Partnerships and enhanced services transform Cooper Terrace in 2005: administrator
Wednesday, December 7, 2005 -- Craig Anderson
With two and a half years of renovations set for completion in early 2006, Copper Terrace’s administrator is hoping that the improved outward appearance of the 151–bed home will highlight some of the unique care provision currently offered inside.

In the midst of building a dedicated chapel, renovating rooms and the home’s laundry area, and adding a general store and resident café, Copper Terrace also increased their specialized rehabilitation services, says Kathy Morningstar, administrator.

“We’re very proud of this service,” says Morningstar, which gives recently admitted residents who have had a stroke or other serious injury rehabilitation programming that enables a quicker, more thorough recovery.

Therapists representing four different categories – speech language/pathology, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, and social work – work from the Chatham-based long term care home on a part-time, as needed basis.

Copper Terrace residents used to access the service through the Chatham/Kent community care access centre, but long wait times forced the home to offer its own rehab services. And with an increasing number of residents with high medical needs accessing long term care, the service took on greater importance.

The home has also forged a partnership with the Chatham Kent Health Alliance stroke education team. The initiative –entitled “Stroke Strategies” - is a multi-player partnership involving other Chatham long term care providers and is open to all staff and resident family members. The partnership will focus on educational workshops and new developments in the treatment and prevention of strokes.

Copper Terrace’s partnerships and community networking efforts were at the fore in recent discussions with Gary Switzer, CEO of LHIN Erie St. Clair. Joining other area long term care residences and health care providers, a series of meetings produced the basis of a consensus about the changing demographics in long term care, says Morningstar.

“We need enhanced capacities for some of the residents we see now. We’re no longer treating just frail, elderly people. We have people with more complex needs now, and a variety of them. We have a need for medical care and acute care unlike in the past,” says Morningstar.

Despite their own specialized services, Morningstar still feels that mixing younger, high needs persons in with an elderly resident base isn’t always appropriate.

“It doesn’t always work,” says Morningstar. Other area providers also pointed to the development of specialized facilities for people requiring acute care/rehab services as being a better potential solution than the status quo.

New facilities will be in the spotlight in the Chatham/Kent region when two municipally owned homes are restructured and united under one roof in early April 2006 into a three-hundred plus bed residence. The residence, located near Copper Terrace, might negatively impact occupancy rates, says Morningstar, who calls the home’s current 97 percent rate one of the year’s successes.

Cooper Terrace, despite its recent facelift, is still a “C” level residence, and won’t likely compete with a new residence built to “A” standards, says Morningstar.

For more information on Copper Terrace, see: http://www.copperterrace.ca/About_Us.html