Residents and seniors in the Comox Valley will soon have access to high-quality and innovative dementia care within a state-of-the-art long-term care home.
Based on the concept of a dementia village, the home is under construction on the site of The Views long-term care home and the former St. Joseph’s General Hospital.
“Timely access to dementia care can be challenging for the thousands of people living on the Island and across the province,” Health Minister Adrian Dix said in a Monday announcement at the site. “The new Providence Living Place, Together by the Sea, will provide a real solution as residents benefit from freedom of movement, access to nature and interaction with the community.”
“Our construction start today represents a new vision for long-term care in B.C. and will advance the provincial direction for long-term care improvements,” said Candace Chartier, president and CEO, Providence Living.
“We are grateful to the support of our partners, including St. Paul’s Foundation and Comox Valley Healthcare Foundation, which will enable Providence Living to create environments that help seniors continue to live meaningful lives even when they become too frail to live independently.”
In February 2020, Island Health signed a project development agreement with Providence Living to redevelop a care community to replace The Views. The new care home will include 155 publicly funded beds and one private pay bed.
“It’s exciting to see construction starting at Providence Living Place, Together by the Sea. The project’s innovative physical design around a secure, one-acre courtyard will offer a new model of long-term care based on the de Hogeweyk dementia village in the Netherlands,” said Mable Elmore, Parliamentary Secretary for Seniors’ Services and Long-Term Care.
The dementia care village will offer a new care and staffing model called Home for Us. Care will shift from the traditional model of care to a new social/relational model of care that integrates a person-centred approach to care.
When complete in 2024, the home will consist of small, self-contained households of 12 private rooms each with a bathroom. Care staff will be common to each household, fostering interpersonal connection between residents and caregivers.
Providence Living Place, Together by the Sea will also feature a child care centre to foster intergeneration connection at the village. Operated by the Comox Valley Children’s Day Care Society, 32 new child care spaces (eight infant-toddler spaces and 24 2.5-years-to-kindergarten spaces) will be supported through a $1.2-million grant from the Ministry of Education and Child Care’s ChildCareBC New Spaces Fund.
“This is a big day for people in Comox and area as construction starts on the new facility,” said Ronna-Rae Leonard, MLA for Courtenay-Comox. “I thank everyone who worked so hard to get us to this point and I look forward to watching the residence get built.”
The child care operator will be eligible to apply for the early childhood educator wage enhancement for staff and the Child Care Fee Reduction Initiative (CCFRI), which lowers the cost of child care for families.
“I think this fabulous approach combining seniors’ long-term care and child care will really lift seniors up, bring them joy and benefit Comox families for years to come,” said Katrina Chen, Minister of State for Child Care. “These new child care spaces will enable more parents to pursue work, school and other opportunities and also help make life more affordable.”
