Inclusio: Safety + Peace of Mind

The Cause

Our idea is a one that everyone can appreciate! We have built a home that is safe, comfortable and affordable. This home is called Inclusio. Inclusio is a new home for 45 Calgarians with limited mobility that opened in the spring of 2018. We built this home because Calgary has a shortage of this type of housing. It is Calgary's first accessible and affordable home for people with limited mobility. It features 45 studio apartments, shared common living spaces on each floor, a dining room and meal services, as well as beautiful patio views over Confederation Park. The building is safe and modern, featuring concrete construction plus digital enhancements that help residents be independent. By using an app or voice control, residents can adjust their lighting, television, window coverings and doorways. Residents have access to health care aides and case management services. Inclusio is designed for adults who require some assistance with their daily lives, but also value autonomy and interdependence.

In 2018-2019 Accessible Housing will invest in a nurse call system for Inclusio. One of the most expensive and crucial components of a building is a nurse call system. This system connects thousands of important alerts each year to our care team members. Expectations of a care team to provide excellent care have never been higher, and we are dedicated to meeting and exceeding those expectations.

The ability to provide our residents an emergency pendant offers an extra layer of security and confidence to the resident and greater peace of mind to families. Using a discrete button (worn as either a necklace or a wristband) these emergency buttons, when pressed alert staff immediately that a resident requires assistance. The ability to use a system to provide real time, usable metrics in reporting, offers an area of understanding within care services to track response times, promoting quality of care and service. Providing better results inherently translates to a better overall experience to our residents and identifies options for quality improvement initiatives.

We believe the ability to implement this technology plays a significant part in the delivery of excellent service. As organizations such as Accessible Housing continue to enhance their services, the importance of a simple, easy to use, nurse call system with integrated, scalable services will assist us to further enhance the well-being of our residents.

Who Will it Benefit?

The new nurse call system will immediately benefit the residents of Inclusio. Residents all have different needs and circumstances, but the commonality is that residents require affordable rental rates plus an accessible home because of their limited mobility. Why? Individuals with disability tend to have lower incomes. Residents at Inclusio earn less than $46,000 in annual income. Many get the bulk of their income from a government living allowance called AISH (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped) which provides a maximum monthly living allowance of $1,588. Limited mobility could be as a result of a spinal cord injury, a degenerative and disability disease such as MS or rheumatoid arthritis, a sudden stroke, or a congenital condition such as spina bifida or cerebral palsy. The residents of Inclusio are autonomous, and are able to direct their care. They are involved in the community in various ways such as volunteers or advocates and some work part time or attend classes part-time at the University of Calgary nearby.

In addition to benefiting the residents, the nurse call system will assist the staff at Inclusio. It will help identify emergent situations so that exceptional care can be provided quickly.

The ripple effect of this investment will be large. For each of the residents of Inclusio, there is a network of family and friends. Many of the families tell us that knowing their loved one is at Inclusio has allowed them to get their lives back. When families struggle to be caregivers to their loved one, relationships are strained. When their loved one moves to a safe home with wrap-around supports available, they are able to reclaim and repair their relationships. The constant worry about their family member is gone and the pressure of providing hands-on care that they do not have the training or equipment to do is removed.