Cypress Health Region receives $450,000 for Long-Term Care functional planning

The provincial government has provided $450,000 to the Cypress Health Region for planning to determine the scope of work needed to replace Swift Current's three aging long-term care facilities.
The functional planning funding will allow the region to put together a plan to rejuvenate long-term care in Swift Current to replace the existing facilities which boast a combined 194 long-term beds and four respite beds. The aging facilities are between 43 and 52 years old. The Palliser Regional Care Centre was built in 1957, the Prairie Pioneers Lodge dates back to 1963, and the newest facility is the Swift Current Care Centre which was constructed in 1966.
The funding will support the detailed exploration of a facility, and also into the programs and services which could be offered at the replacment facility.
"It is obviously in our interests as a health region; it is in our interests as a Province to be making sure that long-term care facilities match the great quality of care that is coming from the staff. We are going to take the first step towards making that improvement here in Swift Current with this announcement," Premier Brad Wall said during Monday's funding announcement.
With the funding designed to analyze Swift Current's long-term care as a whole, the process may help develop a new approach to care delivery and services.
"We are going to a have a look at some very, very key questions with respect to long-term care in our community. What is happening already at the facilities? What we want for long-term care in our community, beyond just the facilities, we want to talk about that whole continuant of long-term care for people who obviously are able to stay at home but need some care right through higher intensities of care that we want to be able to provide for people. That is what begins today.
"I believe it is going to mean a new facility for our community, but even maybe a broader dynamic approach to long-term care, maybe even one that sets some examples for the rest of the Province, but we won't predetermine what is going to happen with that study."
Wall noted there is a regional waiting list of approximately 10 to 12 individuals seeking admission into the exisiting long-term care facilities.
Funding for the Swift Current functional planning process is from the 2008-09 budget.
"This announcement has been one that the health region and the community have been desiring for many years," noted Cypress Health Region Board of Directors Chairperson Tyler Bragg. "Although this announcement does not include the official approval for a new replacement long-term care facility, this planning process will help to provide rationale for such an approval in the near future."
The funding will allow the regon to provide recommendations on a proposed site development and a building design which will help estimate a project cost for the facility.
Cypress Health Region CEO?Jim Hornell is hoping to include a series of partnerships in Swift Current's new long-term care plan.
"You don't get this opportunity every day. We want to make sure as we start to look at what the right mix of services in terms of long-term care in Swift Current. We want to make sure we explore all the possibilities, all the options and I think at this point in time it is fair to say that, with the Premier's support, that there is nothing that we aren't going to look at," Hornell said.
"It is going to be a 'green field'. We are going to look at opportunities for partnership and that is why we have some of our partners here today. Are there some opportunities where we can partner with the College and some of their training programs that they have got going on. We are working hard with the Universities: The Faculty of Medicine, the Faculty of Nursing, to see if we can have a distributed learning model that would make Swift Current a hub in the Southwest for some of the training that is necessary in our Province. We want to explore the whole spectrum, the whole gambet of what is possible."
Swift Current Mayor Sandy Larson was also pleased to see progress made towards improving long-term care in the city.
"It seemed like it was never coming yet I knew that if we worked with the Province it would be an excellent example of people working together, different levels of government, the health region and it is coming forward now. We are in such desperate need within the community."
Mayor Larson shared the details of a conversation with a local couple which highlighted the serious need for more long-term care beds within the City.
"I was talking to a Senior one day and neither him nor his wife drove any longer, and their greatest concern as a couple was if someone got sick and had to go into a long-term care facility and it would probably be Leader, Shaunavon or Gull Lake. And there was only the two of them as they had no family. Hhow would they be able to visit each other back and forth? This is a huge concern for our seniors. We need a facility in Swift Current."