Interior Health is preparing to open the first four complex care beds in Kamloops on Monday, January 23.
The first unit will be a four-bedroom home, located on Kamloops North Shore and will be complete with 24/7 on-site healthcare and social support for individuals living with significant mental health and addiction challenges.
Carla Mantie, the Director of Clinical Operations for Mental Health and Substance Use told NL News IH will begin staggering admissions into the first facility next week.
“We’ll be staggering the admissions to ensure that people are getting settled into their new home and want to make sure that we have time to get to know them.
There will be 20 such beds in Kamloops, located in different residential areas throughout the city. Mantie explains each home will have four to eight beds.
“We’re trying to make sure that it’s more home. We are getting away from cohorting them into a large site.”
The next complex care home is set to open mid-February in South Kamloops, which Mantie says will be a seven-bed unit.
“We’re still up in the air around our third site, but we’re always scoping out new locations. We want to spread them out. We want to make it as comfortable as possible. People are used to being in their own neighborhoods. We want to make sure that if they have connections in their neighborhood, they don’t lose those.”
Each home, as Mantie suggests, will have its own culture, to help ensure those living in the facility feel comfortable and safe within the space.
“We have to take into consideration a lot of things, the size of the house or if there are people that have conflicts before coming into our home, we’re not going to put them in the same home,” she said.
Additionally, Mantie says they are taking into consideration each individual’s needs.
“Whether it’s an all-female or all-male home, I’m not sure if we’ve ever decided that. We want to make sure we can support the most vulnerable, the most in need of these services, and be able to make sure the home fits them.”
She explains that each complex care home will provide residents with their own bedroom with a TV; while the kitchen, dining room, and living space will be shared.
“They are located in our community and will be supported with 24/7 staff on through a contracted care provider that we are working with Active Care, Youth and Adult Services,” she explained. “Then there will be a care team attached to these to these homes”
The health authority says these facilities will have on-site health care and social support around the clock to help support residents with comprehensive, person-centered services that meet their needs. Services will include nursing, occupational therapy, and social work, as well as an IH Indigenous cultural worker and a peer support worker.
IH also says additional primary care resources will be in place to ensure that residents have access to ongoing general care.
Furthering that, Mantie explains Interior Health has a group of professionals who will support the residents in the complex care homes, deciphering the needs of each individual and creating care plans on where they are at and their goals.
“Working on the premise of psychosocial rehab, meeting them where they are at. If they like to cook or they’re interested in cooking, we’re going to support them to join in on some of the cooking or food prep; trying to find things that they enjoy doing and supporting them to realize what those skills and interests are.”
Active Care Youth and Adult Services has been contracted to provide life skills training and support in both communities. These supports may include training in activities of daily living, psychosocial rehabilitation and education, preparation for independent living, and support to access education and employment.
“Active Care Youth and Adult Services is honoured to partner with Interior Health offering a new pathway out of homelessness,” Active Care Executive Director, Julie Pariseau, added in the statement.
“Complex Care is an exciting new initiative to support those who have multiple complex care needs, by providing a home with wrap-around therapeutic supports to help transform lives and, by extension, our community.”
Mayor Reid-Hamer Jackson reacting to Mondays announcement regarding the Complex Care Home in a statement.
“The City of Kamloops is excited to see these doors open to support vulnerable members of our community with complex care needs,”
“This is a pivotal step in the right direction and we look forward to continuing to work together with the province to tackle the health-care needs in Kamloops,”
This announcement comes nearly one year to the day when then-attorney general David Eby told City Council that Kamloops was a priority for complex care beds.
During a council meeting in November last year, Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson said the first four complex care beds will be in place by the end this month.
“We’ve now got four of 20 complex care beds [that] are going to be opening in either December or early January. I’ve also met with complex care operators to see what kind of operation they run and things like that,” he said during his mayor’s report.
When asked for details on the NL Morning News the following day, Hamer-Jackson declined to comment, choosing instead to wait for Interior Health to make the announcement.
“I did phone Susan Brown and apologize because its not my place to announce things that are going to be taking place so I just as soon not talk about that and maybe wait until Interior Health wants to announce that,” he said.
In March of last year, the BC Government said it was working with Interior Health, BC Housing, and other local service providers to bring complex care housing to Kamloops and Kelowna.
“Every community in the province is contending with a rising tide in demand for substance use and mental health services. When we took government in 2017, we started building that system of care for mental health and addictions that didn’t exist before but the pandemic in every way has been a step back.”
“It is very hard for every community, including Kamloops. I am feeling it in my own home as well,” the Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, Sheila Malcolmson, said at the time.
-With Files From Victor Kaisar
This article has been updated from its original version, to include details and quotes from an interview with Interior Health.