From The Heart Supportive Care, Gananoque, ON (2026)

10/17/2026

Something Seems Different… But You're Not Quite Sure What.

Maybe someone you love is struggling with familiar routines, becoming frustrated more easily, or withdrawing from things they once enjoyed- you notice the changes, but you're not sure what they mean or how to help.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone.

At From The Heart Supportive Care, we hear this concern often and our first recommendation is always reach out to your healthcare professional for assessment.

There can be many reasons for the changes you're noticing in someone you love. But while you wait for an appointment, you don't have to navigate that uncertainty alone.

Our Restorative Functional Support services use individualized, one-to-one engagement and observation to help people experiencing cognitive and functional changes access their remaining abilities in everyday life.

We take time to understand the person beyond the difficulties they're experiencing—their strengths, familiar routines, and what may be affecting their ability to participate.

Using what we learn, we apply evidence-supported approaches that can reduce frustration, encourage participation, and make everyday experiences more manageable- and along the way, we guide families in understanding what they're seeing and offer meaningful ways to help their loved one continue using the abilities they still have.

You don't need to wait for a diagnosis to reach out, sometimes, knowing where to begin starts with a simple conversation.

From The Heart Supportive Care
Restorative Functional Support
Kingston • Gananoque • Brockville • Surrounding Communities

https://www.fthconnect.ca/our-services
613-532-0316

Our services complement, but do not replace, medical assessment or treatment.

10/16/2026

Success Is Access.

In Restorative Engagement and Functional Support, success isn't measured by how many tasks a person completes.

It's measured by the abilities, responses, and connections they are still able to access-
Access to function, choice, communication, connection, and meaningful participation.

And for families, success is measured in the meaningful moments that remind them the person they know and love is still there.

From The Heart Supportive Care 💚

10/08/2026

When Personal Care Becomes Overwhelming

At first glance, a manicure and freshly painted nails may seem like an everyday occurrence. But for someone experiencing cognitive change, even familiar personal care routines can become confusing, frightening or overwhelming.

The challenge isn't always the task itself. It may be how the person is experiencing it.

Unfamiliar touch, difficulty understanding what's happening, sensory discomfort or a loss of control are just a few of the many factors that can contribute to distress and resistance to personal care.

This is where Restorative Engagement and Functional Support make a difference.

Rather than focusing on completing the task, we begin by understanding what the person needs to feel comfortable, secure and involved.

Next, by identifying potential triggers, adjusting our approach and building on familiar routines and remaining abilities, we can reduce distress, support regulation and improve participation in personal care.

A simple manicure then becomes more than grooming. It becomes an opportunity for connection, positive sensory experiences, preserved abilities and a sense of accomplishment.

And importantly, it helps us observe what supports the person's comfort, what may trigger distress and which approaches encourage participation in future daily care.

The goal isn't simply to complete an ADL. It's to help the person feel safe enough to participate in it because when we change the experience of care, we can often change the response to it.

Success in cognitive change is not measured in tasks completed, it's measured by ACCESS-Access to comfort. Access to familiar abilities. Access to meaningful participation. And access to the person who is still there, even as cognitive abilities change.

From The Heart Supportive Care
Restorative Engagement & Functional Support

Photo: Individual's facial features have been digitally altered to protect privacy.

09/25/2026

♥️What is a Restorative Engagement Specialist (RES) and Restorative Functional Support (RFS)🫂

I get asked this question often, and the answer honestly depends on the day — and, more importantly, on the person I am working with.

So let’s start with the foundation.

Restorative Engagement (RE) and Restorative Functional Support (RFS) is the combination of 2 evidence supported, person-centred, approaches to supportive functional care that uses meaningful engagement, movement, routine, environment and relationship to help preserve existing abilities, support participation in daily life, promote regulation and maintain the greatest possible level of independence and quality of life.

Where the specialty comes in is the education and training behind that engagement.

RE professionals often come from established backgrounds in behavioural support, social services, personal support, nursing, psychology or other areas of health and human services. This foundation is expanded through specialized and ongoing education in areas such as gerontology, neuro degenerative disease,Alzheimer's/dementia, brain injuries, cognitive change, responsive behaviours, Pastoral care, delirium mitigation, mental health, frailty, restorative care, communication, observation, documentation and person-centred approaches to care.

