Interview with Parkland on the Glen management, Grace Miksa

I think first and foremost is meeting the residents and their families when they come through our doors. It’s great getting to know these people as they start looking for property. And then I guess second favorite is trying to figure out how these residents could make Parkland on the Glen their new home.

I’m always interested in people’s histories and lives. And then I guess just overall, the staff here at Parkland, we’ve been open for 10 years as of this past April. So we’re really a family here. I’ve been here for 10 years, and the main reasons I’ve been here this long is because of the residents, families, and the staff here. It’s really like a second home for me.

My background, educationally, is working in psychogeriatrics. I started off with that, and then I did a little marketing combined. Actually, it was my great-grandmother who got me into this field years ago, seeing the struggle she had getting into retirement and long-term care. I thought someone had to be her advocate. So I changed my education towards that flow, based on my experience, personally, with my family.

I joined Parkland on the Glen when it just opened up. I like the fact that it had a combination of both retirement and condos. You have a little bit of a different demographic here, because our age group is ages from 65 to the eldest up to  103. So it’s a very diverse population at Parkland on the Glen, which makes it interesting.

We have owned and rented condos, so people live life the way they want to here. They cook their own meals, and they do their own housekeeping. Or for those who are done with that, who are moving because they no longer want to cook and don’t want to do housekeeping, then we have more of the traditional retirement-style packages where your lunch and dinner are included, your housekeeping and laundry. 

Whether you’re a renter,  a condo owner, or if you live on our assisted living floor, everyone has equal access to all the amenities and services at Parkland on the Glen.

They have access to our 24-hour nursing, which is very unique, and we have access to 24-hour concierge, so they also act as their security. And actually, we’re unique in that Tuesday to Friday, we actually have three nurses on site during the day here, which is unique. We have the 24-hour nursing, but the way our Director of Care and our Care Coordinator, their hours complement the 24-hour rotation of our nurses here.

I think the lifestyle is pretty much what our Founder Joseph Shannon had wanted to create here, and which his son Jason Shannon has continued as president, which is this: live your best life.

I think the fact that you can live independently here, you can be out in the community doing what you want. If you want to be more involved in the community within Parkland on the Glen, you can do that. It is really living your own lifestyle.

The surrounding property here—we’re here in the Erin Mills area; we’re surrounded by a lot of green space, which is very rare. We’re not in a concrete jungle. A lot of our residents appreciate that, who have their homes off the woodlands or on the creeks. There's always green around where you are, which is a very unique setting here.

I think the biggest change is that you are seeing an older adult, a senior, if you will, changing, where they don’t want to be set in just the retirement package, being forced to take all their meals or have housekeeping. We recognize that. So, where condos came up for sale on our upper floors, we bought them so we could rent them out. That way we could offer that to a more independent senior who didn’t want to deal with the maintenance of their large home.

We saw when we first opened up, where seniors would be selling their home, moving to a condo, and then moving here. Now they can skip that step and come straight to Parkland on the Glen, live an independent life, and as their needs change, they can add services such as housekeeping or meals.

They don’t have to worry about any healthcare. We have that so they can age in place. So there’s not so much moving around now. We’ve kind of eliminated a step there. 

Typically, residents who have bought condos and who decide to rent have moved to our assisted living floor because of a decline in health. They usually sell their condo, and then they move to the third floor. But that being said, they don’t need to sell their condo. They can still get the same services within their condo unit. There are usually a couple of factors that play into this sort of situation. Because they’re on the assisted living floor, they’re closer to the nurses' station, they don’t need so much space anymore. 

Our condos are quite large, going up to 1,800 square feet. So some people feel that they don’t need all that space. So there are a couple of different factors that are in play to make that decision. 

Conversely, we have people start renting, and then they’re of the demographic, well, I’ve never rented before in my life, I’m not going to start now. So they rent really to kind of make sure this is the lifestyle I want. And then now when a condo comes up for resale, they’ll buy that. A lot of options here at Parkland on the Glen. 

We’re beside Sawmill Creek Valley, so there are a lot of walking trails. We have quite a few cyclists. We have quite a few Mississauga senior centres in the area that residents are members of.

There’s the Mississauga Valley Golf Club, Credit Valley Golf Club. So there are quite a few people involved in the golf clubs here who continue. They might not so much play golf anymore, but go there to play bridge. 

You also have the Probus groups and church groups. So they’re very involved. And in turn, I’m very involved in those groups too. As part of when a resident moves into Parkland on the Glen, I get to learn what their interests are, and we’ll see what we can do to support each other. 

I always have a plan when I first walk in, and it kind of goes out the window right away at 9 AM. Typically, my day starts with answering emails. I’ll plan what tours I do have. I’ll be answering inquiries through our website.

I also work to support family members and residents if they have any inquiries because I’m the first person they see. They feel more comfortable coming to me to find out answers. And if I can’t answer them, I’ll send them to my colleague to get those answers. 

