From its design to the way it was financed, Willingdon Creek Village residential care facility, now in the final phases of construction, is innovative.
“It’s state of the art and people are going to be absolutely blown away,” said Colin Palmer, chair of the Powell River Regional District and Regional Hospital Board.
Regional district representatives recently toured the building, built in partnership with Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH), and first impressions were impressive. Palmer said he hadn’t been through the care facility since March, when there was no roof and water was coming in all around him. Construction crews made significant changes over the period of about six months.
“When we took the board in, everyone had only seen it from the outside,” Palmer said. “They were just thrilled. You could see the progress. You could see what Len Wegner [VCH manager of residential care for Powell River] and his staff had been planning. You could visualize where people were going to meet. You could see living rooms and dining rooms. The facilities for the patients are just phenomenal. I can assume that their families are going to be just delighted.”
In addition to first-rate accommodations, security, safety and fire protection and escape is all first-rate as well, according to Palmer.
“The ministry of health is very, very satisfied that anything in the building is way, way up to code.”
Wegner said the regional district has been a huge part of getting the residential care project off the ground. “This would not have happened without the regional district backing us,” he said. “That’s the beauty of a small community. People make it happen. Powell River makes things happen.”
Wegner said the existing Olive Devaud Residence, which Willingdon Creek Village is replacing, was built in 1966, and wasn’t designed to meet the complex needs of today’s residential care clients.
“The construction of Willingdon Creek Village has enabled VCH to offer several residential care best practices and new programs that will greatly enhance care for our clients,” Wegner said.
Another partnership that has contributed to the reality of Willingdon Creek Village is the Powell River Health-Care Auxiliary, and by extension, the people of Powell River. The auxiliary donated $877,000 to the Willingdon Creek Village project.
Rhondda Schreurs, president of the auxiliary, said the huge donation will go toward patient care and comfort. All of the money is earmarked for the purchase of furniture, appliances and equipment. None of the money went toward construction of the facility. The funds were raised through the auxiliary’s economy shop and through the gift shop at Powell River General Hospital.
“We knew that something would eventually be done to replace Olive Devaud Residence,” Schreurs said. “We knew a big project was coming up so we put money away.”
Having recently toured the residential care facility with other auxiliary members, Schreurs said she is very impressed with the facility.
“It’s more than I thought,” she said. “Seeing Olive Devaud and this, there is no comparison. It’s a phenomenal facility. It is going to be very home-like for the residents. It’s going to be first class.”
Schreurs said the auxiliary could not have made this donation without the support of the people in this community. The organization’s volunteers have also been phenomenal, she added.
Palmer said the regional district’s regional hospital board has been working at replacing Olive Devaud Residence for eight or nine years. He said it all started when Frances Ladret, the former regional district administrator, told the regional board that they would finish paying for Powell River General Hospital in 2014.
“She said: ‘And you do realize that VCH is saying there is something seriously wrong with Olive Devaud. You want to think about this,’” Palmer said
“We kept going to the government, which was a waste of time. We went through three different health ministers and really, what they were saying was that they were not going to give us any money. So we said, why don’t we find the money and get a partner? It kind of gelled from there.”
Palmer said there was a snag in that any money VCH would provide could not be used for capital purposes. However, an agreement was drawn up for VCH to lease the building, which complied with provincial policy.
“Finally, someone in the health ministry said yes, so we got it in writing from the minister,” Palmer said. The $26.5-million project was green-lit. Construction is so far on time and on budget.
Palmer said it was vital to keep this as a public project, rather than parcelling it out to commercial enterprise.
“What we did stop is a private operation developing the facility,” he said.
The project never would have received the huge donation from the auxiliary if it had been a private facility, according to Palmer.
“I think in the future there will be a lot of people in the community that will want to provide things for the facility because they’ll regard it as theirs.”
That ownership has already begun with the people who will ultimately be providing care. Wegner said the professionals who look after residents were involved in the planning of the new facility. Three rooms were mocked up so that staff could provide input into enhancing functionality of the rooms.
“We looked at what we did at Olive Devaud, what we knew we didn’t want to do, what wasn’t working, and what we wanted the new system to look like,” he said. “When we designed the building we were able to design around that and for the future.”
In addition to those efficiencies, proximity of Willingdon Creek Village to the hospital has created economies. Because the new facility is adjacent, the residence has been able to piggyback on systems such as boilers and the kitchen.
“The hospital was built with this building in mind, even though they didn’t know what it would look like,” Wegner said. “A lot of good planning went into it.”
The timetable to start moving residents from Olive Devaud Residence to Willingdon Creek Village is scheduled to begin on January 12, 2015 and to be carried out over a three-week period.
“It’s getting close,” Wegner said. “It’s exciting.”
