Home’s strength seen in resident-staff relationships
Thursday, December 21, 2006 -- Craig Anderson
He’s been on the job for only three months and the learning curve has been fairly steep, but Michael Rasenberg, new administrator for Woodland Villa, says his short tenure has been well-supported by the home’s management team.

Rasenberg points to Deb Kitchen, DOC, Kim Kavanagh, NASM, and Linda Gadbois, ESM, as veteran managers that have helped to show him the ropes.

On top of that, watching the care staff provide has shown him the home’s core strength.

“It’s the relationship between the staff and the residents,” he says. “They’re like a second family. There is a love and commitment. Everybody has that resident that they would do anything for.”

Rasenberg joined the home in early October, and although he had completed a long term care administrator diploma, his primary background was in acute care nursing. Prior to joining Woodland, Rasenberg was a branch manager for a community health care agency overseeing five eastern Ontario counties.

“It’s been very interesting – and very different,” says Rasenberg, of his new position. When asked of the difference between working in acute care and long term care, he says “you’re in the resident’s home.”

Looking to 2007, Rasenberg sees continued negotiation over the controversial Bill 140 as an issue of paramount importance.

“It would really affect us as a rural home,” says Rasenberg, explaining how closely inter-related the 111-bed home is to the farming community that surrounds Long Sault.

A “C” class home, Woodland is one of the homes that could have its future left undetermined by new shorter term licensing proposals in the Act. (See: Accountability and commitment from government lacking in new Act, says Peterborough administrator.)

Most new homes, says Rasenberg, are built in cities. Yet the older, rural-based homes are attractive to people who want to remain in such a setting.

Woodland has made this concern about the proposed Act, now under public review, to their local MPP, Jim Brownell (representing Stormont--Dundas—Charlottenburgh).

Brownell understands the importance of keeping the home in the community, says Rasenberg.

“It’s critical that these homes that are in the country remain in the country,” he says. People who tour the home from the surrounding communities frequently express their interest in staying in a rural setting, he adds.

Rasenberg is looking forward to new year, in particular to undertaking a new strategic plan once the holidays are over.

He says there will be a greater examination of the way the home is run, as well as attention “to a lot of little things.”