Due to dwindling membership and the high cost of private health care, one wing of Foyer Lacombe will soon be shut down.
Foyer Lacombe is a home for retired priests and brothers operated by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI). At a meeting last Monday, employees and residents were informed the home would be transitioning to a new structure.
The newest wing of the building (circa 2003), houses residents who require nursing care and is scheduled to be closed by Jan. 1, 2015. The older wing will continue to house independent living residents.
Low occupancy rates over the past couple of years have prompted discussion about the site’s options, said Bruce Finkel, chairman of the Placid Foundation, the board that oversees the management of Foyer Lacombe.
“It would have been at our last meeting in February where it became clear that the Oblates were wanting to get out of the health-care business,” he said.
Twenty-nine out of 42 beds are currently occupied at Foyer Lacombe. The retired priests, brothers, members of other religious orders and laymen who reside there, range in age from 71 to 98.
“We rarely had that facility as full as it should have been for efficiency,” said Father Tim Coonen, treasurer for OMI Lacombe Canada in Ottawa.
OMI Lacombe Canada has 225 members but numbers are declining, including those residing in Alberta, noted Coonen. The order has also decided that the Oblate Pension Fund will no longer support nursing care for Oblate priests.
“Health-care costs in Alberta have continued to climb … and the cost of having staff run a medical facility for our own members … is not really practical,” he said.
“(It’s) perhaps not the best way to witness to a life of simplicity.”
OMI Lacombe Canada runs five other retirement facilities in Canada. Foyer Lacombe is the only one with full-time nursing staff.
The number of residents who will have to move has not yet been determined since Alberta Health Services Home Care is currently re-assessing them, said Finkel.
“Depending on what level of care they come up at, they will be looking for appropriate placement both in St. Albert and Edmonton.”
The anticipated date to have the residents moved out is Dec. 31.
It would be ideal to house some members in the same facility to maintain a sense of community, said Coonen.
“That’s part of the struggle. While we would like to have our guys together in the community, we take an opening where an opening is available, just like everybody else.”
No decision has yet been made regarding the fate of the closed wing.
“We’re talking to a variety of other partners to see whether they can come up with some suggestions for use of the facility,” said Finkel.
