the broken typewriter

With the third house at Peace Villa now in the works, Area C Director Brad Sperling says this is not the time for local governments to rest on their laurels but rather examine the population projections and put together plans for future needs.

“Although we appreciate Peace Villa going ahead, we know Fort St. John and area will need more than that,” Sperling told the Peace River Regional Hospital District (PRRHD) board meeting directors on July 17. “We know that because we work closely with SONS.”

When Peace Villa, which is attached to the Fort St. John Hospital, was built, Save Our Northern Seniors (SONS) warned that omitting the third “pod” from the facility was going to be an issue.

In The Broken Typewriter’s article about the announcement that the business case for the third house had been approved, SONS president Margaret Little said:

“The long-term vision for the third house, or third pod as they’re calling it has always been there. It’s a matter of when they were going to do it. We’ve been advocating that for a number of years, when Jean Leahy was the president. And we’ve been wanting to have the third house because we told them the day that Peace Villa opened, that it was going to be full and have a waiting list,” Little said.

“It was true, there was.”

Everyday, Little says, there are people being brought into the hospital who cannot cope at home, cannot look after themselves and are being admitted to hospital to wait to get into Peace Villa.

“Those [people] that are waiting for a bed, for a room in Peace Villa, are in there, while people in Emergency can’t get into a room. People who need operations need a room; it’s a vicious circle.”

What they don’t know, Sperling said, is what the other rural areas and municipalities need in terms of housing for seniors, now and in the future.

Sperling recommended that the PRRHD ask Northern Health to provide it with the population data and projections used to determine bed count for the Peace Villa expansion, as well as any other information related to seniors’ care housing demands that is being relied upon to inform future decisions around seniors’ care housing capital project investment decisions in the Northern Health region. This information will help PRRHD understand the long-term plan and targets in place to provide seniors with adequate care in the region in the future.

“We know that this takes time, and I think now is the time to start looking at this, and putting it together,” Sperling said. “Find out what our municipalities need, what our areas need.”

To help get the Peace Villa expansion project going, in September 2024, PRRHD approved up to $46.6 million in funding.

“We need to get this information to move forward with it and find out what everybody else needs.”