The Passamaquoddy Lodge Foundation announced that it is hosting another information session regarding its plans to expand and relocate the nursing home, amid ongoing delays in provincial approval.
Caroline Davies, a member of the board of directors for the foundation, said
Eight years ago, the board was examining how to move from 40 beds, 20 of which are shared, to 60 individual rooms. Davies said the province instructed the board at the time to build new.
“We hired a company that specializes in aging and how to help organizations age well to guide us on what the options were,” she said. “We came up with a concept to come up with five individual homes, each with 12 beds, so we still have a 60-bed facility, but they would each have their own bedroom and bathroom, and then COVID hit.”
She said this is when the concept the board proposed was solidified. Many seniors in nursing homes, Davies explained, died from loneliness due to the requirement to isolate during the pandemic.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information released a study in 2021 on the first six months of the pandemic. It said long-term residents’ deaths were higher than in years prior to the pandemic, even when there were fewer COVID-19 deaths.
“People don’t go to a nursing home because they think it is a good idea; they go because they can no longer safely live on their own,” she said. “But they should feel that it is their home, not an institution, and right now, our nursing home is an institution.”
During the first wave from March to August 2020, 11 per cent of assessments noted that the resident had not had any personal contact with family or friends over the previous week, including virtual contact or phone calls. This proportion was 3 times higher than that for the same period in 2019, the report said.
It went on to say that of those, 36 per cent were assessed as having symptoms of moderate to severe depression.
Davies said the self-contained households would prevent others from being separate from their loved ones, because only one household would need to be isolated should an infection arise.
The foundation also sought a partnership with the local daycare, with Davies adding that intergenerational bonding has proven to improve health outcomes in both seniors and children.
Another big priority of the concept was to allow seniors to age in their own homes.
The Liberal government has placed significant investment in the Nursing Home Without Walls program, which helps older New Brunswickers access programming and financial support without needing to go into long-term care, and there are now 31 sites in the program.
One site is Charlotte County through the Charlotte County Senior’s Resource Centre. The program has expanded to include the islands. It serves about 460 seniors across the county.
The facility would also be a child care facility, which Davies said is a critical part of the cross-generational support. It would also have an adult-day program and a therapy pool.
But mainly, it is about allowing seniors from the community to remain in it throughout their lives.
“People don’t go to a nursing home because they think it is a good idea; they go because they can no longer safely live on their own,” she said. “But they should feel that it is their home, not an institution, and right now, our nursing home is an institution.”
Davies said many donors and supporters feel frustrated by the government’s lack of decision-making on the project. The Town of Saint Andrews donated 13 acres of land for the project, off Bar Road.
“It would be serviced land, it would meet the needs of our proposed building,” Davies explained. “We get a new council in May; what if they change their mind?”
The plan is to raise $20 million dollars and, on the part of the provincial government, the per diem costs of construction. Davies said many people are waiting to donate large amounts toward the facility, but are left in limbo.
“We have a dedicated committee of volunteers who have been working on this; at some point, they don’t need to be hit on the head anymore,” she said. “We’re ready to go.”
She said it is as simple as letting the foundation and the community help it achieve the goal of investing in improvements for long-term care.
“I’ve talked to other nursing home providers, who have wanted to go with a similar model as we did, to get the go ahead, they had to make it more institutional with 30 people living in a communal space … and their advice to me was don’t blink, hold the line, and you need household model nursing homes,” she said.
The foundation is expected to hold two open houses on Nov. 22 from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the W.C. O’Neill Arena. A similar open house was held in January 2024, and the town’s political leadership had been told an answer would be provided by February.
The Department of Social Development (DSD) did not respond to questions about what is causing the delays in approvals or when the timeline for an answer would be available.
“The Department of Social Development is aware of the request to replace Passamaquoddy Lodge in Saint Andrews,” it said. “While internal analyses and discussions are ongoing, there is no further update to share at this time.”
