Lambton looks to expand ‘small house’ project at Petrolia care home

Lambton County officials are seeking provincial approval to expand a unique “small house” project offering a new approach to caring for people living with dementia.

The county, which already won the OK to add 10 beds to its Lambton Meadowview Villa long-term care home near Petrolia by 2028, wants to add two more beds to the planned $9.8-million “small house” project.

The small house model of long-term care is growing in popularity in Canada and elsewhere in the world, the county said.

Lambton’s three long-term care homes have a traditional design, with large numbers of mostly older residents grouped together on floors or in units.

The “small house” project will, be an Ontario first, said Jane Joris, the county’s long-term care general manager.

It focuses on a central “hearth” area, where a small group of elders – a term the county uses for its long-term care residents – gather to dine, socialize and take part in activities and celebrations.

Each elder has a private bedroom with a private washroom, and staff, called elder assistants, “work together with the people who live in the home,” Joris said.

“They kind of live together as a family,” deciding what activities to do each day. There will also be an outdoor area they can use, she said.

“There’s not the noise and disruption that there is in a big institutional setting,” Joris said.

The model “destigmatizes aging and dementia, humanizing long-term care for those who live, work, and visit there,” a county report said.

Small house sites can be made up of individual homes in a group. but the county found provincial requirements for sharing services require connecting its project with an existing larger facility.

A county council committee endorsed the plan this week. It goes to full council for approval Oct. 4.

The decision to seek two more beds came after county officials visited an Ohio small house provider, Joris said. “When we talked to them, it seemed like 12 was a little better number.”

“We have spoken with the ministry about the extra two beds, but we need to put in our application,” she said. “That can happen pretty quickly.”

The county wants to use the small house project as a pilot “to see how it works” and apply the results to future redevelopment of the Petrolia home, Joris said.

“The county has always been an innovator in the care of people with dementia,” she said. “We need to look at smaller settings. . . where people can experience more of normal life.”

The small house project is planned for the home’s existing administrative wing, Joris said.

Council approval will let the county hire an architect to help finish plans, now about 75 per cent complete, Joris said. “Then we’ll also have to work with the ministry for a development agreement.”

There are still several steps the county must complete before construction begins, she said. Late 2024 is the “best guess” for work to start.

The province wants the extra beds operating by 2028, but Lambton officials hope to have its project in place “long before that,” Joris said.

Earlier, the county considered seeking funding to update the existing 125-bed villa at the same time it added the new ministry-approved beds, but that’s no longer the case, she said.

“We do need to do some sort of redevelopment program at the villa,” Joris said. “It’s celebrating 30 years of operation this month.”

But because the existing building “substantially meets” current design standards, it doesn’t qualify for provincial funding, she said.

The estimated cost of fully redeveloping Lambton Meadowview Villa is $86 million, a county report said.

That’s “just prohibitive to go ahead ourselves,” Joris said. “We need to wait until that building meets the criteria for some funding from the province.”

Ontario is working on a dementia strategy, Joris said.

“We do know the numbers are going to explode in the next few years,” she said. “So I think we need to look at as many ways that we can to support people living successfully with cognitive changes due to dementia.”

That may call for a variety of approaches, from traditional long-term care homes to other care models and community services, Joris said.

“I think there’s lots that we can do,”

[email protected]