NEW Beds For AVENS Residents On
NEW Community Housing Transformation
Centre (CHTC) Partners With AVENS
NEW Beds For AVENS Residents On The Table
2021 brought us another year of Covid. However, 2021 also brought, to the GNWT, some unique funding opportunities. One of those initiatives placed AVENS smack in the middle of an opportunity of a lifetime! Let me explain!
“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed”William H. McRavenBefore I get into this article, I must ask you: “Do you like your own bed?”, “Why do you like it so much?”, I am sure many of us would have several answers to these questions, but more importantly, most of us find sanctuary, peace, and safety in our own space under the sheets. In many cases, it’s hard to leave our beds in the morning to come to work, I’m sure many of us
fight with their alarm clock, but eventually have to give in. Imaging now, if I told you, you would be spendingtwice as much time in a bed, not your bed, but a bed I give you. In some cases, it’s a 10 or 15 year old (or more) bed, some features work, the mattress is ok, but not great, and you have a ton of wires everywhere. You still want to spend twice as much time in this bed? Chances are, you would probably say, “No-way”. Yet, this is the reality we have been faced for many years at AVENS.
Soon after my arrival here in early 2019, we started looking at the age of our beds, our mattresses, and the many features of our beds that were in distress. Bottom line, we needed to make some bold investments, but there was no financial methodology to correct this. After many years with working with our GNWT contribution partners, we slowly were able to add much needed finances in areas to replace many of our more dire outdated equipment at AVENS. This year alone was the first formal year we able to add $186k to what we now call our evergreening formula for capital replacement. We have all seen and experienced the fruits of our labour, as our campus replaced many of our lifts and commodes.
We had every intention to begin our campus bed replacement in the 2022-2023 operation budget year and with an overarching plan to replace all our beds by the year 2026. It was a lofty goal, but a realistic one, based on our financial formulas with our GNWT partner and with potential fundraising initiatives in the forecast.
Then Covid hit us, and like every other facility in the NWT, we focused our attention to facility safety and resident wellness. Now, this is not the end of the story, on the contrary, this is merely the beginning of one. You see, this is when I got a call from the GNWT, indicating they had some unique funding flowing through their coiffeurs, that just might meet the definition for our bed replacement program. Soinstead of us looking at a bed replacement program that would span over 3 years, AVENS was in a go-ready position to do a complete replacement this year.
After an extensive research AVENS has decided that the Ook Cocoon Bed met all our criteria. If you never heard Ook Cocoon, not to worry, neither did we, but this bed is part of Umano Medical which has been around for a long time.
So, what made this bed stand out? This is a specialized long-term care acute care bed for residents to feel at home. This bed provides more than just warmth, it’s a high-quality bed that promotes residents’ safety and well-being. It's a long-term care bed that addresses fall risks, by its incredible low adjustable height and built-in bed exit system.
It’s a bed that fosters residents’ autonomy and preserves the dignity of the user. With a homelike appearance, underbed nightlights and accessible patient controls, its aim is to create a pleasant atmosphere, making the resident feel at home.
Finally, our housekeeping and RCA staff will benefit from a bed that’s easier to clean and disinfect. With its power outlets and USB ports, centralizedbraking system, advance LCD foot board controls, built-in bed monitoring, bed extension options, an incredible GelFoam technology mattress and 14-day battery power back up system, it was clear from the start this bed was a fan favourite with our selection committee.
We are in the final stages with the GNWT and the use of Safe Long-term Care Federal Funding to accomplish this task. A more formal announcement will be coming shortly, but for now we wanted to share with you this exciting news.We thank the GNWT for the $500,000 that will be needed to replace our bed programChances are our seniors will love these beds so much, they may never want to leave them. With all those luxury features, who will blame them.
NEW Community Housing Transformation Centre (CHTC) Partners with AVENSIn our quest to find a way to prepare for our Pavilion project, we are pleased to announce that AVENS was awarded a $150,000 grant under the Community Housing Transformation Centre (CHTC) Sector Transformation Fund.
In order for AVENS to be ready to receive tenants to our Pavilion in late 2023, we will need to begin engaging the community for feedback and focus on what type of administrative tools we will need to be successful. This partnership allows AVENS to achieve just that. We started this journey in the CHTC selection process back in May of 2021. With an Expression of Interest, the folks at Fireside Project Management (this is the same firm that is responsible for the Pavilion project itself) were short listed to find the funding needed to complete this exercise. With successful funding in place in December of 2021, a formalized Project Management Agreement with AVENS and Fireside Project Management was executed on December 13th, 2021.So, what should we expect to see in the upcoming months?We first need to do a jurisdictional scan of similar operations like the one we will be building. More than likely, we will have to look at models down south for best practice.We plan to have at least two town hall type sessions with many stakeholders in Yellowknife. This will give everyone a chance to ask questions and get answers they have been waiting for.Then we must look at what type of management systems we will need to best manage the facility. We will have to integrate our current housing stock with this new management system. This will require more than likely additional policies and procedures. There is no denying that we have a lot of work ahead of us as we prepare both for the physical Pavilion plant to be built and the administrative operational piece that will follow. I believe that many of us are very excited for the days ahead, as 2023 is just around the corner. Anyway, these much-needed funds will definitely focus on our immediate needs for the Pavilion project, and we thank the folks at the Community Housing Transformation Centre for their stewardship and financial support.
