A new unit for residents with dementia will be added to the Harmony Haven/West Country Hearth facility in Villeneuve beginning next spring.
The new pod will add 12 supportive living spaces for seniors needing supportive care, who are now unable to live on their own.
The construction will be possible thanks to a $1.2 million matching provincial grant, which was announced Monday.
“This allows us to add 12 more beds and will be in addition to the 13 safe and secure spaces that we already have for our dementia residents,” said Colleen Soetaert, chair of the West Sturgeon Aging in Place Foundation.
The grant was awarded to the foundation, which is the fundraising and managing body for West Country Hearth. The dementia unit already in place is Harmony Haven. The new unit will be named Harmony Haven Part II. Residents in the home are from the entire Capital region.
The Aging in Place Foundation previously applied for the Affordable Supportive Living Initiative (ASLI) grant last year, but was turned down, Soetaert said.
“We submitted the application again by September this year and we are excited to have received it. We were ready, and we have the land for it. We were able to show we were able to go ahead quickly with our proposal,” she said.
The grant approval was one of several confirmed Monday by the provincial government. A total of 511 new affordable living spaces targeted for seniors and persons with disabilities will be added to six Alberta communities. The total grant will provide $48.2 million in funding for nine projects under the province’s ASLI program.
Of the new spaces, the majority will be added to the southern part of the province in Calgary, Olds and Strathmore. A total of 127 new beds will be added in the Edmonton area, which includes Villeneuve.
“These were areas targeted by Alberta Health Services as having the greatest need,” said seniors spokesperson Robert Storrier.
Each project had to be previously approved, Soetaert explained.
“You have to be approved by Alberta Health Services first to make sure it will fund the beds and provide health care for those people,” she said.
Harmony Haven Part II does not provide long-term care, but instead provides supportive living, Soetaert said.
“Our residents are needing some care but they are more active. This grant allows us to provide 10,000 square feet of additional wheelchair accessible space,” Soetaert said.
