Extendicare Mississauga celebrates opening at last
Monday September 22, 2003 John Driscoll
MISSISSAUGA ON—While the remnants of Hurricane Isabel moved quietly through the area, residents and their families along with staff and special guests finally celebrated the opening of a new Extendicare facility here Sept. 19.

They had good reason to celebrate because of the challenges Extendicare Mississauga, a state-of-the-art home for 140 residents, has faced over the past seven months.

Shelly Jamieson, President of Extendicare (Canada)

The grand opening celebrations were cancelled and rescheduled not once or even twice but three times in the face of two SARS outbreaks, Shelly Jamieson, President of Extendicare (Canada) told the crowd at the opening.

“We didn’t have any SARS cases here but we were impacted just like everyone else,” Jamieson said. “That’s why we weren’t going to let a little rainstorm called Isabel interfere with this special occasion.”

The Davis family had done some celebrating months ago when they learned that Ken Davis, 90, was going to be among the first residents at Extendicare Mississauga.

“We had visited three homes for my father and this is the one we had hoped to be called for,” said Lewis Davis. “It was like winning the lottery when we got the call.”

Ken Davis, resident at Extendicare Mississauga

“Since then we’ve been overwhelmed with the level of care, the spaciousness and the cleanliness of this environment,” he said.

“Residents can get outside in a secure environment and the lines of communication are excellent here.”

He visits the facility three times a week and says, “The whole family enjoys the homey atmosphere of this place.”

Ken Davis, who worked in a dairy operation in Rexdale for 42 years, says he enjoys the larger rooms and the smaller dining areas.

“It has been an incredible seven months since we welcomed our first resident,” said Diana Noel, Extendicare Mississauga administrator, in an interview.

Diana Noel, Extendicare Mississauga administrator

“We have had two SARS outbreaks, the blackout and two evacuations to our home including one from a nursing home in Oakville during an ice storm," Noel said. “The people here have really risen to the challenge. They are very dedicated.”

During the SARS outbreak, special precautions were taken with no visitors for a period, then one designated visitor, she said. “Families were understandably worried about residents who had just moved into a new home.”

Tony Clement, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, also spoke at the opening.

Tony Clement, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care

Clement was doing double duty, visiting his wife’s great-aunt who is a resident in the facility as well as appearing as a representative of a government that in 1998 approved 20,000 new long-term care beds.

“Over 17,000 of those beds are built and occupied and 7,000 are under construction or in the planning stages,” Clement said.

In her remarks Jamieson paid tribute to “a Health Ministry that has done the right thing for Ontario seniors.”

The opening represents a partnership for Extendicare from beginning to end, she said. Along with the Ministry of Health, partners include the lender Borealis Long-Term Care Facilities – a wholly owned subsidiary of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System or OMERS - and the City of Mississauga that assisted in integrating the design of the facility into the local community and establishing a dialogue with the new neighbours.

Extendicare has been a major provider of new facilities since 1998, with Mississauga “one of 16 that we will open in Ontario by 2004, six with public partners and 10 on our own,” Jamieson said. “Over the next year or so we will open new homes in Bracebridge, Newmarket, Oakville, Port Hope and one more in Toronto.”

Extendicare Mississauga exceeds the Ministry’s design guidelines, Jamieson pointed out. For example, residents’ private spaces are 15 per cent larger than government guidelines.

Karen Sullivan, executive director of the OLTCA and Diana Noel, Extendicare Mississauga administrator

Extendicare has been a significant contributor and leader in long-term care, said Karen Sullivan, executive director of the Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA), in her remarks at the opening. “No less than six of our past presidents have been from Extendicare,” Sullivan said.

“This is a very exciting, dynamic and challenging time for long-term care in our province,” she said.

“I have watched things change dramatically over the past three years as we have added more and more new homes as part of the government’s 20,000-bed expansion program – homes like the one you are in today that are spacious, beautiful and truly like homes to the people who live here.”
The resident-focused facility includes six home areas, each with dining room, activity room and lounge serving 22 or 26 residents. There are three secure courtyards with paths, plants and benches, a country kitchen designed for informal resident dining and home baking, a beauty salon, an inter-faith chapel off the main lobby, a children’s play area and a celebration dining room for private resident and family functions.

Affixed to the wall outside each resident’s room is a glass-and-wood memory box filled with personal mementos and pictures of the past to assist residents in finding their rooms and staff in learning more about the people they care for.

“This is a marvelous place to work and I am very fortunate to be here,” said Noel. Extendicare Mississauga is so diverse in residents and staff, she said. “There are really so many things to celebrate.”