When to Refer
A referral may be helpful when there is:
Change from usual baseline
Changes in cognition, communication, mobility, initiation, behaviour or everyday function.
Responsive behaviours or difficulty with care
Resistance to care, agitation, aggression, wandering, withdrawal, calling out or other behaviour expressions that may indicate something has changed.
Transition or adjustment
Hospital-to-home transitions, admission to retirement or long-term care, changes in living environment or other significant changes in routine.
Delirium or acute change
Regulation, engagement and functional support alongside appropriate clinical assessment and treatment.
Loss of participation or function
Reduced initiation, increasing dependence, difficulty completing familiar tasks or declining participation in everyday routines.
Recovery and rehabilitation
Following illness, hospitalization, surgery, stroke, injury or periods of deconditioning when additional support can help the person use recovering abilities in everyday life.
What RFS Provides
Restorative Functional Support provides focused, individualized support that works alongside the existing healthcare or care team.
Restorative Engagement
Purposeful engagement supporting regulation, initiation and participation.
Individualized Observation and Documentation
Identifying and documenting changes, patterns and factors influencing behaviour and function.
Functional Support
Supporting access to existing abilities and participation in everyday life.
Care-Team Collaboration
Sharing relevant observations and successful approaches to support consistency.
Transitions & Recovery Support
Supporting regulation, participation and function through changes in health, recovery and care environments.
RFS works alongside and complements clinical care
Referrals & Professional Collaboration
From The Heart Supportive Care has received referrals from established healthcare, community and funding sources, including:
Referrals and recommendations are also welcomed from physicians and nurse practitioners, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nurses, social workers, discharge planners, rehabilitation professionals, specialized geriatric and behavioural support services, hospitals and acute-care teams, long-term care and retirement communities, and other community healthcare providers.
A formal healthcare referral is not required. Individuals and families may contact From The Heart Supportive Care directly, and healthcare professionals or care facilities may also recommend our services to families wishing to arrange support privately.
Working Together
Healthcare professionals often see a person at specific points in their care — during an assessment, treatment, personal care, therapy, meals, or when a significant change or behaviour expression occurs.
Each of these observations provides an important snapshot, but cognitive and functional changes can present differently across environments, situations and times of day.
RFS provides an opportunity to engage while observing over time and across everyday situations, helping identify changes from the person’s usual baseline, emerging patterns, factors influencing regulation and participation, and conditions under which abilities are more accessible.
With appropriate consent, relevant observations can be shared with the healthcare team and considered alongside clinical findings and the observations of other disciplines.
Each perspective adds another piece to the picture.
A behaviour is a snapshot. A person is a Living Picture.™