Interview with The Wellington Retirement Residence management, Allyson MacArthur

I have wonderful residents that I enjoy visiting with every day. We have a great bunch of staff who are with us. Every day is filled with new and exciting things, so The Wellington is a wonderful place to work and to be each day.

I have had experience with this kind of work because I worked with our MLA in Medicine Hat for 15 years, and I also worked with social housing. So this seemed to be a nice fit to come to and to enjoy this part of my older part of my life, I guess, as well, and to meet and be with our residents. It really is a warm and inviting place.

It’s a wide variety of ages, from 40 to 100, and we can meet people where they’re at. We can gauge our activities and the levels of care that they require at the different age levels.

We have 100 condos that can be owned or rented by people who own them. We have 40-plus SL2, Supportive Living Level 2. Those are rental packages that we have for folks that require some care, that require assistance with housekeeping and emergency response systems. Those sorts of items are in a rental package. Then we have 50 SL4 suites. So that’s why there’s such a wide variety of ages. The folks that are on the condo side, Phase 1 of our building, are just in their suite, their condo, and may not need any care at all. Then others may require full care.

It really adds a lot of variety because people can work together across different ages and support needs. The folks who are younger who are living at The Wellington, if they’re participating in the same activity with our recreation coordinator, can assist and guide the others who may need a little bit of extra help, and kind of work together and really create that warmth within our community and inclusiveness.

That’s what a tour can provide. We can provide that by coming and having a look, having the opportunity to come and enjoy a meal, and having that time to really get a feel for what our community is like. Those are the things that we’re really proud of, because we really want people to feel at home.

Make sure you come and have a look before you are actually in need of any kind of care. Those are the things that you can do ahead of time to make sure that you’re making those decisions and they’re not being made for you. If you can come and have a look, enjoy some time together with us, and get a good feel for things, that’s best. It's best to come and have a tour with us.

Definitely music. Our residents love to have bands come in. They love to dance. They just love to have the music. Probably the biggest hit of all is music. We’ve had carnivals, we’ve had tailgate parties. It’s a really fun community, but I would definitely have to say the music that we have, the local bands that come and play for us, is just a huge hit. That’s what our residents love to do.

Any kind of suggestions are more than welcome. Even though our menu is quite set, if there’s something that a family member wants to share, a recipe or something like that, we have meetings with our food services supervisor every month, and those sorts of ideas are welcomed as well.

The Caesar salad’s pretty darn good. We get to enjoy the menu as people who are in the community and working, so that’s good. Sometimes the liver and onions are not really a hit with the staff, but they certainly are with the residents. That’s what we want to make sure of, that we are pleasing them.

It’s created through Connecting Care, our management company. So that’s through Connecting Care, and it’s a five-week rotation. It’s prepared that way. But like I say, if there is something that is a favorite, like sausage and pierogies or something special that our residents really enjoy, those suggestions are welcome, and we can incorporate them.

We’re in a really great location just off Southview Drive in Medicine Hat. We’re close to the Co-op, we’re close to London Drugs, and we’re kind of close to Tim Hortons. We’re in a really, really good location in Medicine Hat.

One of the things that we really enjoy at the Wellington is that one of the schools in Medicine Hat pairs up with our seniors, and they have created some really great relationships with our residents, close relationships with our residents. That’s a really great ongoing thing, that our residents can share their experience and the way they went to school when they were younger with the grade 3 students who come from the school. It’s been a really heartwarming experience to see those relationships cultivated.

We have our courtyard in the backyard. It’s a large area, and we have a fountain in the back, and it’s beautiful back there. The residents do all the gardening, so the flowers in the summer are beautiful. They’re amazing at looking after their backyard.

We really enjoy the deer that come in and the fawns that are born each spring. It’s pretty heartwarming to watch those little guys grow up. It’s a beautiful area in our backyard.

The independent side of our condo also receives home care when required, and home care comes in and creates a care plan for those residents if required. The supportive living level 2 residents, a lot of those residents receive care, and there’s not always the possibility that they can move from SL2 to SL4, but it sometimes does happen if everything goes just right. We don’t make promises for that, though.

Our home care team is very, very good at doing a daily census and making sure that our residents are kept with an eye on them, and we can see if things start to change. We can monitor those sorts of things with our home care RNs. That should be something that can comfort families as well, to know that we’re keeping an eye on those sorts of things. If we notice a change, we can then talk to the families, and we can then talk to the home care RNs and let them know what we’re seeing so that those care needs can be managed.

The Wellington has a calendar that we put out every month. It has our activities that are on there as well. We email our families, we keep in touch by email, and of course, they’re always welcome to come and see us and to have conversations with us. We’re certainly all available to speak to them on the phone, or if they stop by and have conversations with us, just to see if there’s something more that we can do, or if they’re concerned about something.

We’re always able to share in those conversations and have open dialogue with our families to make sure that we’re doing the best we can for them. I really, really value those conversations that we have with families

There are so many stories. Every day, there’s just something that warms my heart, and that makes me grateful to be at The Wellington and grateful to be a part of their lives.

One of our residents needed to move to a higher level of care, so she unfortunately had to leave our building just a few months ago. As I had mentioned before, I worked for an MLA for a number of years. I had known her from that time, and then when I came to The Wellington, she was there. So we had created a bond years ago, and that carried on there as well. She definitely stands out in my mind. She was a wonderful inspiration to many, and I miss seeing her every day.

Technology is always a big thing with our families, and having the opportunity to have more Zoom calls and having those sorts of things available so that we can stay in contact and have that contact there is very important. Families are living out of province or even just a distance away. Being able to stay in touch is so important, and to have that connection with our families and residents is paramount.

Come and have a tour. It’s so important for people to feel as though they are at home. That’s one thing that we really value, to make sure that people feel at home. Our suites all have kitchens in them. There are stoves and fridges. It’s just like their own little apartment, or not even so little, but their own suite. It’s just so important that folks feel at home.

I have been in families’ shoes when choosing a care property. My dad needed to be placed from home into long-term care, which we do not have at The Wellington, but my dad needed to be placed into long-term care. I have been in our family’s shoes. When families come through the door, I usually do share a story about my dad and how important it is to have the opportunity to make those decisions on your own while you can be a part of the decision-making, because unfortunately, my dad didn’t have that opportunity. It’s so important to have that independence and to make those choices on your own.