Changes in how a seniors’ housing complex operates are sparking concerns, but not all of them are founded.
The Royal Canadian Legion, which operates the Jubilee Residence, has decided to end its participation in the support to seniors in group living program offered by the Northern Health Region (NHR) as of September 15.
Scott Hamel, vice-president, Communi-cations and Stakeholder Relations for the NHR, said this will mean the absence of a facility-wide health care aide overnight and a change in how meals are prepared for home care clients who live at the facility.
While the NHR currently has a health care aide overseeing the Jubilee Residence 24 hours a day, seven days a week, that will change to 16-hour daily coverage with the removal of the 11 pm to 7 am shift.
Hamel said that since the communal kitchen and lounge area of the facility will be off limits to the NHR, there will no longer be anywhere for the overnight health care aide to stay.
“The health care aide [will currently] just check on [tenants] every couple of hours,”
he said.
As for meals, instead of being prepared in the communal kitchen, they will be prepared off-site and delivered to tenants who require the service, Hamel said.
In a brief letter last month, Robert Penner, president of the Legion, informed the NHR of its decision to pull out of the group living program, which is entirely funded by the NHR.
“The Legion Board, after much consideration, has made the decision that this program be discontinued,” Penner wrote in a June 9 letter to the NHR, which provided a copy to The Reminder. “The [Jubilee Residence] was designed for seniors 55+ for independent living and is not an assisted living facility.”
Penner wrote that the Legion believes the move “should not affect” tenants who need home care because care can still be provided in individual apartments.
Hamel confirmed that any Jubilee tenant who needs home care, including 24-hour care, will still be able to access the service.
Penner declined to comment for this story and it appears the Legion has made no public announcement on the decision.
In this information vacuum, inaccurate speculation about what the change will mean for Jubilee tenants has reached the public sphere.
One letter being distributed throughout the community stated that planned group activities, such as teas, outings and blood pressure clinics, would be terminated.
But Hamel said the NHR does not plan to end any of its programs.
Jubilee residents were also worried that the communal kitchen would close entirely, but Karen MacKinnon, a city councillor who heard from concerned tenants, said
she confirmed with the Legion that this is not the case.
MacKinnon said council is aware of the “major need” for seniors’ housing in Flin Flon and will continue to lobby in this regard.
Hamel said the NHR would prefer to maintain its current relationship with the Jubilee Residence, but added that
this is the Legion’s choice
to make.
