Keri Severinski has been a care aide for over six years and her passion for health and safety in the workplace has made her somewhat of an expert on the subject.

In every place she has worked, Keri has taken on a leadership role when it comes to safety—joining health and safety committees and encouraging her colleagues to prioritize safety for their own benefit, as well as the residents.

“If everybody follows the same standard, then you have a higher standard all around,” she says. “If everybody runs on the same rules and follows the same path, then things will always run more smoothly.”

Currently, Keri works at The Village Langley, the first dementia village in Canada, which opened last month. Even with the change in workplace and a new environment at the Village, she is able to use the same tools and techniques she has in the past.

“I’m always thinking and looking for safety hazards. Is there a cord or something that can wrap around a resident’s neck or is there something they can trip on?” says Keri. “Is there a cane that should be picked up and not on the floor? Is there a chemical that shouldn’t be left out? I’m always scanning and making sure everything is in a safe place, so nobody gets hurt.”

The transition to her new workplace has been seamless. She is thankful that her new coworkers prioritize health and safety in the workplace just like she does.

“Everybody has been on the same path where we only want the best for the workers, or the ELFs [Enriched Living Facilitators] as they’re called and the little villagers [residents],” she says. “With everything being so new, we are all so much more aware of what we have around us.”

In her time as a care aide, one of the biggest lessons Keri has learned is that safety in the continuing care sector has huge implications. “If people aren’t safe, they are unable to do their jobs properly,” she says. “If we get hurt, we can’t take care of our residents and if we don’t have the right tools to help them the residents get hurt—it can become a vicious cycle.”