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<p>WILKES-BARRE &#8212; The sensory room may have been the eye catcher, with bubbles floating up the large tube of water in one corner and the life-sized stuffed dog toys in another.</p><p>But down in the basement of Little Flower Manor skilled nursing home, past the long, crooked hallway, was the potential game changer.</p><p>That&#8217;s where the new classroom and neighboring skills lab &#8212; made to look like a resident&#8217;s room occupied by a 150-pound mannequin &#8212; will provide nurse aid training in a state-approved program to help fill a projected need of 1.3 million more caregivers nationwide in the next decade. Being tuition free, it also offers an opportunity for those looking for work to learn a trade.</p><p>The Diocese of Scranton officially unveiled and blessed both programs at Little Flower Manor on Thursday.</p><p>Little Flower Executive Director John Howells said the nurse aid program will be intensive &#8212; 7 hours a day, five days a week for three and a half weeks &#8212; and entirely on the Little Flower campus, with classwork in the newly renovated basement room, skills training the neighboring skills lab, and clinical training in the nursing home itself.</p><p>Those in training will also have the option of working in the center as ancillary aids, Howells said. Openings will be limited, probably to six per session, with four or five sessions a year.</p><p>While a nurse&#8217;s aide certification may not lead directly to a high-paying job, Howells said he&#8217;s seen many use it as a stepping stone, working their way up to licensed practical nurse and then to registered nurse.</p><p>Howells also conceded there are many other places offering the training, but said the advantage at Little Flower &#8212; aside from no tuition charge &#8212; is working in an environment where there are many dedicated employees &#8212; &#8220;We have people who have worked here for forty years,&#8221; he said &#8212; and getting direct experience with &#8220;the many issues residents face.&#8221;</p><p>The classroom was the second to be blessed by The Rev. Richard Ghezzi, facility chaplain. The ceremonies began three floors up outside the sensory room, which Howell stressed is not a &#8220;recreation room, but a clinical intervention that calms and stimulates&#8221; patients in the early stages of dementia.</p><p>Along with the bubbling water and plush dogs, the room has a light board on the wall that changes color with a persons voice tones, a tactile board with various buttons, hoops and other surfaces they can feel, and pinhole lights they can activate, and a projector with changing images often in sepia tones.</p><p>&#8220;We showed the room to a resident earlier,&#8221; Howell said. &#8220;She went in and said &#8220;Isn&#8217;t this beautiful? Look at the colors.&#8221;</p><p>She liked it so much she left only to return &#8212; three more times.</p><p>Residents&#8217; Association President Marion Cecconi said she was &#8220;very excited&#8221; about the additions and heaped praise on a facility that has been home for seven years.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s wonderful, it&#8217;s very welcoming and pleasant,&#8221; Cecconi said.</p><p>And, she added with a Goldilocks twist, &#8220;it&#8217;s just right.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">John Howells, executive director of Little Flower Manor in Wilkes-Barre, shows the new sensory room created for residents with dementia. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/web1_littleflowermanor1.jpg</photo0><caption0>John Howells, executive director of Little Flower Manor in Wilkes-Barre, shows the new sensory room created for residents with dementia. </caption0><photoCredit0>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Mark Guydish</p><p>mguydish@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Mark Guydish at 570-991-6112 or on Twitter @TLMarkGuydish.</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Diocese blesses new sensory room, training program at Little Flower Manor