
St. Paul mayor Maureen Miller believes there is a powerful case for major improvements to the community’s healthcare and seniors’ housing requirements.
A needs assessment regarding upgrades to care and facilities at St. Therese – St. Paul Healthcare Centre complements the identified needs for improved seniors’ housing, Miller said, and provides an opportunity for coordinated solutions.
“The needs assessment for St. Paul was identified four years ago, around the same time that we were looking at the seniors housing,” Miller said. “And so there was a compatibility at that time between Alberta Health Services and Alberta Seniors and Housing about what can we do in combination and facilities.”
Miller says she is impressed by the thorough research of the Alberta Health Services (AHS) needs assessment, and she feels the data makes a compelling case.
The assessment looks at how often residents had to travel outside the St. Paul postal code for basic care, diagnostic services, and other services. From there the researchers identified the needs that were leaving the community “which I was very aware of,” Miller said, “because I also wore the ‘retention’ hat of maintaining health professions.”
She said from there, AHS finds out where the services are being offered, and “they find out then what services we can or cannot offer based on the envelope of the hospital being the restriction.”
Among the considerations is whether services can be added to make things like the hospital’s surgical capacity more viable. Miller suggested making cataract surgery available in St. Paul could be one way to help achieve this.
“Picking up maybe cataract surgery in St. Paul and fitting out the surgical suite so that we become a destination for surgery in order to keep the viability— we’re going to have to look at some of those opportunities,” she said.
“I’m not saying that cataracts would be one of them, but that’s how they’re going to keep our surgical suites properly stocked and viable, which would then attract and retain some of those staff that we may [otherwise] lose.”
The assessment looked at needs from the point of view of area residents as well as from a medical perspective, gathering input from approximately 4,000 people.
Expanding and improving the offerings would mean expanding or relocating the hospital. Miller said it might be possible to add a storey to the existing building. If that is not feasible, a location would have to be identified for all-new construction.
Miller said she favours adding onto the present structure, primarily because it is close to neighbourhoods with significant populations of older adults. Sunnyside Manor, Heritage Homes, and Extendicare are all within a couple of blocks of the current hospital.
She said demolishing the present hospital would also leave a scar in the midst of a residential area.
The needs assessment was conducted by AHS and vetted by the health ministry. It is now in the hands of the provincial treasury. Miller said Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul MLA Scott Cyr has worked with the community to move the considerations forward.
“Our MLA has been working towards the same outcomes as we have,” she said.
But she says it is time to address overall needs not just of the town, but the entire region as far as the hospital goes. “They are going to build to the need is what I really need them to say,” she said.
“Don’t put a Band-Aid on this if you don’t think it’s still not going to meet the need. You found out what the needs are, now build to the need. I will not settle for any less than the needs being met.”
New seniors’ complex would include Assisted Living and Continuing Care
Meanwhile, TheSt. Paul M.D. Foundation (of which Miller is board chair) is working on provincial funding after its own needs assessment regarding seniors’ housing.
While the healthcare funding and the seniors’ housing projects are separate, Miller says there is an opportunity for the two to complement each other.
The Heritage House Phase I housing is near the end of its life cycle, and the province has advised the foundation they will not pay for further renovations. The units are small, and the complex is not equipped to provide assisted living or continuing care.
Miller said the intent is to demolish the 32 cottages in Heritage House I and to build a three-storey complex on that location. The centre of the existing Sunnyside block will also be removed, allowing for more outdoor space.
“Sunnyside is short of outdoor public space. The new build design is quite conducive to safety, to size, and to meeting the requirements of seniors and affordable housing,” Miller said.
The outdoor living space will be on the second floor, which will be safer for residents. The only outdoor space at Sunnyside Manor now is in front of the residence at street level.
The new build will be constructed to accommodate assisted living and continuing care. The units will be able to accommodate couples living together, which Miller says is especially important.
“I don’t know if you’re aware of what happens to a couple if one goes into assisted living, which would be Sunnyside, and one goes into long-term care, which would be Extendicare,” she said.
“Even though they’re within the same block, in order for that couple to get full funding for those facilities, they actually have to perform a separation. I can’t imagine parents 60 years married, and now you need to force them to sign off on a separation in order for one spouse to now get that continued care.
“Doesn’t it seem cruel, and doesn’t it just seem not logical?”
The new facility, with assisted living and continuing care both available, will allow couples with different care needs to stay together.
It will also offer housing and appropriate levels of care for more people, which is one way it will complement improvements to the hospital. There are currently 10 beds at the hospital that are being used to house continuing-care residents.
This, Miller says, is not an appropriate use of hospital resources, it’s unduly expensive, and it does not provide the social and recreational amenities the residents need.
The Town of St. Paul, St. Paul County, and the Town of Elk Point have each approved $4 million to fund the new seniors’ facility, and Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) has approved financing contingent on provincial funding.