After 60 years of marriage, Bernard Renaud was forced to part ways with his wife Micheline Bickley — sort of.“There comes a while when you’re taking care of your closest love and you feel that you cannot provide what she needs,” he told Global News.
Bickley has Alzheimer’s so Renaud had to move her into a new seniors home in Chateauguay, south of Montreal. His wife had been living in a traditional seniors residence when they were offered a place at Maison des aînés et alternative de Châteauguay.“I said, by all means,” he laughs. “It was like winning the lottery.”
This long-term care facility for seniors with dementia as well as adults with special needs is different in the way residents are cared for. There’s space for 96 seniors and 24 younger special needs adults, all organized into 10 households.“We have 12 people living per unit,” head manager Caroline Brookes says. “We call it a maisonnette, so a small household environment.”
She adds that residents in each unit share a large, common living space as well as a full kitchen, “so their families can come, they can come and have breakfast with them, come make a pot of spaghetti sauce with them.”
Brookes adds each room has its own private shower with safety features, and clients have access to a balcony so that they don’t feel confined.