It’s also working with my team member here to try to figure out how we can reach out to our residents and to outside prospects because at the end of the day, my job is to fill the building. It's working out in the community, going to seniors' fairs, going to the hospitals, working with social workers, connecting with my nurse, our Director of Care, talking about future residents, how we can meet their needs. It’s always changing because there are so many aspects of my job, and that’s probably why I love it so much. There are so many aspects of it and it’s different every day at Parkland on the Glen. 

There are some people who’ve lived in the area for a long time. There are people who are moving closer to their children. There are people who left the area and are coming back again.

There are individuals who just don’t want to deal with the maintenance of their home and are downsizing and know people here. It’s always interesting when I do a tour, and it’s like Old Home Week: people see each other that they know from years ago. We’ve met people who are next-door neighbors in a town an hour outside of here. We’ll see children who know former teachers who are now living here. So it’s like six degrees of separation, really.

I think the one thread that brings everyone to Parkland on the Glen is the lifestyle. They want to change in their lifestyle. They find that Parkland can offer that flexibility to them. And they just want to live and enjoy life, and that’s pretty much what brings them here. And if it’s closer to family, even a better moment. 

The good food here is an occupational hazard of working here! What’s nice here too is that our menu changes every Monday. There are a lot of options for our residents.

In our dining room for lunch, you have three main options plus the daily special. And then dinner, you have five options plus the daily special. So every week it’s changing. It’s a really varied menu, which is nice. 

They make sure you have every protein there, a vegetarian option. I’m a big seafood person, so anything with seafood I really enjoy. We also have a gentleman who has a steak every day. He doesn’t sway from that. There are people who love the sweets that are here.

What’s nice too is restaurant-style dining. Lunch is from 11:30 to 1:30, dinner from 4:30 to 6:30, and it’s in 15-minute intervals. So you sit with who you want, where you want, when you want.

If you enjoy wine with dinner, you bring the wine bottle down with you, and we bring out the appropriate glassware. There are no corkage fees or what have you. So you can enjoy a glass of wine and enjoy company with your fellow neighbors, and have good food at Parkland on the Glen.

We actually have a food committee, who is really instrumental in the design. They’re quite vocal because at the end of the day, it’s restaurant-style, but a lot of the time these individuals are having two meals a day, every day. So it’s very hard to please everyone all the time.

I really have a great respect for our chefs because they hear it a lot. Eating and mealtime is a really important aspect of living here because it contributes to the social aspect and the nutritional aspect. So there are a lot of factors just based on these two meals a day. I say two meals because we offer lunch and dinner in the dining room.

Most of our residents have breakfast in their suites so that they’re not forced to get up and be social at 8 AM. They can have the coffee, enjoy the news and paper in the morning, and then come out for lunch. 

We also look at the seasonality of fresh produce and meat because we’re really about freshness. Everything is freshly prepared. We don’t serve frozen pre-packaged meals. So that’s another driving factor when we do the menu preparation.

We also look at preferences, such as dietary. We have vegetarians here, we have people who don’t eat pork here. So, we have to look at religious factors sometimes; we have to look at dietary restrictions sometimes.

We offer low-sodium meals a lot of the time. But we have that salt and pepper shaker on your table, so you can just add as much as you want.

There are a lot of different factors, but at the end of the day, the voice of our residents at Parkland on the Glen is probably the strongest determinant of our meal planning.

When we bring in a new resident to Parkland on the Glen, part of my job is to do discovery. So: learn about the resident. I learn things like what are their interests, clubs, social activities, what are their food preferences.

When someone new is coming, I present the profile of this resident to all the key players within our organization. That would be our activities director, our director of care, our nurse, our head chef, our dining room manager, even our maintenance person, and our general manager. They all get a picture of this resident, and then they create that picture for all the employees within the building so they get to know the resident.

Once someone moves into Parkland on the Glen, each of those departments talks one-on-one with the resident to get to know them better.

As part of our monthly residents' council, there’s also a time when the residents can talk about activities. Our activities director will talk about what we have coming up, and then they’ll create their requests. For example, the theatre. We actually went to go see Come From Away twice because it was such a big demand.

Right now, because our residents love to paint and such, and a resident brought this, what we’re creating is a competition for Christmas cards. We have our artists within the building creating pictures of a winter scene or Christmas scene. Then our residents and staff are going to vote on the favorite picture. Then we’re going to create Christmas cards for charity.

A lot of our residents love volunteerism. They love doing charity work and contributing. So, a lot of our activities are towards that, whether it be towards Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Feed the Children, or CHUM Christmas Wish.

Before someone moves in, I always provide the individual and the family members with the option to talk to our current residents and families to get their side of things. Although I feel like I live here, I don’t. So at the end of the day, I want them to experience and get feedback. 

