Bridgwater chosen for ‘innovative’ personal care home

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Bridgwater will be home to over a hundred more seniors come 2018.

The province of Manitoba and Winnipeg Mennonite Seniors Care Inc. (WMSC) announced they will build a 120-suite personal care home at the intersection of Bridge Lake Drive and South Town Road on Dec. 16.

WMSC is a non-profit, faith-based organization of eight Mennonite churches and Bethel Place (445 Stafford St.) which operates two assisted living facilities and two life lease homes in Linden Woods, according to past president Albert Friesen.

“This is an exciting day. We have been working towards this for actually a couple of decades. And so this is really a dream come true,” Friesen said. “Providing these 120 suites for our elderly is an amazing step forward.”

Called Bridgwater Personal Care Home, the new facility incorporates design standards that will make the home both a therapeutic environment and cognitive tool for residents, architect Robert Wrublowsky said.

“It’s the first of its kind in Manitoba to actually be registered with the Centre of Health Design,” he said. “Through this affiliation, the project is going to follow a strict protocol of evidence-based design and brings us into contact with leading experts in the long-term care arena. Through this access we have been able to develop a truly resident focused care environment that will be very different from any other personal care home that has been built in this province to date.”

Bridgwater Personal Care Home is described as having a small scale, cottage-like environment, with 12 residents in each cottage, who each have their own suite with a full kitchen and bathroom. Friesen also said the staff at the home will be integrated into the day-to-day activities of the tenants.

“What we want to do is provide the best care for the person, rather than just an institution where they can live,” Friesen said.

Gina Trinidad, chief operating officer of long-term care with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said the new home will transform how care is administered in the community.

“Winnipeg Mennonite Seniors Care is not just adding another personal care home to the continuum of care that they already provide. They are taking a leadership role in redesigning long term care services with this project,” Trinidad said. “This innovative model will fundamentally transform the philosophy of care, the architecture, and the organizational structures of the personal care home environment.”

Officials say the total cost of Bridgwater Personal Care Home has not been finalized, as tenders will go out in February and contracts assigned in July or August. It will be about two years before the doors open in 2018, Friesen said.

The province could not say what portion of the building costs it will pay, though it is part of a 2011 commitment of $200 million to provide hundreds of new personal care home beds in Manitoba. WMSC will also contribute to capital costs.

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