Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 7

79 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 7 R I VERS IDE L IONS ESTATES AND SENIORS RES IDENCES good relationships with the tenants and create a trust and understanding, while maintaining their dignity and supporting their needs.” The 48 supportive housing residents, and those living in the 27 assisted living and 130 independent living suites, are often referred to as the Riverside family by the employees, who Gilles Pambrun, General Manager, describes as, “the best staff in North America, if not the world.” The early days of COVID-19 brought a new set of challenges to the facility, as staff at all levels scrambled to find ways to keep everyone safe. Taking direction from the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and the provincial officer of health, Dr. Roussin, was not always easy, due to supply shortages and rapidly changing information. As well, the rules and guidelines for the two buildings were sometimes conflicting, making it difficult to meet the needs of all residents. “We have a tenant on our independent side who is 106 years old,” Quiring explains. “We provide a lot of services on the independent side, like what we do in assisted living, but at an additional cost. The challenge came because we share staff; there are rules we had to enforce in the long-term care, that weren’t necessarily enforced in a normal apartment or senior complex. Our main goal was trying to continue these services for our tenants, as well as making sure that our staff were safe, things were cleaned, and really keeping all these services going with the number of employees we had. That was the biggest challenge to begin with and ultimately led to us hiring more people.” Understanding the importance of socializing prompted the Riverside staff to find innovative ways to allow safe, distanced visits among tenants. Creating visiting areas became a priority, as Quiring reports, “We had to establish outdoor visiting areas for our tenants in both buildings. All our common areas in the buildings were