One year down, many more to go.
The Heights at Mt. View residence, a leading seven-storey complex care residence for seniors, marked its one-year anniversary last week with a celebratory open house. The event featured cake, socializing and entertainment by the Victoria Brass Band.
“It’s been an amazing journey,” said Lorraine Pardy, residential care administrator with Baptist Housing. “It was a vision that started years ago with an idea, a plan, some innovative thinking. It was a new opportunity to forge a new way of being, and that’s what we have done.”
The Heights at Mt. View boasts 24/7 resident-centred care in a homelike atmosphere with a sense of family among its residents. The facility was designed by Baptist Housing in partnership with the provincial government, the Vancouver Island Health Authority and the Capital Regional Hospital District. Marquise serves as the contracted partner to provide hospitality services.
“One of our resident care co-ordinators coined it very well. She said, ‘In this house, wellness rings,’ like how the Liberty Bell rings. That’s a term we’ve sort of taken on ourselves,” said Pardy.
When the Heights opened last year, it combined the populations of two care homes, with an additional 75 residents from a third home. The facility currently offers 260 beds – contracted through VIHA – split evenly among 13 communities, offering complex and dementia care.
Elizabeth Harris, regional administrator with Baptist Housing, said the Heights’ model has an emphasis on resident-directed care, as opposed to traditional care home. As a result, the Heights frequently receives requests from other care organizations to tour the facility and learn about what they can do differently to achieve the same success.
“It’s been a huge year of growth and challenge, all leading to better resident outcomes,” she said. “At the end of the day, it makes the atmosphere a little nicer for the residents – they’re in smaller groups, they can be more flexible when they eat and with their choices.”
Speaking to the Island’s growing aging population, Pardy said she sees more and more facilities shifting to similar models to address the needs of seniors.
“The trend is toward wellness and person-centred care,” she said. “I do see a regeneration occurring, which I think will continue over the next several decades as we deal with an aging demographic of this population.
“You can provide wellness in any building. It’s the heart of the people that bring it home.”
For more information, visit baptisthousing.org.
