Southbridge part of solution to upgrade long-term care homes
Acquires homes from operators without capital to rebuild
Friday January 20, 2012 -- Deb Bartlett
The president and CEO of the Southbridge Group says the organization is happy to be part of the solution of helping to rejuvenate older long-term care homes in Ontario while building communities.

The Southbridge Group has recently acquired 199 beds in older homes that will be redeveloped, and has plans to acquire many more.

Geoff Bellew says there are many operators who are “looking for an exit to get out of the business.”

They don’t want to abandon the community but don’t have the capital to upgrade their homes, says Bellew.

“They were the noise that Reg (Petersen, chair of Southbridge Corp.) and Southbridge were hearing, and we said, ‘why don’t we become part of the solution?’” says Bellew.

Southbridge will help the operators that want to exit and will convert the residential model of long-term care home into the community model.

Bellew says this will serve the government’s purposes and lines up with Southbridge’s social capital and social enterprise culture.

Southbridge will not be bringing different models of geriatric or specialized care to the homes, which will operate under the Country Village brand and be managed by Extendicare.

Bellew says there are too many older homes that people don’t want to choose as their long-term care home.

Southbridge’s goal will be to redevelop the homes “and maybe be part of that solution to at least make sure that the capacity of homes that exist are all ones that potential residents want to go to,” he says.

He says Southbridge is trying to create a hybrid operating system that balances the efficiencies of a for-profit home with the effective community building that is more common in the not-for-profit homes.

Bellew says Southbridge profits go to causes. Capital has been invested in Habitat for Humanity, Lang Farm, United Way and other community-building operations.

“We have a good sense of what makes a community a community,” says Bellew.

Bellew says Southbridge’s goal is “to do good. We run businesses in order to achieve good. We’re not a business that happens to do good on the side.”

To comment on this story, or to share your thoughts on the contribution of long-term care homes to the community, contact Deb at 800-294-0051, ext. 30, or e-mail deb(at)axiomnews.ca.