Chez-Nous planning to move remaining residents, staff to Summerside facility

The president of the board at La Coopérative Le Chez-Nous says the remaining residents of the long-term care facility in Wellington, P.E.I., are going to be moved to Summerside.

Le Chez-Nous's 47 residents were displaced from their home by a fire last month, which has since been ruled accidental. The Mill River Resort opened its rooms to the displaced residents in the aftermath of the fire.

"We are moving 30 residents to Andrews Lodge on the Pope Road in Summerside," said Chez-Nous board president Marcel Richard.

"They do have beds. They're available."

Some already moved

Of the displaced residents, 16 have already moved to other care facilities because of their required level of care, leaving 31 at the resort.

Richard said one of those residents was transferred to hospital and died earlier this week, leaving Chez-Nous with 30 residents in need of semi-permanent lodging.

"A lot of them would prefer to stay in Mill River because now they're used to being in that environment," he said. 

For me the important thing is that my mom is happy and the residents are together.— Cecile Arsenault

"They understand. They know, but it's just the idea of having to do another move and a place that they're not used to."

The residents will move to Andrews of Summerside. Construction of a new wing has freed up beds in the facility, allowing Chez Nous to move in with its residents and staff who will provide the care for the Chez Nous residents.

"It just makes it a little bit much easier for the residents to have their own people that are used to dealing with [them],"Richard said.

"Even like us serving their meals, like we're working a schedule. We're going to be like eating at a different time."

'Their own little family'

Cecile Arsenault's mother is one of the residents moving. Arsenault says she's very happy to see her mother stay with "her people."

"They're people she's spent the last year with, really, during all of COVID. They've become really close and there was a lot of periods where we couldn't even visit them. They had their own little family," she said.

"It's great that Andrews is able to take them all in," she said.

Arsenault said she's not sure if this will be the last move for her mother before she is able to return to Chez-Nous, but the families are taking it day by day.

"For me the important thing is that my mom is happy and the residents are together," she said. "Life can continue to go on for them."

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