Shepherd’s Care A solid foundation for seniors

Community. That is what helps define Shepherd’s Care, a foundation with long term care facilities in Edmonton and Barrhead. Created by members of the German Pentecostal Church in the 1970s, Shepherd’s Care provides low to moderate income seniors with an age-in-place environment.

Shepherd’s Care has three main tenets they follow.

The first is that they are faith based. The three founding churches are still engaged in supporting the foundation with funds and volunteering. They are Millwoods Pentecostal Assembly, Southside Pentecostal Assembly (both in Edmonton), and Bethel Pentecostal Assembly in Barrhead, Alberta.

There are 50 Shepherd’s Care foundation members who belong to the original churches.

The Shepherd’s Care Foundation has a Director of Spiritual Life and chaplains at each facility. Also there are many volunteer clergy who visit the various facilities. As John Pray comments, “we are open to everyone and also have inter-denominational services.”

Shepherd’s Care also has volunteers who help with a multitude of tasks. Many of these volunteers are actually residents. Their two largest campuses have auxiliaries. Shepherd’s Caring Friends has been operating for over forty years in Millwoods; engaging residents and helping them with their needs. The Kensington Village Ladies Auxiliary has been in operation since 1998.

The second tenet is regarding moderate income. Affordability is a big issue in senior’s care and one of the ways they help is by providing assistance for those who need it. Pray comments, “we are seeing more couples where one or both need serious care.” This is where there can be unexpected expenses that many are not able to handle. At this point Shepherd’s Care steps in and sees how they can help. They review the situation with the resident and family to ensure they are accessing all financial income programs available. From there, if the resident and family can show financial hardship, they review each file independently and often choose to freeze the rent as a way to help ease their burden.

The third tenet is the campus of care concept. “We believe strongly that true campus of care has all level of care for seniors,” says Pray. They started with apartments for seniors and it evolved over time, to include meals and emergency care. In Millwoods, one of their locations, they have one hundred and twenty condos, seventy-four apartments, forty-five assisted living spaces, and one hundred and forty-five bed long term care facility.

Pray recounts two residents who had lived in their apartments for ten years. After visiting the doctor, they had to transition into assisted living. Luckily, they were allowed to come back to the same campus which made that transition much easier. Knowing that you will be close to your friends as well as staff that you already know can make it that much better.

And, as Pray says, “you can’t really do true campus of care without home care,” Shepherd’s Care is also involved with that aspect.

The campus of care facilities also allow services to be used by all seniors, not just a particular group. So for example, those in condos can still take advantage of having a meal plan should they choose not to cook. Pray remarks that their most popular meal package is a 24 meal card, these are purchased ahead of time and are valid for 24 meals. When a resident visits the dining room, they just have their card punched. There is no time limit so if they miss a meal, they don’t miss out.

All of the residents get to participate in extensive recreation programming as well. Not only that, the new condos, like the ones at Kensington Village, are starting to develop their own recreation programming as new residents move in. The residents really get a participatory say in how the programming is developed. For example, “many new Garden condo residents are hosting bible studies and they asked if we could look into bus transportation (our SCF bus) to give a ride to local church services,” remarks Pray.

There are also doctors who visit (primarily in long term care) as well as a number of specialized services including massage, dental and even hair stylists. Shepherd’s Care has a very extensive, affordable menu of services that go that extra mile towards making a resident feel as if they are at home.

Shepherd’s Care has current projects on the go including building a one hundred and forty-five unit assisted living facility next to Vanguard Bible College in Edmonton. They are also working towards adding an apartment complex at their Barrhead location. Currently there is an assisted living facility located next to a nursing home.

Often there is a situation where one spouse needs critical care but the other doesn’t. Campus of care allows people to stay together rather than be split up needlessly while providing a great measure of emotional support for both parties.

Pray notes that half a dozen seniors purchased condos just because they had spouses in assisted living. This made it easier for them to visit their spouse (without having to drive). They could also have the opportunity to bring their spouse home for a meal.

In the assisted living facilities, there are extra suites where spouses can live in the same room with each other rather than having to be in separate rooms.

Every day, the Shepherd’s Care Foundation strives to ensure that their residents are receiving the very best care. They are the first ‘Aging Services Network’ in Canada to be accredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities (CARF) and they look forward to continuing to enhance the profession of senior’s care.

“One of the things we pride ourselves on, and we can see it already happening in Millwoods with the connection of the seniors apartment, long term care centre, assisted living building and the condo is that residents are moving throughout the buildings and we are again creating a tremendous sense of community,” states Pray.

Creating and maintaining that community is something that Shepherd’s Care strives for as they continue to explore new ways of making their residents lives a little bit easier.