Some St. Boniface seniors stranded by out-of-service elevator

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This article was published 17/07/2018 (2108 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A broken elevator has left some seniors living in a St. Boniface retirement community “prisoners in their own homes,” according to a health-care worker who visits the site daily.

One of two elevators in Catherine Place, a seniors apartment complex that doubles as an assisted-living retirement community, has been out of service for the last two weeks, the facility’s management told the Free Press.

Management said Wednesday they don’t have an exact timeline for when the elevator (there are two buildings; one elevator in each) will be fixed, as new parts are being made out of province, but they hope it won’t take “too long.”

It can’t some soon enough, said a health-care worker who deals with residents at 190 Raymond Pl.

Seniors who have difficulties using stairs don’t have the option to move around as freely as usual, and some have been cooped up in rooms without air conditioning, said the worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they didn’t want to jeopardize their job.

“You can see the frustration building, because even if they’re not going to go anywhere, just not having the choice to go anywhere can impact mental health.”

In the meantime, head chef Jimmy Olynyk said management has doubled the number of service staff, in order to deliver food trays to residents who can’t come down to the dining hall.

“We go upstairs and we visit people. We have families who come in and volunteer and make sure their mental health and social health is being taken care of,” he said.

A few more than a dozen residents who rely on walkers or wheelchairs have been “affected” by the elevator outage, Olynyk said.

There are about 100 suites in the facility, spread between the two buildings.

“It’s not like they are in prison and not allowed to leave,” said Justin Depuis, executive director at Catherine Place.

Management said staff are also equipped to assist residents with mobility issues travel between floors.

But helping people down stairs isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially in emergency scenarios, the health-care worker said.

“If you’re in a wheelchair, you’re not getting anywhere. Or you get clients who get dizzy, they get light-headed or they are quite large to be manually bringing up and down the stairs,” the worker said, adding it is frustrating to see residents pay around $1,000 to $2,000 per month to live in an inaccessible building.

One woman out for a stroll with her walker Wednesday afternoon said she hasn’t seen one of her friends for days because the woman can’t come down the stairs to the dining hall, where they normally eat together.

She’s been getting three meals a day delivered to her suite, said the resident, who spoke to the Free Press on the condition of anonymity.

Her friend can normally be found on shopping trips and outside “enjoying life,” the resident said. “She’s not used to being cooped up.”

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @macintoshmaggie