You may recognize Monique Albert who starred in our Always Parkland TV Commercial. Monique has worked with Parkland for seven years now in various roles. In her current role as Wellness Coach, Monique is responsible for planning and leading wellness and recreation activities that support the mind, body and soul. These activities include scheduled fitness classes, special events on campus, arts and crafts and so much more.

For Monique, she is continuously motivated and inspired by the residents who live at Parkland. She says, “I love working at Parkland because of the residents. I really enjoy getting to know each of the residents and their families and building relationships with them. I do what I do because I enjoy helping others and playing a role to ensure the residents are keeping active.”

During the pandemic, Monique had to adjust nearly all of the activities that were offered to residents. “We moved all activities to a very large room so that we could continue offering residents fitness and social activities with social distancing measures in place. It was important that we were doing everything we could to ensure residents felt supported, and were staying active and engaged.”

The greatest adjustment for Monique was when all residences closed to visitors. This took a toll on the residents, and also the team members, who care deeply for the residents’ wellbeing and could see the impact this had on every resident. Monique and team did their best to facilitate FaceTime connections to ensure residents could see their loved ones face-to-face. For any special occasions celebrated during the pandemic, Monique says the team went the extra mile to fill the void of families not being able to visit. “On Mothers Day, we delivered ice cream sundaes door-to-door. The residents were so thrilled to have a visitor that day and we were so happy to celebrate this milestone with them.”

Monique says that although her role changed significantly during the pandemic, she knew it was for the safety of the residents and team members. She says that she felt safe every day coming in to work. “During the pandemic, Parkland hired additional support staff to ensure areas were disinfected more regularly, and, so that we had more staff in the building to spend more time with residents. I felt that Shannex did everything possible to keep everyone safe and to keep COVID out of the buildings. I truly felt safe every day that I came to work.”

Thank you, Monique, for all you do for the residents at Parkland.