University of Moncton nursing home to include research facility

The president of the University of Moncton, Raymond Thberge, says partnering with the private company Shannex to build a 'retirement complex' is part of astrategy tocreate a cluster of health care research in southeastern New Brunswick.

• University of Moncton getting 60 nursing home beds

Construction of a 60 bed nursing home is already underway, along with a retirement home, special care home and anapartment complexfor seniors.

Thbergesays the project will allow the university to build its research facilities.

"What it will afford theuniversity...is through an academic agreement that we will have withShannexto have classrooms and research facilities within the long-term care home to enhance ourresearchcapacity in the area of aging," he said in an interview Wednesdayon Information Morning Moncton.

Thbergeexplains Shannexis working with the provincial government to fund the $50 millioncomplex, while the University of Moncton has entered into a long term lease for the property on itsresearch and development campus.

"So it's not only a commercial enterprise, it's an academic enterprise and the revenues from this project will go towards funding research on aging in New Brunswick."

Research chair to be recruited

Thberge says Shannexapproached him with the idea of a francophone retirement complex and he quicklyrecognized it as a big opportunity.

"One of Universit de Moncton'sstrategic objectives is to try to create a health cluster," he said.

"We have the medical school andnow we will have,it's basically an academic nursing home... and we're looking at other possibilities."

Thberge says the retirement complex and the research that will go with it is a natural fit forthe health cluster the University of Moncton, the Georges Dumont Hospital, the Moncton Hospital and the medical school are working together to build in southeastern New Brunswick.

"We can't do everything so we have to specialize and find areas where we can have a niche."

"We will be creating a research chair and we'll be looking for proposals from the university community to see what aspects they want to look at,"Thbergesaid.

Recruiting top level researchers is a way to fund universities and Thberge says that is now what schools must do to attract the highest quality faculty and to have stable, long-term funding.

"Universities have to look for funding in as many places as possible becausegovernmentscan't fund everything anymore."

The nursing home, retirement home, special care home and research facility is expected to open in Sept. 2017.

French language retirement complex

Thberge says the nursing home, which is funded by the provincial government, will be filled based on Department of Social Development policy.

A spokesperson for the department says operators of nursing homes chose their language of service based on demographics and needs in their communities.

Across the province, there are nursing homes that are designated as bilingual, French and English.

The Department of Social Development saidin a statement Wednesday that there are 65 licensed nursing homes in New Brunswick. Four are bilingual, 18 are French and 43 are English.

"The Government of New Brunswick provides services in the language of choice to New Brunswickers, however, traditionally nursing homes have been built to serve the needs of their specific community," the department said.

"In the case of the most recently announced nursing home in Moncton, demographic studies show that the Moncton area has a need for francophone long term care services. So, in this case, the language of service selected by the developer is French."

Thbergesays in the rest of the complex preference will be given to retirees of the University of Moncton, however there are notenough of them to fill the suites that will be available.

The lease withShannex specifies that French will be language of work and that preferencewill be given to francophones in renting the units.

"The Universitybecomes a leader in the preservation of the language rights of the Acadian and francophone population of New Brunswick,"Thbergesaid.