A unique design concept is being proposed for the new personal care home facility to be built in Carman.

The planning group wants to use a small-house model that would provide more home-like care in the new 80-bed facility, according to Ken Klassen, vice president of finance and capital for Southern Health-Santé Sud. Under this plan, the additional beds would be divided into eight clusters of ten rooms over two floors.

"Research and best-practice from other jurisdictions have shown that clustering personal care home residents in smaller groupings and making it as home-like as possible does lead to the best experience possible for the resident," he said.

Klassen admitted this is a relatively new concept for senior care in Manitoba and would allow residents to do most of their daily activities within their small home or cluster. For example, he explained there would be a living room as well as a communal dining room that would offer residents the opportunity to eat in a family-style within their unit, removing the institutional setting that's often seen in personal care homes.

The plan also calls for a kitchenette in each small house that would allow some of the food to be prepared and served on the unit as well.

"... By having the sounds and the smells and the views of a kitchen where people spent lots of their time when they were in their own home so that experience can continue for residents when they're in the personal care home," explained Klassen.

Meantime, Klassen added the planning committee has also been given permission from Manitoba Health to research the possibility of converting some of the rooms at the existing Boyne Lodge into these small houses for up to 3 more clusters totalling 30 additional new-style 'waiting in placement' beds.

In fact, there are a number of options being looked at for the current personal care home as it was determined it was worthwhile to renovate the existing building that will eventually become attached to the new PCH.

Klassen said there is an idea of upgrading the kitchen at Boyne Lodge and potentially adding a small restaurant that would be serviced by the kitchen. He noted any extra space could be renovated into rentable office space.

A preliminary drawing for the new personal care home could be submitted to the province as early as next week. Klassen said if the design plan is approved then the next step would be to move on to the construction phase. He is also confident that the cost estimates will fall in-line with the budget.

Klassen explained the committee brought in other partners, like FT3 Architecture and Graham Construction, during the preliminary planning and as part of the request for proposals process.

"It's helpful to have all of the main parties at the table right from the start so that way there aren't any surprises at the end. From the financial perspective, it really increases the cost-certainty for a project that wouldn't be there if we were doing it on our own and then taking it to market later on, so we just went to market up front."

The total estimated cost of Phase One is $21 million.