After more than seven years of work, the Silverstone Care Centre is weeks away from welcoming its first senior residents.
Coast Reporter toured the newly completed building on Derby Road in West Sechelt on Dec. 12.
Knowing that care is complex and no two people are the same, the staff at Silverstone have tried to create an environment that personally caters to each individual, said Mary McDougall, president of Trellis Seniors Services, who led the tour. This adaptive case-by-case approach shows throughout the design of the facility, she added.
What Silverstone is offering
Because the centre is so large, the tour stuck to one of four wings. Among the four wings are “neighbourhoods,” each of which holds 16 housing units.
Walking in the entrance, past a reception kiosk, and down a hall, one arrives at a quiet lounge area featuring a kitchen, outdoor patio as well as bedrooms. Silverstone created this space for Vancouver Coastal Health’s Adult Day Program, which provides seniors and people with disabilities with health care services, social stimulation and therapeutic recreational programs, according to the VCH website.
Silverstone also features a number of common areas suited for activities such as family gatherings, staff meetings or day programs.
For some pampering, Silverstone will feature an in-house barber, Salty Scissors. (And it will be equipped to give perms.)
The Beachcomber Bistro will be on the upper floor, with arguably the building's best view. Floor-to-ceiling windows, as well as an outdoor deck, showcase the expansive view down to the water.
A bathing spa featuring a Rhapsody tub, an adjustable assisted bath with overhead ceiling support, will also be available for residents.
There’s an in-house laundry and a state-of-the-art kitchen facility with a walk-in cooler, a 275-gallon water tank and heated carts to deliver food throughout the facility. Unlike many similar buildings, these facilities are above ground, allowing staff to enjoy the natural light and scenery, noted McDougall.
A separate staff area features locker rooms, shower facilities, lounges, fridges, microwaves and an outdoor space. “It is intended to say to the workers who are part of the home, ‘You really matter to us,’” McDougall said.
While final preparations are under way, staff have been living in the new building, some staying in the resident rooms. “It gives us an experience of being a resident, of thinking, ‘What does this room feel like?’ When you imagine forward to that time when it might be you," said McDougall.
Residences
Residents will live in four wings, each with two neighbourhoods that are named alphabetically after local creeks, for example, Angus, Burnett, Cairns and Dakota. Each neighbourhood hosts 16 suites.
Common spaces between the neighbourhoods have flexible uses, some have dividers that can be moved to change the layout of the room.
McDougall explained that if there was a large event, such as a presentation or an entertainer, rooms like this can easily be repurposed into a 1,600 square foot space.
In the houses, each residence has a door joining to the next room, to accommodate couples who want to live together, giving them the option to combine the two rooms or have their own separate spaces next to each other.
“There are couples who are quite happy to have one person here and one in another area but others like to be together,” she said. “And couples is a wide definition, it can be really good friends and or all kinds of relationships.”
The rooms also feature a small device that rests under one of the bed wheels that collects data. If an alert is set, staff will be notified if a resident leaves their bed; this can be customized to add a time limit for those who are known to safely get up at night.
“The device also tracks vitals and breathing, it can tell how somebody has slept by giving us a sleep pattern,” McDougall said. “If somebody's heart rate has dropped out of the zone, or if their breathing picks up.
“It can tell if a dog is on the bed, if there's a child on the bed, it can pick up a lot from just the vibration and sensitivity.”
Silverstone is scheduled to start welcoming its first residents on Jan. 16.
Jordan Copp is the Coast Reporter’s civic and Indigenous affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
