Provincial Seniors Minister Marguerite Blais was in Sherbrooke on Thursday morning to visit the construction site of the new ‘maison des aînés et alternatives’. Once completed, the facility will be one of several such new facilities to provide a home to seniors with reduced autonomy as well as adults with physical or intellectual impairments, autism spectrum disorders, or behavioural disorders requiring additional levels of care.
“It is possible to change the culture around our long-term care homes,” Blais said, expressing a desire for this space and the others like it being built to be the model for care facilities for decades to come.
Based on the idea of prioritizing and respecting the needs of the residents, the new facilities are subdivided into groupings of twelve people organised around central living areas. The hope is that these smaller pods or groupings will help to create more of a homey environment, as opposed to the institutional feel of existing long-term care homes. The Sherbrooke home will include 10 such sections, for a total of 120 residents.
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Blais tours Sherbrooke maison des aînés
By Gordon Lambie
