As chairperson of the family council at Summerland Seniors Village, I speak for many when I say that I was shocked and dismayed by the apparently erroneous and uninformed statements made by Mike Old, the director of communications for HEU, in the March 13 edition of the Western.
I contacted Mr. Old to determine why he would make such comments but he was reluctant to tell me the source of his information and would only say that he differed with everyone else I spoke with. He also said he didn’t want to discuss the article further but wanted to see everyone involved with SSV continue to move forward.
Our family council is made up of interested and involved family members of residents at SSV and we have been an active council for about six years. We have certainly had our concerns and issues with management at Retirement Concepts and/or SSV over the years, but in the last three to four months we are seeing very significant positive changes. In our opinion, based on first-hand observations, the majority of staff have always been good but appeared hampered by a lack of adequate direction. This has changed drastically. The overall morale of staff is greatly improved and it appears to be a happy and positive environment for the staff as well as the residents. The staff and administration have been working very hard to take advantage of the current opportunity to move forward and make SSV as good a place for seniors as is possible. It was very discouraging for them to read Mr. Old’s comments which were taken as a slap in the face after working so hard to improve the working and living conditions at SSV.
Al Toots, family council
Summerland Seniors Village