Life . . . One Person . . . One Family . . . One Moment at a time." These words couldn't be truer for all of us today.