Duane Hicks
The Assisted Living Action Group (A.L.A.G.) took a big leap forward in developing a three-year strategic plan following an all-day workshop conducted here last week.
Almost two dozen people—representing community partner agencies, municipal government, and citizens—gathered at La Place Rendez-Vous for the all-day workshop, which was facilitated by Ian Simpson.
The aim of the session, which was made possible through a federal grant from the New Horizons for Seniors program, was to develop a plan to get a facility built here with full support services available for seniors in the transitional point between living in their own home and going to Rainycrest.
“I’d say we’re 80 percent of the way towards completing the three-year strategic plan,” noted Simpson.
“We need a couple more meetings to fine-tune and edit the work we did [last Wednesday], and just to complete the actions and the indicators we can use to measure our progress,” he added.
“We’re probably four-six weeks away from a completed strategic plan,” Simpson said. “When we finish that, part of it will be to discuss the methods we’re going to use to communicate the plan.
“We will be putting this plan out there,” he stressed. “We’ll be sending it to all the media outlets, we’ll be putting a copy on the website, we’ll be putting our vision statement on our letterhead.”
Simpson said the strategic plan is something A.L.A.G. is “going to communicate very thoroughly throughout the district” and that it’s going to be a “living document” that will provide direction for over the next three years but will be reviewed quarterly.”
“It’s also a good resource when we’re trying to do the work of the group,” he reasoned. “For example, you need a strategic plan when you’re applying for funding and things like that.
“It’s going to be a useful tool.”
A core planning team of internal stakeholders had developed draft versions of vision, mission, and values statements prior to last Wednesday’s session, and these were brought before the group of internal and external stakeholders to review and fine-tune them as a larger group.
The group also developed some strategic direction based on those statements, and did a strengths, opportunities, weaknesses, and threats exercise.
They then took all of the data they had compiled—namely the A.L.A.G. survey conducted this past summer to determine the current and future housing and support service needs of older adults in Rainy River District, as well as the results from an affinity exercise held with internal and external stakeholders back in the spring—and wrote down goals and strategies.
This provided a good deal of groundwork for the final strategic plan.
Positive progress
Those providing input during the strategic planning session made it clear the district needs assisted living, and they were positive about the progress being made by A.L.A.G.
“This is a very important activity on the strategic planning front for seniors living throughout Rainy River District,” said Allan Katz, CEO of Riverside Health Care Facilities, Inc. here
“The Assisted Living Action Group has done a tremendous amount of work collecting information with that survey, publishing it, now taking that information, mining that information, and trying to turn it into a strategic plan for the next few years,” he noted.
Katz said the district population of people over the age of 75 is higher than both the provincial and national averages.
“Clearly we want to make sure that these people are living safely in the community,” he stressed. “Right now, they are living in a range of locations—from their own homes to Rainycrest and other long-term care facilities.
“What we lack right now are intermediary steps,” Katz said. “We have a gap in the system.
“Many people, after being assessed by the Community Care Access Centre, are clearly not eligible to be admitted into Rainycrest and, quite frankly, we don’t want people who don’t need Rainycrest’s services to be in Rainycrest.
“It’s absolutely not fair to them, but we also want them to be living safely in the community,” he reasoned.
Meanwhile, there are barriers to maintaining safe conditions in the home. The same stairs that were not a problem 20 years ago are problems now, not to mention tasks like snow removal or maintaining a garden.
“If we had something in-between, where seniors could live safely, maintain their independence, and with just a little bit of extra support, like that which already exists at Fotheringham Court in Atikokan or [Riverview] Manor in Rainy River, people can live safely,” said Katz.
“We know their nutritional needs are being addressed, they’re taking the right medications at the right time, there’s socialization, but there’s that air of independence there and we all want to maintain our independence.
“It’s so important to have the option available, and we don’t have that option now,” he added.
“What I’ve learned from the work that A.L.A.G. has done up to now is that people are actually leaving Fort Frances or Emo or Rainy River, and the communities in-between, because that housing option isn’t available for them.
“It’s a shame that has to happen, and people have to move to Kenora or Dryden or Thunder Bay just to stay up in Northern Ontario and stay close to family and friends.”