Our work is not simply about keeping someone busy because all engagement is purposeful. 👩‍🦽

We look at what a person can still do, what matters to them, what helps them feel safe and regulated, and what may be contributing when their behaviour or function changes.

That may mean observing and documenting behavioural or functional patterns that differ from a person's usual regulated baseline and communicating those observations to the appropriate members of the interdisciplinary team. Depending on the person's needs, this can include collaboration with neurology, cardiology, dieticians, nursing, physicians, geriatric psychiatry, Behavioural Supports Ontario (BSO), social work, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other care professionals.

It may also mean accompanying someone to medical and personal appointments, supporting community participation and transitions, providing functional support and restorative movement, helping a person participate more successfully in personal care and daily routines, or providing guidance and coaching to families and caregivers.

Some days I am supporting mobility.

Some days I am making a phone call to help assure a person they are safe, loved and valued.

Some days I am working through a responsive behaviour.

Some days I am observing a subtle change from baseline and documenting what I see.

Some days I am praying with or FOR a family trying to navigate a new diagnosis.

Some days I am wiping the tears of a husband who is slowy losing his wife.

Some days I am helping a person remember who they are- or remembering FOR them.

Some days I am helping a family understand what their loved one may be communicating through their behaviour.

Some days I am simply holding the hand of a person who is frightened-using the relationship we have built to help them feel safe enough to participate in the world around them.

♥️And some days I am sharing a laugh with a person I have genuinely grown to love and admire ♥️

That is Restorative Engagement.

The activity may change from person to person
but the purpose does not.....

To preserve function, support regulation, strengthen participation and help the person remain as connected as possible to themselves, their abilities and their life.

**note: “The facial features of the individual pictured with me below have been digitally altered to protect their privacy.”

09/11/2026

More than Memory Loss

09/10/2026

This week with B ☕🧩🎶

There is a lot of supportive function happening in this photo.

🧩 Adaptive Puzzle: In addition to the visual cues from the puzzle image itself, numbers on the back of each piece and on the board provide another route for identifying where each piece belongs. B can draw on familiar number recognition and sequencing while still locating, orienting and placing each piece herself — supporting attention, visual scanning, spatial awareness, problem-solving, hand-eye coordination and fine-motor skills.

🎶 Familiar Music: John Denver provides more than background music. Familiar songs engage auditory processing, rhythm and recognition, and can provide cues to long-established memories and emotional associations.

☕ Tea & Conversation: The familiar ritual of sharing a cup of tea supports communication, attention, reciprocal interaction and social connection. Comfort and enjoyment matter too — we often engage more readily when an activity feels familiar, meaningful and shared.

Combined; we're supporting cognitive, physical, sensory, emotional and social function within one ordinary, enjoyable experience.

For someone living with Alzheimer's /dementia, or acquired brain/spinal cord injury -meaningful support isn't about doing things for the person. It's about recognizing what remains accessible and providing the right cues, adaptations and support to help them continue doing as much as possible for themselves.

🌷 Support the function. Adapt the activity. Preserve participation.

09/02/2026

Looking Beyond “Do You Remember?” ❤️

In Restorative Engagement, we are always looking for practical ways to support the function that remains — including short-term memory and the ability to retrieve recent information.

For someone living with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia, verbal cues do not always work. Being told about something that happened earlier may not be enough to bring that recent memory forward.

So, when verbal cues aren’t enough, we change the cue.

This is where cue-dependent retrieval can become one part of an individualized Restorative Engagement plan.

The photograph below is a great example of what that can look like in practice.

Today, B and I are watching an opera together as part of B’s individualized engagement plan. But the opera itself is only one part of the session.

Within this one engagement, we are naturally incorporating several restorative approaches:

❤️ Music engagement — using familiar music and the emotional response it can evoke.

❤️ Reminiscence — allowing the music, costumes, setting and story to open opportunities for memories and conversation from earlier periods of life.

❤️ Cognitive stimulation — following the story, noticing characters, responding to what is happening and sharing thoughts and observations.

❤️ Sensory engagement — combining music, voices, movement, colour and visual imagery.

❤️ Social engagement — sharing the activity together, conversing, laughing, commenting and simply enjoying one another’s company.

