Work is underway to build a new 96-bed long-term care home in Deep River, Ont.
The Four Seasons Lodge is replacing the current 14-bed home of the same name next to the Deep River and District Hospital. Its President and CEO Janna Hotson said having so few beds for a town of more than 4,000 people meant some had to leave the town to get the care they needed.
“It was about six years ago, where we realized what we had in our community just was not enough,” she said. “We had people that were waiting for a year, to two years, to three years, and then eventually having to leave.”
For a small town like Deep River, leaving is no small feat. Hotson said it disconnects people from their community and loved ones.
“I’ve seen, over the years, so many people not be able to visit their husband or their spouse, when they were previously together every day,” she said.
Hotson said the community of Deep River raised almost two million dollars in two years to support the project — a campaign by the hospital dubbed “Closer to Home” — which Hotson said speaks to her of the strong community support and how deeply the facility was needed.
A ‘game changer’ for residents
The new 96-bed home will be fully air conditioned and offer three “resident home areas” with room for 32 people.
The approach is meant to create a “more intimate and familiar living space,” said the Ministry of Long-Term care, with dining rooms, lounges, and activity areas.
MPP John Yakabuski, who represents the Renfrew-Nipissing-Pembroke region, praised the facilities as “state of the art,” comparing them to a recent long-term care home built in Arnprior.
He called the home a “game changer for the people of Deep River and area.”
Expected to open in 2027
Work on this new home began in 2018, and it was originally planned to open in 2025.
Hotson said there were some delays in part due to rising construction costs. She said the funds raised by the community through the Closer to Home campaign helped them handle that rise, though it hasn’t met its full goal of $2.5 million yet.
A Deep River & District media release from mid-July said construction was “progressing rapidly.”
It is now due to open in spring 2027, according to Yakabuski.
“[The new home] is absolutely necessary,” he said. “When you look at the changes in our population, the demographics, the growth, and how people are aging.”
But Hotson said this facility was intended to give Deep River enough capacity to handle its current population, not the future generation of seniors.
“The 96 meets a need today, but we will need more, holistically, everywhere as the years come, as our population ages,” she said.
“In fact, in Deep River, we have an older population, so we actually need more long-term-care beds,” Hotson said, compared to other communities that won’t be facing the “grey tsunami” quite so soon.