Recover in comfort

As Dell Jones lay in her hospital bed after surgery for a shattered hip, she knew she was facing a long road to recovery.

And she sure didn’t want to spend all of it in a hospital where her family – especially her great-grandchildren – couldn’t visit freely.

She didn’t need to worry.

Although she couldn’t go home, she was able to spend much of her recovery in a home-like setting.

A couple of weeks after a fall at home, Jones, 76, was moved from a local hospital to a community support bed at the Park Meadows designated assisted living facility in Lethbridge.

“I really didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “The first day I got there, I didn’t go to the dining room and they brought my meal to my room, which was very nice.”

The next day, two health care aides helped Jones bathe.

“They treated me like I was gold. Then they said, ‘You’re coming with us,’ and they took me to the dining room to show me where I was sitting and introduced me to two ladies at the table,” Jones says. “It was so wonderful.”

That day, Jones called her daughter to say, “You don’t have to worry about me anymore. I’m quite happy here.”

Often located in rural health centres, long-term care facilities, assisted living or other health-care facilities, community support beds give patients throughout the province a place to recover after a trauma or surgery.

They’re also used for respite and palliative care.

“Ensuring we have community support beds in all our communities allows us to get people closer to family and friends, and back home sooner,” says Grant Walker, AHS vice-president for southern Alberta.

“Acute care hospitals are for acutely ill people. If you don’t need to be there but still need some care or monitoring, why not get back to where you can be close to your family and friends? Research tells us the support of family and friends during recovery is very important.”

Jones said her room at Park Meadows provided “perfect treatment.”

“I had a little fridge for snacks and my great-grandchildren could come in to visit whenever they wanted. They brought supper one night and sat on the floor and ate it – it was nice for me; it made me feel wonderful that they could do things like that.”

Jones returned home almost four months after her fall.

Her recovery continues.

“I’m still using a walker and sometimes I can go out and just use a cane,” she says, admitting there was a time when she wasn’t sure she’d be able to return home independently again after her fall.

“My leg is still sore, I have a steel plate and pins so I’m not completely healed, but I’m getting there.”