Katz noted the situation is not exclusive to Northwestern Ontario, but one that exists in many other communities in Ontario, and likely across Canada, where people living in rural communities don’t have the critical mass needed for a retirement home to be constructed for people to live in.
“That’s what we’re trying to strategize now—how do we get from identifying that there’s a gap in the kind of accommodation we have to seniors available in our district and how to do we go about filling those gaps, in partnership with local municipalities, health-care providers, social service organizations, housing authorities, and anyone else who has a role to play in this?” Katz concluded.
The process of coming together to develop a strategic plan for assisted living here is “very important,” agreed Kristan Miclash, executive director of Northwestern Independent Living Services Inc. (NILS).
“NILS is a provider of assisted living in Rainy River, and we’ve seen the positive results of what can happen in a community and to individuals that require services,” she noted.
“The Riverview Manor project began a year ago and from its inception we have seen all of the units filled,” Miclash said.
“To date, 12 individuals residing there access some form of assistance to help them live independently—from personal care to homemaking to security checks.”
The support the North West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) has provided “is extremely beneficial in allowing seniors to remain in their own home community,” she stressed.
Miclash said that with the expansion of assisted living available in Rainy River District, individuals will be able to remain in their own community, near their families, and won’t have to move to other centres.
“I think it’s extremely important to do something like this,” said Emo Coun. Anthony Leek.
“The best way to approach a situation is to develop a plan, be able to bring in people’s ideas, and then strategically realize where you want to go because, as you know, it’s one thing to have an idea but you have to be able to develop that into something that’s sustainable,” he stressed.
“It’s a long day, but at the same time, when you’re done with that day, you have a wealth of information on how you’re going to move forward with this,” added Coun. Leek.
“Because how can you present it to other people if you don’t know where your problems are? Where your strengths are, your weaknesses are?
“What can you control, what can’t you control?
“Without knowing those, you just can’t move ahead,” he remarked.
“I think we’re all going to benefit in the short run and the long run in being able to develop assisted living.”
Coun. Leek said there’s no doubt there’s a need for assisted living in Rainy River District.
“You look at the demographics, you look at our future trends when it comes to population and age,” he noted.
“When it comes to accessibility, we need to provide those services more and more on a month-to-month basis, it seems.
“If there wasn’t a need for it, you wouldn’t see this kind of motivation happening, you wouldn’t see people coming together like this,” Coun. Leek added.
“We wouldn’t be getting the kind of responses that we’ve had with the survey.
“An organization’s advocacy is created by the need for something and this is showing that there is a need for it,” he reasoned.
Fort Frances Coun. Andrew Hallikas said that what he saw happening at last Wednesday’s strategic planning session was exciting due to the level of engagement and the number of partners coming together from different organizations.
“It makes you feel good to be part of the community,” he noted. “You’ve really got community coming together in one spot for a common goal.
“I really admire what A.L.A.G. has done here.
“They’re to be commended for the work they’ve put in on this to get it to this stage,” Coun. Hallikas added.
“And from here, of course, they’re going to come out of this with strategies, goals, a vision statement that’s going to allow them to go forward and start looking for sources of funding and causing this dream to come to fruition.”
Coun. Hallikas said town council is very supportive of assisted living, but conceded the town frankly is not in a position to take the lead in building such a facility here nor financially contribute to such a project at this time.
“Assisted living is a big problem right across Ontario,” he stressed. “We’ve spoken to the various ministries many times trying to get some insight as to where we can get some funding, but the bottom line is: council’s view is assisted living is not something municipalities normally do.
“It’s something that private enterprise does, or in a case like this, a fantastic situation where you have community volunteers going forward.
“So while we don’t see it as the municipal role, we love to see that community volunteers are coming together to go forward with this,” Coun. Hallikas added.
“Council is totally supportive of the concept and what these people are doing.
“I dare say that if they get closer to their goal, and they decide that this is something that is going to be built in Fort Frances, it’s a good thing for all of Fort Frances and I am sure that council would support it in terms of perhaps in-kind services or perhaps property that council has,” he pledged.
The public is encouraged to find out more about A.L.A.G. and its parent group, Seniors and Law Enforcement Together (S.A.L.T.), by visiting www.ffsalt.com
The group also can be e-mailed at info@ffsalt.com
