More beds, more choices for Red Deer seniors
June 23, 2010
Spacious, modern continuing care centre will better serve Red Deer community
Peggy Lindholm is looking forward to having a room with a view.
"I'd like to have my own window. It would be nice to have a big one so I can look outside," she says from her semi-private room at the Red Deer Nursing Home.
Lindholm, 77, will get her wish this fall when residents at Red Deer Nursing Home and Valley Park Manor move into Extendicare Michener Hill – a bright and modern continuing care facility that offers a wide range of living options, amenities and, yes, big windows overlooking trees and green space. It opens in September.
"There should be a good view from up there," says Jack McCarty, Lindholm's common-law husband. "And she doesn’t have to leave town for the care she needs. That's good."
The three-storey, 220,000-square-foot care centre is designed and equipped to meet the diverse health needs of seniors and adults with disabilities in central Alberta.
The facility has 220 long-term care beds for residents with complex health needs requiring round-the-clock care by a team of nurses and other health professionals.
There are also 60 supportive living suites, where seniors can get the care they need in a family-friendly, home-like setting that offers privacy and supports independence. Each suite has dining and living spaces, with plenty of space to host family visits.
About 90 per cent of the rooms are private.
The new facility also includes a family dining room, multi-purpose auditorium and secure, outdoor recreation areas, as well as a hair salon, coffee shop, library, chapel and children's day care area.
"Extendicare Michener Hill will help meet the community's growing and changing needs for seniors care and housing services," says Kerry Bales, vice-president for Alberta Health Services' Central Zone.
"It will provide a significantly better living environment for local residents who will move into the facility from the Red Deer Nursing Home and Valley Park Manor. It will also provide more continuing care beds and more living options for seniors."
Red Deer Nursing Home, built in 1964, and Valley Park Manor, built in 1969, will be closed as long-term care facilities when their residents are transferred. Both buildings are in poor shape and no longer adhere to contemporary standards for a continuing care centre. Neither the nursing home nor the manor had supportive living suites.
The move will add continuing care beds in central Alberta, as the new building's 280 beds exceed the 215 total beds at the closing facilities.
"Alberta Health Services is committed to supporting seniors and adults with disabilities to remain as healthy, active, and independent as possible," says Bales.
"Extendicare Michener Hill is part of Alberta Health Services plan to ensure we provide Albertans with the right care in the right place."
Lindholm says the right place, for her, is Extendicare Michener Hill. She'll still receive high-quality care when she needs it but will enjoy being in a more spacious facility where she can enjoy time with her husband and family in a setting that feels like home.
At the nursing home, her family photos are tucked away on a small shelf. She's looking forward to putting them on the wall of her own room at Extendicare Michener Hill.
"That would be nice," she says.
