Berwick on the Park says it is shutting down its Brio unit in a year from now, leaving 28 residents to find a new place to live.
In a letter to residents, Berwick director of operations Kelly Lazaro says there are significant challenges to retain health care staff in the current labour environment, which she says is exacerbated by the small size of their facility.
“With us only having 28 residents, a lot of our competitors in the marketplace right now have much bigger models… So I think it’s easier to draw and maintain when you have multiple venues to assign casual staff. We don’t have that option here,” Lazaro tells NL News.
“I think this is a city-wide, an industry-wide situation where I don’t think there’s enough healthcare aides… I think our size causes additional challenges.”
Don Erickson says his 92-year-old mother, Peggy, has lived at Berwick on the Park for the last eight years – the last four in the Brio unit. He says she now has 12 months to find new accommodation.
“She has care available 24 hours a day, and I think that’s necessary for her. She is legally blind, she has real significant mobility issues, quite severe diabetes and a number of other issues. Her life, frankly, is Berwick.”
Erickson also credited staff at the Berwick and says he’s been happy with the care his mother has received. The Brio care suites offer 24/7 support including help with dressing, medication management, and bathing and grooming.
“We’ve done a very, very in-depth analysis to see what are the things we need to do, but basically the closure is because of the chronic staffing challenges we’re having with the current labor market. And we feel we’re unable to maintain a sustainable level of operations for the Brio in the future, and that’s really what has led us to this very difficult decision,” Lazaro says.
An info session was held by Berwick last night for residents affected and their families, and its holding two more today, to give information to people on possible homes to move to.
Berwick Retirement Communities has six other retirement homes – Campbell River, Comox, Nanaimo, Victoria Royal Oak, Victoria Gordon Head, and Qualicum Beach. Kamloops is the only location closing its Brio unit.