The High River Legion got behind long term care at the local hospital with a $21,000 donation last week.

The President of the Legion, Wayne Bulloch says the donations were the proceeds from raffles, bingo's and pull ticket sales.

"We get some of it but a portion of it goes to (Alberta) Gaming and we have a certain period of time to put it back into the community," Bulloch says. "Gaming doesn't need the money but they require that we show we're putting it back into the community."

Bulloch says members of the Legion branch had a say in where the money would go and they decided the hospital's long term care floor was deserving.

Long term care manager Sharon Dowdall says the money allows them to make changes that allow patients with cognitive disorders better able to connect with family.

"We're striving to create areas with-in the unit where families can come and feel that they can connect and, it's, you know, for those precious moments where they get to visit and for those wonderful memories that we're creating in this journey," Dowdall says.

She says the donation will help them to make the area a little less clinical and more like home for the residents.

"This money will actually facilitate us bringing in and creating areas where families and residents can self-initiate their own activities, their therapy, it doesn't just have to be with-in the clinical realm," she says. "If we created something that the resident wants to touch or talk about, it's self-initiated. We're really bringing our practices right up to 2015."

Dowdall says they've looked at their practices and how they can get better support for the needs of the residents.

50 adults live on the second floor of the hospital in long term care.