A donation from a local service club is helping improve safety and mobility for residents at Terraceview Lodge.
The Kin Club of Terrace recently donated funds to the Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation to purchase two complete gantry ceiling lift systems for the long-term care facility.
The lifts are part of a larger effort to install gantry ceiling lift systems in every resident room at Terraceview Lodge.
Dr. R.E.M. Lee Hospital Foundation CEO Chris Mallett said the equipment was identified as a priority when the foundation approached the facility about a potential project.
“It’s been a priority for a while now. When they originally had the first set of gantry lifts installed at terraceview, it’s my understanding that at that time, they only needed the amount that was installed. But since then, times have significantly changed with resident mobility, and now they need more essentially.”
At the time, 43 of the lodge’s 99 resident rooms did not yet have gantry lifts installed.
Gantry ceiling lifts use rails mounted on the ceiling above a resident’s bed. A motorized unit lowers a sling that can safely lift and reposition residents, allowing staff to move them in bed, transfer them to a chair, or assist with treatment.
Mallett said the lifts benefit both residents and staff.
“It enables mobility-challenged residents to be moved more easily, but it also prevents injury to staff because they don’t have to rely on their own strength to move patients,” he said.
The equipment can also help reduce the risk of falls for residents who may otherwise try to move on their own.
Earlier gantry lifts at the facility were funded and installed by Northern Health, but the remaining lifts were funded through a community fundraising campaign led by the foundation.
The campaign raised just under $500,000 to purchase the remaining lifts needed at Terraceview Lodge.
Instead of fundraising for the full amount at once, the foundation broke the campaign down so donors could fund individual lifts, each costing just over $10,000.
Mallett said that approach resonated with the community and helped speed up fundraising.
“We found the community really just dove into that,” he said. “People would say, ‘I’ll purchase one or two, and it made the fundraising just go crazy. Faster than I’ve ever seen.”
The Kin Club donation will help move the project forward, bringing Terraceview Lodge closer to its goal of having gantry lifts in every resident room.
