Heather Latter
Darryl Galusha is thrilled to be doing what he loves, which is helping people, and doing it in a place he loves—his hometown of Fort Frances.
Galusha and his family recently relocated to Fort Frances from Kenora after he accepted the position as the new administrator of Rainycrest Long-Term Care Home.
Taking over from Edie Bodnar, who decided to retire, Galusha also will become senior director responsible for seniors services for Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc.
“I wanted to come home. This is home,” he stressed during an interview at Rainycrest yesterday—his second day on the job.
Galusha noted he moved away at age 18 to pursue nursing.
“It really means a lot to me that I get to come back and take care of people that really shaped me as a child and a developing young adult,” he remarked.
“It’s nice to be able to take care of people and pay them back for all of the things they’ve done for me.”
Galusha noted he has an extensive background in nursing, working as a trauma and emergency room nurse, as well as in the intensive care unit in places such as Sioux Lookout, New Mexico, and Minnesota.
He also has worked as a hospital supervisor in Houston, Tex. and then in Kenora before taking on the role of director of care for Pinecrest Home for the Aged, where he worked for the past four years, while simultaneously holding the position of assistant district administrator for the homes in Dryden and Red Lake.
“Now with everything that is going on with the mill, it means a lot that professionals come back and work,” Galusha stressed, noting a dentist recently returned here and a doctor is set to come back this fall.
“It’s time to come back and help stabilize everything and do our part in taking care of the community,” he reasoned, adding it was an easy decision to apply for the job at Rainycrest.
“Edie has done such a great job with Rainycrest and the staff is just so amazing,” Galusha lauded.
“They take such good care of the residents.”
He also indicated he has “some big shoes to fill.”
“Edie has done so much,” Galusha said, noting she held the position of administrator there since 2006.
“I know how to do it, but Edie’s style and her history, and her organization history, is something I can’t learn,” he admitted.
“She’s done such wonderful things; shepherded them through some really tough times.
“It’s up to me now to sort of carry on the wonderful work she had done,” he said.
Galusha is married to Leah, a nurse practitioner and regional co-ordinator of the Registered Practical Nursing program at Confederation College.
Together they have two children—a 13-year-old daughter, who will be starting Grade 9 this fall, and a 12-year-old son going into Grade 7.
He said they are looking forwarded to swimming competitively, as well as meeting new friends and having some new experiences.
“It will be different to have family around,” Galusha admitted. “We’ve never had family around us.
“Of all our moves, we’ve always just been by ourselves with our two kids.”
He also said that it will be interesting to cross paths with people he knows, or knew from before he moved away, more frequently.
“It’s good. It’s exciting,” Galusha enthused. “Fort Frances has a lot to offer.
“Right now it’s going through some transition, but there’s so much growth potential for the town.”
And now that he’s back home, Galusha is not planning on going anywhere.
“I spent 22 years trying to come home,” he remarked. “And it means a lot that I get to take care of people.
“This is all I want to do,” he noted. “I went to school to become a nurse, I got my degree, and then I got my Master’s in business, so I sort of worked my whole career to be able to run a hospital or a long-term care facility.
“It’s one thing to be a hands-on nurse and do that on a day-to-day basis, but I want to take care of a community,” Galusha stressed.
“In nursing, you take care of six people at a time, but doing this I get to take care of a community and work with the community.”
Still, he admitted it’s a different path than he originally started out in, but it’s about helping people nonetheless.
“I’ve moved 180 from where I was [when I started nursing],” Galusha said.
“And as I’ve aged, I’ve recognized that we need to take care of our communities; take care of our history and the people that founded the communities.”
Galusha even has a future vision for Rainycrest that he shared with Riverside’s directors when he was interviewed for the position.
“Long-term care is changing and becoming more of the forefront,” he explained. “And having long-term care and acute care tied in together is just an absolute fantastic opportunity for growth and to lead the way provincially. . . .
“If you can combine long-term care and acute care, the possibilities are endless because if we collaborate and work together, there is a lot of potential,” he said, citing it is an integration he’d like to look into.
“It’s just breaking down the barriers between the different sectors,” he reasoned.
“It’s a great opportunity for long-term care, Rainycrest, to really shine,” Galusha added. “[To show] how the community is really supportive of the home and all the wonderful things they do in the home.
“I feel that I’m very blessed to have this opportunity,” he said.