This is going to be their new home, whether it be through a trial stay, perhaps, to understand the day in the life of an individual, to have a sample meal here. So they experience the dining room and a meal here, and the overall atmosphere, whether they talk to a resident just to get their feedback. I try to match them with individuals who may have been in the same situation, whether they’re moving from out of town or whether they’re a recent widow, perhaps. 

Once they make the decision to move into Parkland on the Glen, I always make it similar to the first day of high school. Everything’s new. Some are a bit inhibited, while others are like Chatty Cathys, and they have no problem mixing in. 

Whatever personality you have, we do have a welcoming committee. So the welcoming committee meets the individual and they invite them for lunch. This individual will have a nice casual welcome lunch with residents.  The residents will go over activities and all the highlights of the property. Because when they meet me, they’re getting a lot of information overload. So the residents will go through that again. Then the resident will meet with all the heads of all the different departments again, to see if they have any questions.

We let them ease in, and I go on their timeline. Sometimes people want to go raging in and say, “Yes, give me everything right away,” where others are like, “Grace, no, no, no, no.” So, I ease them into it.  Everyone’s different, and that’s my job to understand what the needs of the individual are and then how to couple them with the residents and our staff.

We have launched something at Parkland and through the Shannex organization. It’s called Rent Café that enables our residents and our family members to keep connected. They go online to Rent Café where they see everything that’s happening within our community, the meals for the week and the activities. They can see their invoices. If they have any questions with any particular department, they can answer it all through there. It just got launched a few months ago.

We’ve got a lot of positive feedback because the family members do want to keep in touch, especially during situations where, you know, like with COVID for instance, residents and family members weren’t allowed to see each other. We wanted to keep everyone safe, and the residents kept in a bubble. But all our family members were able to keep in touch through Rent Café.

With regard to a resident’s changing care needs, it’s nice here because other residents are on lookout for their neighbors. So I might get a comment from another resident, say, you know, so-and-so, Grace, I’ve observed this, I think there might be an issue. 

Also, staff members- a housekeeper, for example, someone in the dining room may notice changes in behavior with a resident or personality that they’ll communicate to the Director of Care because at the end of the day it’s probably some sort of care situation. In turn, the Director of Care will speak with the resident and then reach out to the family member, and they’ll have what you call a care conference. They’ll discuss if there are any changes observed and what we can do to support that resident. We also have the LHIN, the Local Health Integration Network, that comes in to provide support. 

A resident may bring in private care if it’s more one-on-one companionship. So there are a lot of different resources out there within the community and outside to support an individual at Parkland on the Glen as their needs change.

We’ve been open for 10 years. Just lately there’s a change of color schemes and styles. We're going with a bit of a facelift.

When any operator builds something, they think they’re building an amenity space that the residents love. And when they actually move in, and they live in the building a few years, ideas have changed. With the transition that we’re going through, the residents have some say in what we’re changing.

I think one thing is that we do have a continuum of care here, but the one thing we don’t really cover is memory care. We do have residents who have some short-term memory issues, but once you advance to a certain point where they become a danger to themselves or others, then the resident unfortunately has to move from their home here at Parkland on the Glen to a safer environment.

Whether that be long-term care, or as much as it pains me, a competitor who has memory care, then they move on. So, if I think of anything, if we’re to have a true continuum of care, if we could somehow incorporate memory, but that is a big task because we pretty much have established already our care levels here.

Our Director of Care is a resource. They have the case manager for the LHIN.

It's part of my job to know what services are available out in the community, whether it’s through the LHIN or even through my competition. So I wear many hats as a lifestyle consultant. A family member may come to me and consult with me to find, okay, what long-term care facilities they should choose. Or they may go to our director of care to get some guidance.

Usually, when we reach this point, we are already planning for the future, for just-in-case scenarios. It’s never a time where we’re kind of scrambling, which is nice. We have a care conference when we see changes. We’re already putting those plans in effect because they may be years out there, but we want to be prepared. Usually, the Director of Care will sit down and talk to them. If they’re going to leave, they'll also want to talk to me. 

Due diligence is the biggest thing in this decision. This is an important decision. This is going to be your new home. Understand what your needs are. Families need to listen to their parents because, at the end of the day, they’re the ones making the decisions. Sometimes family members bring too much of their own wants and needs than sometimes their loved one. It's really important to talk to their loved one about what they want. 

When I do a discovery tour, I’m always talking to the individual moving in, not the family member. They’re there listening, but that’s not who I’m talking to or directing conversation to. It’s the individual and getting to know them. 

It's also important to ask the right questions. There are a lot of resources on the internet, like Comfort Life, where you can find out what questions to ask when you go on tour. I think that’s very important.

Here in Mississauga alone, there are over 20 different properties. Now granted, everyone’s different with regard to age of building, location, levels of care, and what services are included. So you really want to understand your needs and wants and then match those to the property you’re going to move to.