Earlier this week the government announced that next fall Red Deer’s Michener Centre will close its doors. For one man, that means saying goodbye to the place he’s called home for five decades.
Larry Elssinger has lived at the Michener Centre since he was two. The 52 year-old is confined to a wheelchair, and relies on round the clock care. He’s worked with the same key worker for 15 years.
“Just on Saturday a nurse visited his staff home, and said ‘Larry, I remember you when you were a baby,” says his sister, Diane Esslinger.
She worries about how her brother will deal with the looming change when the Michener Centre shuts down.
“He’s lived in the same home with the same people for all of his life,” she says. “What is that going to mean to someone who can’t speak and who can’t understand what is happening to him?”
75 residents will be moved to group homes and 50 who are considered medically fragile will be placed in seniors facilities.
Staff will either move or lose their job.
“About 75 of the staff will be be deployed to the service agencies,” says Frank Oberle, Associate Minister for Persons with Disabilities. “And where there’s a wage difference we will bridge their wage. Another 50 of the staff we think we’ll be able to absorb into other positions inside the department.”
The government is promising that quality and level of care will not be comprised, and a local advocacy group says transitions like this have been happening for years without issue.
“Knowing who someone is in an instituion is not the same as knowing who they are in the community,” says Bruce Uditsky, with the Alberta Association for Community Living. “And what you find is when you have new opportunities, new ventures, new possibilities, people sometimes show talents and gifts we hadn’t realized they had.”
Diane Esslinger isn’t convinced, though, and is worried that the change will be too much for her brother.
“My stomach sinks, I wonder if he’ll survive.”
With files from Jenna Bridges, Global News
Comments