Interview with The Roxborough Retirement Residence - Verve Senior Living management, Cathy Charpentier

The first thing, for sure, is helping families through this really huge transition that happens with families when there’s so much change going on with the senior. The families are torn in a lot of different directions. What I really get rewarded in doing is after it’s all done and the decision has been made, and the deposit has been made, I give them a list of things and how to move forward; I can just see a beautiful sigh of relief on all of their faces.

We don’t underestimate that transition; it’s huge. And we don’t try to sugarcoat it; we know it’s a difficult decision, but we do our best to see it from start to finish, as seamlessly as possible for them.

Another thing I appreciate is the staff at Roxborough Retirement Residence. Everybody gets along so well here. We don’t choose people with big titles or big numbers or letters behind their names. It’s more of how someone fits here because we consider the Roxborough as a family or a small community. Everybody gets along.

Nobody wears big titles. Everybody has a different hat every day, especially in tough times. So everybody pulls together so nicely, and it just feels really comfortable. It’s an easy place to work.

The third thing I love about the job is just that it’s different day to day. It’s never the same. It’s always a different family to help through this transition. It’s getting to know every new resident who moves in, listening to their stories and hearing about their lives, helping them through this transition, and meeting their families. It’s a different day every day, and I just love that part of it. Never gets old. 

I was in newspaper advertising for 25 years. That became a little bit more challenging in the times of social media and digital impressions and all those kinds of things. The Roxborough was a client of mine, and I was selling advertising to them. Jody, the general manager here, she used to be the sales and marketing manager like me, and there was a position open.

I came in one day, and I said, so you haven’t found somebody? And she said, no, I’m working by myself; it’s a bit busy. And I said, what if I applied for it? She said, that’s a lovely thing to do, because we really had built a good relationship with each other over the few years that I was selling her the advertising. So one thing led to another, and I became part of the team at Roxborough Retirement Residence.

She’s a good friend of mine, and now she’s the general manager and still a great leader. We’re just having a great time here at the Roxborough, working things through as a family. The staff feels like family. 

Over the couple of years [before I started working here], I was coming here on a regular basis. As soon as I walked through the doors, I could feel a warmth to the place. I felt like it was a comfortable, supportive place. The residents here were happy, the staff was engaging, and they were always smiling and saying the residents’ names. I thought, wow, how can one girl in the dining room know every staff member and every resident’s name? I was really impressed by that.

But that just came organically. It was never something that was mandated that you have to know everyone’s name. They had a general interest in knowing everyone’s names and backgrounds and birthdays and anniversaries and their likes and dislikes.

The feel of Roxborough Retirement Residence really made me feel like it was a comfortable place to be. So I think that’s why I applied for the position, because I knew I’d be working in a very happy, comfortable environment.

If there is a resident here who is ill, the girls in the dining room—not told to do this—will leave little inspirational notes on their trays for them when they take their meals up to their suite, and residents will stick them on their door to help them remember those inspirational sayings. They’ll draw a little picture of a carrot with it in the ground and say, “Marion, we’re rooting for you.” So it’s such a sweet little touch for them to do, and it’s totally done on their own, totally on their own time, which says a lot for the staff and their mindset here for the residents.

What differentiates Roxborough Retirement Residence is, again, the warmth. I think a lot of these places have the same amenities, and they’re all wonderful- same food, same activities, but I get a different feeling at Roxborough Retirement Residence. I think it’s the energy here. 

The pluses, demographically, are the hospital for sure. We have Fairy Lake just down the road, which is a wonderful walking area for residents who want to go outside. Our courtyard is lovely. You can’t see it from the road, so it’s nice and private, but they can walk that if they want to feel more secure.

There’s the Newmarket Seniors Meeting Place down the road. The whole block here is medical services, so most of what they need is within walking distance, and the hospital is a very comforting, secure vision for them to see on a daily basis. They really like that. 

We are an independent facility, which means that people come and go here all the time. There were some people here up to a couple of years ago who were running a business here. A lady was doing taxes for people, and it’s basically an independent environment. A lot of people still drive.

We do have care here for those people who do need some kind of care when they come in, or they need it down the road. So we can help them get in and out of bed; we can help them with showering; we can help them with medication management and any kind of small personal assistance that they might need on a regular basis.

However, we’re not a long-term care facility. We can’t help feed people or do two-person transfers, but there are care levels here. And we try our best to meet those needs for those people who do need it.

Some residents are local, but we do have people from all over. We’ve had a lady from BC; we’ve had a lady from Montreal. I would say about 75 to 80% of the time, the children live here.

