Daughter of Masonic Park resident rallying to save nursing home

A woman whose father is a resident of the Masonic Park nursing home in Mount Pearl is not impressed with Eastern Health's decision to close down the facility.

Lorna Yard's 80 year-old father is one of 40 residents living at the facility, and she's doing everything she can to make sure residents don't have to move. 

Eastern Health president and CEO David Diamond announced on Monday that the long term care facility will be shut down and all residents will be moved to the Veterans Pavilion facility in St. John's within the next three months.

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He said the facility is closing because it's old and showing its age, which makes it less conducive to providing care than other facilities.

But Yard does not buy Diamond's reasoning — she believes that Masonic Park is as vital as has ever been.

"In my experience as somebody who is there daily and with the residents, I would have to say I completely disagree with that," she said.

A community 

According to Yard, her father's life has improved significantly since he was admitted to the facility.

"Before he went to Masonic Park, he was in St. Clares and of course a hospital isn't an acute care situation," she said.

"They're not really geared to support seniors and their family."

Yard said she went on stress leave three separate times in the year that her father was on a waiting list to get in to a nursing home.

Once he was admitted to Masonic Park however, she said the burden she felt was lifted.

"It's such a community of people, and there's so much support there," she said.

"Because it's a small facility and there's only 40 residents, the folks at Masonic Park really treat them like their own family."

Mount Pearl mayor responds

Mount Pearl Mayor Randy Simms said he heard about the news alongside everybody else on Monday morning.

"From what I heard, strictly in the media, is the building is in terribly bad shape and that's why they're going to be moving this residence out," said Simms.

Despite the alleged condition, he said town officials are still concerned about losing a nursing home of that size.

"We don't like to lose anything in Mount Pearl, as you can appreciat,e and we certainly don't want to lose that home," he said.

Yard said Simms' comments about the state of the building are not true, and that renovations have been ongoing at the building throughout the past year.

"I was actually quite shocked," she said.

"I have had occasion to be in other nursing homes such as St. Pats and Agnes Pratt visiting people, and I would say that Masonic Park is above those facilities in its condition."

A new roof was put on the building last winter, family rooms have been renovated, lifts have been installed in all the residents rooms, and a new therapeutic bath for residents has just been built, said Yard. 

"It's a bright facility, it's spotless, it's beautiful."

Change in facilities could uproot stability

Yard said her father and many other residents at the long term care home suffer from dementia or cognitive problems.

Moving to a new residence could affect their daily routine and sense of order. 

"With my dad, it took us about a year and a half to kind of get him oriented and settled," she said.

"For these people familiarity is everything."

Yard said Masonic Park is one level but the residents new home at the Veterans Pavillion facility will be on the third floor.

She believes this will likely cause mobility issues for residents.

"One of our resident's daughters went yesterday to have a look at where they're going to see what it's like [and] she came back horrified," she said.

"It's basically a deserted army barracks. The windows are small, there's a plain concrete floor, it's like putting them in a warehouse."

99-year-old worried about future

One woman at Masonic Park was busy planning birthday celebrations when she heard the news.

"She's 99, she's sharp as a tack," said Yard.

"She was planning her 100th birthday this year at Masonic in August and we were all chipping in, we were all doing things. It was going to be a big event for residents, for families, for her."

I held her hand yesterday and she cried because she loves Masonic Park and she doesn't know what the future holds and she doesn't want to leave.- Lorna Yard

After hearing that she will have to leave her home in just three short months, Yard said the woman is devastated.

"I held her hand yesterday and she cried because she loves Masonic Park and she doesn't know what the future holds and she doesn't want to leave."

"She told me that she's 99 and she said 'I got a couple of months here left and after that I don't see any point.'"

It's enough to make her ashamed of being from Newfoundland and Labrador, she said.

"How would you not be ashamed to be from here after seeing something like that?"

Save Masonic Park

Yard said she will not let Masonic Park go down without a fight.

A 'Save Masonic Park' Facebook page has already been created, and plans are in motion to create a Humans of Masonic Park web page.

"These are real people, and we're going to help educate the public to that," she said.

"Every day you're going to see on social media somebody and you're going to see their story, and you're going to see how this is affecting them as a person."