Residents finding new homes as aging Valley View facility prepares to close
A lot has changed since June Avivi was pregnant with her third child and started thinking about moving her son David into Valley View Centre in Moose Jaw.
“When mom was expecting me she realized that it would be very difficult — I would say almost impossible — to meet David’s needs in the home with a newborn,” says that third child, Ari Avivi.
Nearly a teen when Ari was born, David had a young man’s strength, but cognitively functioned at a preschool level. Born in 1956, David moved to Valley View in the late 1960s when it was a state-of-theart facility. He was among many Saskatchewan residents with intellectual disabilities who called Valley View home for decades. The immense facility was built in 1955 to accommodate up to 1,500 people with special needs.
“It was like its own city,” Ari says. “It had a doctor’s office, a dentist’s office, a surgical suite, all of the things that it needed to ensure the people who lived in Valley View had all of their needs met in a way that was safe and secure.”
David thrives on routine. Valley View staff offered him that comfort and amazing care, Ari says.
“But the facility aged and society changed around it, and it was time for an evolution,” he says. “Once the facility was getting to the end of (its) life, it was a natural time for transition.”
For more than six decades, June Avivi was an advocate for people with disabilities. When the provincial government announced in 2012 that Valley View would be shut down, families were concerned. June successfully lobbied the government to include a family advisory board in planning the transition of residents away from Valley View. She and Ari were part of efforts to ensure residents were moved to homes where they would be happy and well cared for.
“The transitions were deliberate. They were patient and they involved all of the appropriate stakeholders. The Valley View transition team was key,” Ari says.
Last fall David moved from Valley View to a home in Saskatoon. The move has meant his mother and other family members in that city see him more often.
“That’s one of our greatest joys,” Ari says. “To go see David for a 10-minute visit in Moose Jaw was a four-and-a-half-hour round trip. Now a 10-minute visit is a 10-minute round trip.”
David isn’t a social person so their visits are short. “Literally after five or 10 minutes he walks you to the front door and says, ‘Goodbye. See you next time,’” says Ari.
The remaining 52 residents at Valley View are slated to be relocated into communities by December 2019.
The Ministry of Social Services started planning moves for 207 Valley View residents in 2012, says Bob Martinook, executive director of community living service delivery. The same robust planning process is underway for the residents still waiting to be transitioned.
“There are planned dates for the transitions for each of the individuals that are sequenced out through the next year as their settings become available and ready,” Martinook says. “We’re building and renovating homes to accommodate the remaining folks.”
He’s confident all transitions will be completed by the end of 2019.
Although the moves have taken longer than scheduled, Martinook said the Saskatchewan Association for Community Living and the Valley View Family Legacy Group have been supportive.
“We haven’t had any failures yet in terms of the transitions,” Martinook says.
An individualized path was developed for each resident via intensive planning. The process determined who got along well and wanted to live together, where they wanted to reside and if there was capacity and resources in that community, Martinook says.
Building plans were developed to support individual needs, such as wide hallways to accommodate wheelchairs, ceiling track lifts and therapeutic equipment. If there weren’t service providers in communities where residents wanted to move, they were found through a request for proposals process.
“It was a very person-centered, very person-focused planning process,” Martinook says. “It’s that planning process that has led to the success of having 100 transitions completed.”
One measure of success is the closer contact residents have with their communities and family members.
“They live in arrangements with people that they know and they’ve lived with for many, many years,” Martinook says. “No one has lost a placement or had to seek an alternative place to live. I would consider those pretty successful transitions.”
The Ministry of Social Services funds a wide array of residential options across Saskatchewan to support residents with intellectual disabilities. Housing options include more than 200 group homes, almost 50 group living homes, nearly 200 approved private service homes and supported independent living programs — all supporting close to 2,400 individuals. Residents in supported living have caregivers around the clock whereas those in group homes have support staff who are on duty for portions of the day.
In the supported independent living model, one or two residents live in a small house or apartment and receive care for 10 to 20 hours a week. Those who live independently have transitional supports.
There are many benefits to living in community-based homes for those with intellectual disabilities, including their accessibility to social events, concerts, bowling, churches and swimming.
When Martinook started working in the field in 1983, around 800 people were residing at Valley View, and between 2,500 to 2,600 were living in communities.
The changing times will also effect staff. Currently, Valley View has 149 full-time equivalent staff, which translates to between 290 and 320 people working at the facility. They include nurses, occupational therapists, physical therapists, recreational therapists, occupational therapy assistants, and kitchen and housekeeping staff. When the centre closes, unionized staff can take a retirement severance package or bump into other positions.
Those left at Valley View are eager to move, said Nick Fraser, director of inclusion with SACL.
“As Valley View shrinks and people who have lived there for years have moved out, I feel there’s a growing desire on the part of those folks to move out,” Fraser said. “There’s a little bit of fear, a little bit of sadness as the centre itself changes, but there’s an overarching positivity to it and people really can’t wait for their turn.”