If mom needs a little bit more care, or they just want to be closer to her to be able to take care of her or him, or a couple, on a regular basis, then they look in this area, come and take a tour of Roxborough Retirement Residence.

The kids are usually the ones who reach out first. There are some independent people that do reach out, but usually it’s a family member who reaches out to us. Then they get their education, and they tell mom or dad, or mom and dad, and then we come in and we talk further.

We know how big of a transition this is, how big a decision it is, and how much of a change it is for people. When we first meet, we tell the kids, it’s an introduction, it’s an information session. So here’s the information for mom or dad, take it to them. Please don’t push them. It’s a tough enough decision. It should be their decision. We just kind of tell them the pluses.

And it can be difficult when they first come here. We understand that it’s like the first day of school. But we tell them, and it’s true, that it gets easier day by day by day. Eventually it does feel like home for them once they meet new people.

We do have an ambassador program at Roxborough Retirement Residence, which is a lovely program. We know that it is frightening when they come in by themselves and have to meet 160 new people. But we have volunteer ambassadors who help new people through those first few difficult days, maybe take them for a tour or have lunch with them. We had 17 people volunteer, which I thought was outstanding because they realized the difficulties of those first few days or first weeks.

We have five really good stable people who are always more willing. They’re always right on point with telling them about the residents, and who knows better what it’s like here at the Roxborough than the residents themselves?

We tell people when they're touring that if they see residents in the hall, ask anybody anything you want because they’ve got nothing to lose, really. They’re going to tell you honestly what it is like to live here.

Every time a new resident moves in here, we learn a lot from them. Sarah and I, who are the other marketing managers here, learn all about them. We call it the discovery when they first come in. We want to know as much about them as we can to make that transition more comfortable.

We have a wonderful recreation staff here that gets that information and tailors any activities to that person that they need to. Say there’s a 99-year-old woman here that still does tai chi. She used to teach it. So, if they say that they have done tai chi in the past, we’ll match up that lady with our new resident and kind of introduce them to each other. Perhaps join in on her class.

The more we know about people, the better we can fit them into a program to make it comfortable for them. There are a lot of shy people that do come in, and they don’t want to do anything right away, and that’s absolutely fine. I wouldn’t want to be pushed either. The transition and the environment are enough to take in, but eventually you see them coming more and more and more to things.

Sarah and I continue to see them on a regular basis for those first few days or few weeks. We ask them if they need anything. We’ll take things up to their suite if they need it, just to help them feel more welcome because it’s an important two weeks of their lives to make them settle in as quickly as possible at Roxborough Retirement Residence.

The soups here are phenomenal. Every day we have a different soup. I hope everybody likes soup because the soup here is amazing. It’s the first thing we have, the soup and the desserts. I eat them every day. I shouldn’t, but I do.

There are always two choices on a menu. So, they can either pick for lunch and dinner; there are always two choices, so two entrees. It changes day to day.

If they don’t like what’s on the menu, there’s an à la carte menu as well. So, if they just felt like a soup and an egg salad sandwich, or a Cobb salad, or a tuna sandwich, or some nachos, or some chicken wings, whatever they want, they can order.

We can handle anybody who has any kind of intolerances or allergies; we can fit that in too. Some people have needed their food cut up a little bit more. We can do anything they like in the kitchen at Roxborough Retirement Residence.

The soups are pretty good; the desserts are pretty good; fish and chips on Friday is very good. They have a duck salad that’s very good. It’s all really good.

People from around Newmarket are absolutely involved in life at The Roxborough. We have entertainment here three times a week. There are singers that come in, piano players that come in. There is a lady who does presentations on different topics from around the world. She dresses up in costume. We’re having a virtual show on the Roaring Twenties, so questions are asked and she wears these Roaring Twenties costumes.

We go out in the community quite a bit. We go out to farmers' markets, live theatres, restaurants, the CN Tower, day trips, museums, those kinds of things. There’s a mall just up the street that we go to. We rent a bus, and they go and pick up anything they want. They go to Upper Canada Mall once a week and shop around and don’t have to worry about getting their own way back because two staff members go with them.

The OPP will come, or the York Regional Police will come in and talk about computer fraud just to educate them on that, because a lot of people at Roxborough Retirement Residence are still computer savvy. We have all different kinds of topics and all different kinds of interests for them to engage in.

The lifestyle at Roxborough Retirement Residence is up to the individual.

We do have a group of ladies that meet every day in the lounge non-stop to just sit and talk to each other. 

