Vittorio Cucullo, one of the future residents of Pioneer Manor’s new 64-bed dementia wing, is an Italian-born barber who lived in Sault Ste. Marie for many years.
“He wants to cut everybody’s hair in the nursing home,” his daughter, Laura Clapp, laughs. “He’ll say, ‘Your hair is too long’.”
The Sudbury woman said she’s now able to spend more time with her 77-year-old father, whose dementia often leaves him confused and forgetful.
Clapp put her father on a waiting list for the City of Greater Sudbury-owned Pioneer Manor a year and a half ago.
In the meantime, he stayed at Algoma Manor in Thessalon, a three-hour drive from Sudbury. Clapp said the travelling was difficult for her, because she has young children.
Cucullo got a bed in an older part of Pioneer Manor in April, and will be among the first residents to move into the new dementia unit when it opens June 21. “I think (the new facility) will make him feel very comfortable, relaxed and able to enjoy everything around him,” Clapp said.
Vittorio Cucullo (second from left) is one of 64 dementia patients who will soon be housed in a new wing of Pioneer Manor. The wing was rebuilt after an October 2006 fire. Cucullo is seen here in Sault Ste. Marie in 2008 holding granddaughter Sierra Clapp. Also in the photo is his daughter, Laura Clapp (right), who is holding Cucullo’s older granddaughter, Savannah Clapp. Supplied photo.
“He’ll be able to see outside. They’ve got that nice patio there. There’s just a lot of room to move around. He won’t feel tightened or claustrophobic. Dementia patients can’t be let (outside) unattended. They’ll wander around and get hurt. So it’s good that they have so much room.”
The $14.6 million facility consists of two floors, with 32 beds per floor. Each floor is broken up into four living areas, where eight residents will reside. Each of these living areas is named after a local lake.
“We have family-style dining, so they’re not eating in a dining room of 32 people,” Tony Parmar, director of Pioneer Manor, said. “They’re eating at a table of eight people.”
Each living area is painted a different colour, which helps the residents find their way back to their rooms. The facility was built to replace a Pioneer Manor unit destroyed in an October 2006 fire. Demolition and initial construction began in July 2008, and was fully completed last month.
Parmar said the new Pioneer Manor wing brings a net gain of 40 long-term care beds to Greater Sudbury. Although there are 64 beds in the new facility, Pioneer Manor is closing 24 interim beds in an older part of the building.
The new beds offer some relief to the city’s alternate level of care (ALC) crisis, Parmar said. ALC patients are those who no longer need acute care, but continue to occupy hospital beds because they cannot find placement in nursing homes or other community facilities.
“(The new facility) will contribute to providing more capacity in the system,” he said. Pioneer Manor itself currently has a wait list of 650 people, Parmar said.
While the new Pioneer Manor wing is nearly ready for occupancy, its construction was not without controversy. The city was involved in a fight with their insurance company about the settlement.
The dispute was partly about whether the new facility would be built to the latest standards for long-term care, as required by the province, or whether the building should be built exactly as it existed before the fire.
After going to arbitration, the city received a $6.1 million settlement from their insurance company. The city also applied for, and received, $7.3 million from the province, to add a 32-bed second story to the new building.
The city also put in their own $1.2 million contribution to make up the rest of the construction costs, Parmar said. He said the facility was built on time and on budget.
While the new facility was being built, 56 residents were housed on the fifth and sixth floors of Sudbury Regional Hospital’s Laurentian site.
These beds were closed at the beginning of March, with residents being accommodated within Pioneer Manor, because of the opening of the one-site hospital.
“The accommodation that (residents) had at the hospital was probably superior to what was lost at (Pioneer Manor) because of the fire,” Parmar said.
