Capreol non-profit seniors group confident province listening to long-term care needs

Though they weren't among the last round of recipients for long-term care beds, seniors in Capreol remain largely optimistic that their turn will come.

Tulio Ricci, the president of Capreol Non-Profit Housing Corporation, has been working for over 30 years to get a long-term care home built in his community.

Capreol, which is located about a 30-minute drive away from downtown Sudbury, has independent living options for seniors but has never had a long-term care facility.

Ricci says his group has plans for a 128-bed long-term care home ready to present to the province's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and the Northeast Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN).

Long-term care beds need to be licensed and approved by the province before they can be built.

He says the Capreol group didn't have the time to submit its request prior to the last round of funding announcements, which included 54 new beds for Extendicare in Sudbury.

But the NE LHIN confirmed it has "sent/or are in the process of sending the guidelines to Ricci so he can review and be prepared for the next call for proposals."

Ricci is adamant that's good news.

"There's more and more need for it, so things are changing. I think (the province) is realizing you need to do stuff like that," he says.

The non-profit Capreol group already runs a total of 86 geared-to-income or supportive housing units for seniors at Coulson Court.

The prospective 128-bed long-term care home would be built on a neighbouring lot owned by the group.

Ricci says much of the funding to build the nearly $10 million facility would come from private partners who've already pledged their support.

Wishing to stay close to home

Seniors who experience a rapid decline in health in Capreol and other similar communities often end up in a hospital bed at Health Sciences North.

Others get on wait lists for the region's long-term care homes, which can take anywhere from a few days to four years depending on the home, according to the NE LHIN.

But for some lifelong residents of Capreol, the prospect of having to move away just doesn't feel right.

Yvonne Johnston lives at Coulson Court, and is still in good health. She doesn't yet require regular visits from nurses or personal support workers, though she knows that time will come.

She says she hopes she'll one day have the choice some of her friends never did.

"Some were hoping to get in a home and they died before they got it. That's too bad. They'd been living here for years and years, and I think it would have been nice for them to just move next door," says Johnston.

Lifelong Capreol resident Joyce Sweezey is also still spry at 84 years of age.

She says she desperately wants to be able to sell her house and move in to Coulson Court's independent living apartments. But she explains many of the units are taken up by people waiting to move into long-term care.

"I live alone and I'm ready," says Sweezey. "I bet you my name's been on the wait list for about three years."

Though she's aware the Capreol group is still working toward its long-term care home, she's not as hopeful as Ricci.

"I hope it will be in somebody's lifetime, but it won't be mine," says Sweezey. "We're Capreol, we're the end of the road. We don't get much. But I think they should look after Capreol, for the people that have been living here their whole lives and paying taxes."