❤️ Emotional engagement and regulation — using an enjoyable, familiar activity to support comfort, connection and a sense of well-being.

❤️ Choice and autonomy — following B’s interests, responses and preferences rather than expecting participation in a predetermined activity.

❤️ Cue-dependent retrieval — creating a visual cue that can potentially help B access information from this engagement later.

During our time together, I took this photograph.

The photo will be printed, the date and a short note about today’s engagement will be written on the back, and the photograph will stay with B.

Later, we can return to it.

That may be during a telephone call later in the day, during our next in-person engagement, or naturally with family or care staff.

Rather than relying solely on a verbal reminder or asking, “Do you remember watching the opera?”, we can refer B to the photograph and allow the visual information to provide another route into that recent memory.

B may recall watching the opera. A particular detail may come forward. The music itself may become a cue. The photograph may prompt recognition or familiarity. Or it may not result in retrieval at all.

We aren't testing memory. We're supporting memory function.

We follow what the individual gives us and build from there.

And because the photograph stays with B, the opportunity for recognition, conversation and retrieval can continue after today’s engagement has ended.

That is an important part of individualized Restorative Engagement: not simply creating meaningful engagement in the present, but intentionally layering music, reminiscence, cognition, sensory stimulation, social connection and memory supports together — and looking for ways to use that engagement to support function later.

08/28/2026

🌙 EXCITING NEWS... FROM THE HEART!

Our team is growing — and so is the support we can now offer families.

FTH is thrilled to welcome to our team, additional certified Personal Support Workers: each highly educated with specialized experience in dementia and palliative care

-and with our expanded team comes something families have been asking for:

🌙 SPECIALIZED OVERNIGHT SUPPORT

Beginning soon, we will have limited availability for:

• Nighttime respite for family caregivers
• Sleep & Rest Regulation Support
• Dementia-informed overnight care
• Palliative & end-of-life support
• Personal and comfort care
• Overnight observation and documentation when needed

Our overnight service brings the same approach From The Heart is known for during the day — experienced, individualized, relationship-based support focused on comfort, dignity and meaningful care.

Overnights may be arranged occasionally, short-term or on an ongoing basis, depending on individual needs and availability.

💜 More team members.
🌙 More hours of support.
🏡 More options for families.

Limited overnight availability is opening soon.

Please message From The Heart Supportive Care privately for information or to discuss your family’s needs.

www.fthconnect.ca

08/05/2026

Something as simple as tying a shoe.

Most of us do it without a second thought. We don't notice the balance it takes, the hand strength, the coordination, the flexibility, the planning, or the confidence to bend down and do it....until one day, it isn't simple anymore.

Restorative Care and Engagement isn't always about big milestones or simply completing tasks. Sometimes it's about something as ordinary as zipping up a coat, combing your hair, standing up from a chair or tying a shoe.

It's about protecting the everyday abilities we often take for granted—the ones that quietly preserve independence, dignity, confidence, and a sense of self.

Simply put- Function is Freedom, because every ability we preserve today is another piece of independence carried into tomorrow.

Restorative Engagement Sessions now available in the Gananoque area- At home, Retirement Living and Long Term Care

🕛 Monday & Wednesday afternoons | 12:00–3:00 p.m.

www.fthconnect.ca

07/08/2026

Yesterday was one of those days that reminds me why I love what I do. ❤️

My Friend, and I spent some time working on restorative movement, but if you had walked by, you probably would have thought we were just having fun. There were lots of laughs, a little shenanigans, plenty of encouragement, and more than one "I can't believe I'm doing this!" moment.

That's the beauty of restorative engagement. The goal isn't simply to get someone moving—it's to help them keep doing the things that matter in everyday life.

Movement is so much more than muscles. It helps maintain strength, balance, and coordination, but it also wakes up the brain, supports attention and problem-solving, encourages conversation, builds confidence, and creates opportunities to connect with others.

One simple activity can support physical, cognitive, communication, social, and emotional function all at once. That's why restorative movement is such an important foundation. It's never just about exercise—it's about preserving abilities, fostering independence, and making each day a little brighter.

And if we can share a few laughs along the way... even better. 💚

From The Heart Supportive Care

10/17/2026

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10/08/2026

09/25/2026

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