Changing care delivery New facility reflects new approach

By Melanie Franner

When Providence Living at The Views opens in mid2024, it will showcase a brand new care-delivery approach to patients with dementia. The 156-bed residence will be more like a village than an institution – fostering a sense of community among residents, visitors, and staff.

“We’re changing the experience of care for our residents,” says Mark Blandford, CEO, Providence Living. “We’re moving from a task-driven approach to socialrelational care.”

Island Health signed the project development agreement with Providence Living in 2019, calling for the building and operation of a dementia village in the Comox Valley. The new $156.2 million centre will replace the existing long-term care facility currently operating as The Views at St. Joseph’s.

Building blocks

The new approach to care embodies the highly successful De Hogeweyk model, which encourages “re-humanization” of long-term care. The Dutch-inspired archetype has created an entire gated village for people with dementia.

This new approach necessitated a completely different type of building design, one that has been further influenced by the pandemic.

“We signed off on the project just before COVID-19 hit,” says Blandford.

“The detailed planning on the design took place concurrently to all of us being deployed operationally so we were able to incorporate quite a few additional protocol measures required to manage issues like COVID into the final stages.”

The result is a series of new architectural changes that foster mini communities within a larger context, while adhering to new safety controls.

For example, the old congregate setting of having four residents per room has been replaced with individual rooms, each with its own washroom. The new floorplan allows for rooms to be separated into groups of 12 for improved management of infectious disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.

Each 12-room “household” offers a kitchen and utility room so residents can make their own breakfast and lunch or do their own laundry at a time of their choosing. Staff will be available to assist in these tasks and to accompany residents to an on-site grocery store for supplies.

“We will be able to completely segregate each group of 12 rooms,” says Blandford, who adds that other increased safety protocols include additional handwashing sinks and separate entrances and exits for staff. “We’re adhering to safety protocols while striving to deliver a balanced approach to an enhanced daily life for our residents.”

The goal behind the innovative new model will be to ensure resident involvement in everyday activities within the household or the wider, secure village. The focus will be on individualized smaller groupings that will nurture a sense of belonging.

Amenities will include community gardens, child daycare, Island Health funded adult day programs, and a community space, studio, chapel, and dedicated Indigenous spiritual space, designed in collaboration with the K’omoks Nation.

An on-site bistro (open to residents and visitors), hair salon, and other sup- port services will also be on-site – with the opportunity for more to be added in the future.

“This is a 10-acre site,” says Blandford.

“Our hope is to offer more supports, like additional retail and primary care, right on site. We want to offer a care village as opposed to a care facility.”

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In the works

Construction on the Providence Living at The Views is already well underway. “The last pour of the suspended slab was done in the first week of December 2022,” says Greg Ciura, Senior Specialist, Structures at WSP. “And there are many wood-frame walls already fabricated and stacked on site ready to be installed.”

WSP, the structural engineering consulting firm for the project, offers a wellestablished local presence throughout

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the province, including offices in Victoria and Nanaimo.

Ciura describes the Providence Living three-storey building as a typical residential wood-frame on a concrete podium construction. But he quickly adds that the build itself is anything but typical.

“The large oval footprint of the building is unique,” he says. “This makes the structural design and construction more challenging. There are seismic-design challenges created by the very large and non-rectangular floor and roof diaphragms. For fire protection purposes, the building is divided by two fire walls. All of this adds to the complexity of the build.”

The building’s first storey (which is partially underground) will include the parkade, kitchen, laundry, service rooms, offices, and amenities. The upper floors enclose two smaller buildings in the courtyard; a chapel and an Indigenous spiritual space.

WSP began working on the design in the spring of 2021, and Ciura estimates that the structure will be completed by mid-2023.

“Fortunately, access to the site is very good,” he says. “The View at St. Joseph’s (the long-term care facility currently on site) remains an active site but a portion of the old hospital was demolished beforehand so there is ample room to work on the project.”

A group effort

Just as Providence Living at The Views will introduce a new resident-centric model of care to the province, it will also inspire those who are involved in the project itself.

“The nature of this project, even for me personally, has made it such a great joy to work on,” says Ciura. “There is such a good connection with the project manager, architect, the contractor, and all the other consultants. We all share that sense that this is going to be a special place and I think we all strive to do better because of it. Everyone is connected and working together.” n