TYNE VALLEY- With residents expected to move out of the current Stewart Memorial Home and into a new manor in Tyne Valley by fall, the Stewart Memorial Foundation is making a business case for turning the building into an assisted living facility.
Foundation chairman John Colwill said preparing that business case has been the focus of his nine-member board for quite some time.
“We’re finding that seniors who can’t live on their own independently anymore, there’s no place for them to go anymore in the area, so they move away from their family and any support system they have,” he said.
Colwill reported that one of the top priorities to emerge from a health-care needs assessment that the foundation commissioned the Dalhousie School of Nursing to do in 2015 was the need for an assisted living facility.
The foundation points out the building has been a centrepiece for the region for close to seven decades and an anchor for health care in the 22 communities it served.
Originally opened as a seven-bed hospital, it expanded in 1964 to become a 13-bed hospital and in 1983 to become 23-bed facility, later containing a mix of hospital and long-term care beds. After a government decision in 2013 to close the hospital, the entire building was repurposed as a long-term care facility.
With Stewart Memorial Home due to be vacated in the coming months, the provincial government has declared the facility surplus and has issued a call for proposals from not-for-profit developers. The Stewart Memorial Foundation has served notice it will be submitting a proposal.
If no acceptable proposals are received, the next step would be to issue a call for private sector proposals.
If no acceptable proposals are accepted by that point, the building could eventually be torn down, such as what happened with the old Maplewood Manor in Alberton and the fate that awaits the old Somerset Manor in Summerside.
Colwill notes the Tyne Valley building received numerous upgrades when it was repurposed as a manor.
“Our plan would complement and maximize that investment,” he said, adding a 30-plus bed facility is being proposed.
The assisted living plan will be the focus of a presentation during the foundation’s annual general meeting on June 19. The meeting will be held at the Northam Community Centre at 7 p.m. Health and Wellness Minister Robert Mitchell has confirmed his attendance.
Commenting on the foundation’s proposal, Colwill said it “addresses that need that exists for assisted living in the area and makes use of a community asset that otherwise would probably be left empty.”