There are people here that have fallen in love. People meet here, and they try to hide it for a little while, but then they just give up on that because they’re in love and they don’t really care.

There are people here that have celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries here, so we put on a party for them. It’s just like a family when you know these people that well. It’s just a matter of engaging with them and knowing what their life is and just following through with things that we think would make it even better at Roxborough Retirement Residence.

We love our open houses at Roxborough Retirement Residence. The chef prepares for probably a week on different tables and tables and tables of hors d’oeuvres for the community to come in and see what the Roxborough is all about. We open it up to anybody who wants to come.

We show the scheduled tours. Sarah and I both do one tour in the morning and one tour in the afternoon, so there are four tours a day on open house. We have brochures to give out, we have door prizes, we have music going, and we take tours of the suites. They can take up to two and a half hours. People have lots of questions, and because it’s in a group setting, they feel very comfortable. We usually have them every September, so everybody can watch social media and the newspapers for that. 

I love the courtyard at Roxborough Retirement Residence. I think the outdoor space here is amazing. Because the building is 10 years old now, the trees and the bushes and the perennials and the annuals have such deep roots now for 10 years, so everything this year was lusher than I have seen in the past six years. It’s just gorgeous out there, and every time I tour, I open the doors to the courtyard for them to see. They immediately go out because they’re drawn to the nature and the pathways and the bushes and the flowers.

It’s kept very nice because of our landscaper, who happens to be our office manager’s dad. He lives down the road, but he does a wonderful job of keeping the grass cut and the weeds free. There’s a gazebo with lights that people like to sit under at dusk, and it’s just a lovely part of the building at Roxborough Retirement Residence. You can’t see it from the street, which makes it more secure and private for people, but it’s a real draw for everybody here. A lot of people have said the courtyard is a deciding factor of why they chose it here, because I don’t think there’s any other courtyard like it in Newmarket.

On our website, there is an events tab where you can click on that. It has everything that we’re doing. It has a calendar in it of everything that we’re doing. We encourage families to go there just because they can say, “Oh, Mom, there’s a great presentation in the theater at 3 o’clock. You should sign up and get yourself on there.” And she’ll say, “Oh yeah, thanks for the reminder.”

We do have email blasts out every time a new resident moves in. We ask the family if they can give us their email address, and then we blast any kind of new event or anything that’s going on at the Roxborough to them, so they’re also informed of what’s going on here.

Each resident here has little shelves outside of their suites. We call it their communication shelf. So anything new or anything monthly, all of that is given to them on their shelf. Every day they check the shelf and see what’s going on and if there’s anything new at Roxborough Retirement Residence, and that’s another way we communicate with them.

There are people who do require some care here, or they need care down the road. There is extended care that we can handle. Beyond that, the LHIN will come in maybe and help out a little bit, or the family can look into some private supportive care. There are outside PSWs that come in here all the time that we trust that can help out with that care.

If the care levels become too great for us here and those things that I said do not work with the family’s plan, then we will help them transition. The nursing staff at Roxborough Retirement Residence is incredible. We’ll help them transition into maybe getting them on a long-term care list or getting them assessed by the LHIN to help them through that process.

We are doing extensive renovations [in 2023 -- ed.] here because the building is 10 years old. So we have totally renovated the second floor. It looks beautiful. We’re working on the bottom floor here, and we’re gradually spreading out to other rooms. We’re getting new furniture and fixtures and whatnot.

We're also opening up our care levels because we find that there seem to be a lot more people as of late that are needing more and more care. That growing population, the baby boomers, are getting older. So the care levels are more than they were 10 years ago. We’re reevaluating those care levels. And if need be, we’ll hire more staff to accommodate those people because they need a safe and comfortable place to go. We’re hoping that Roxborough Retirement Residence can be it because we are really planning to get to that point where we can look after as many people as far along as we can.

Think very long and hard about your decision. Please shop around. We want you to be as informed as you can be. We hope that you choose Roxborough, but if we’re not the right fit for people, that's ok.

A lot of people have said that there is a different energy in this building. I think it’s because the staff communicates so well, and I think it’s because our general manager is so hands-on, and she’s had a long background of working with these people. We’re here for you; we’ll answer any questions at any time of the day. We want this to be a good decision for you. We don’t want you to feel like you’ve been pressured into it at all.

When we say we will take care of you at Roxborough Retirement Residence, we honestly do take care of you. Any resident here would stand up and say that. I wouldn’t work in a place that I didn’t believe in. I’m so glad that I got the opportunity to have this position and that I can help these people through this transition. An honest and truthful approach to it is the best bet for everybody. It’s just all win-win.