The Legion’s housing committee has temporarily delayed a motion to end group home care activities at the Jubilee Residence, meeting attendees told The Reminder.
Dennis Hydamaka was at Tuesday’s meeting, hosted by the housing committee and open to Legion and Legion Ladies Auxiliary members.
“For now there’s going to be no change to the status quo of the Jubilee housing,” he said.
Hydamaka said a strong majority of attendees approved a motion from a Legion member to rescind, for the time being, the housing committee’s earlier decision to end group home care next month.
He said the motion calls for the committee to further explore its concerns about the group home care program and to return to a future meeting with definitive information.
Hydamaka did not know when that meeting might take place, nor did he wish to disclose what the committee’s concerns are.
“They didn’t have definite answers to qualify their concerns,” he said, adding that he nonetheless understood the concerns.
A Jubilee tenant expressed a number of concerns at the meeting, Hydamaka said, and pointed out that many tenants were unhappy with the original decision.
He estimated that between 30 and 40 people, most of them senior citizens, attended the meeting, held at the Legion auditorium.
Another individual who attended the meeting, but who asked that her name not be published, agreed with Hydamaka’s account of what transpired.
Scott Hamel, a spokesman for the Northern Health Region (NHR), said Wednesday he had not heard from the committee about the decision but that the NHR looked forward to discussing the matter with them.
The Legion, which operates the Jubilee, had said it would withdraw from the NHR’s group living program as of September 15.
That would result in changes that include an end to on-site group activities organized by the NHR. The NHR feared that would increase social isolation for some tenants.
The decision, if it proceeds, would also mark the end of an overnight shift that places a health care aide at the Jubilee from 11 pm to 7 am.
While health care aides do not normally offer 24-hour coverage, the NHR felt that five Jubilee tenants would benefit from an overnight aide to conduct checks.
There are rare cases where home care clients have an overnight aide. An individual may temporarily need around-the-clock care after leaving the hospital, for instance, or choose to have his or her aide provide services overnight instead of during the day.
In such cases, Jubilee tenants would still have access to an overnight aide, but no longer would the service be automatic.
Another change that would result from the move would involve the NHR’s bulk meal program. Currently, an NHR cook prepares fresh meals for clients in the Jubilee’s communal kitchen.
If the committee’s decision were to go ahead, those meals would be prepared off site and delivered to clients.
Five Jubilee tenants are considered in need of the bulk meal program, but other tenants who do not need the program use it as a matter of convenience and socialization in the kitchen area.
The Legion has declined to speak to The Reminder about the rationale for the original decision.
In a June letter to the NHR, the Legion said the Jubilee “was designed for seniors 55+ for independent living and is not an assisted living facility.”
