The transition from the Souris Valley Extended Care Centre (SVECC) to the Tatagwa View long-term care facility is effectively complete for the Sun Country Health Region.

The final move of residents occurred two weeks ago, when the acute in-patient mental health services housed at the Community Health Services building was moved to Tatagwa View.

All other residents at Souris Valley were moved prior to the in-patient mental health unit.

The 10-bed unit was moved last because staff had to make some minor modifications to their ward at Tatagwa View, said Lloyd Searcy, VP of corporate and financial services for Sun Country.

Souris Valley is now effectively empty except for the maintenance department, which is currently housed in the northeast wing of Souris Valley.

However, work recently began on re-shingling the old library building on the SVECC grounds, which will eventually be used for maintenance services.

The Tatagwa View facility currently houses 123 beds for long-term care patients and 10 beds for in-patient mental health services.

Obviously, change is difficult for anyone, especially for those who are largely dependent on others for their care. But on the whole, residents have adjusted well to living in the new building, said Marnell Cornish, nurse manager at Tatagwa View.

"We have some residents who deal with cognitive disabilities, and their adjustments are always day-to-day, wherever they are," said Cornish.

"But basically, the rest of our residents, even the ones that weren't exactly looking forward to coming here, are pleased with being here now," she added.

Cornish said the staff performed an excellent job with the move and "did their best to just be there for the residents."

For the staff, making the move has meant a lot of fine-tuning in their day-to-day jobs; just communication between different departments is now totally different. But on the whole, she thinks staff are happy to be in the new building.

Tatagwa View is based on the Eden philosophy of care, which states long-term care patients should be housed in a more homelike environment, as opposed to a long-term care facility "stuck at the end of town" that carried the stigma of the mental hospital.

"People that are entering long-term care need to be maintained as part of the community. What we've done here is try and make this a community," said Cornish.

Searcy said there have been some minor "shakedown" issues with the move, but that was expected.

"I don't think you can ever just move into a building and think that you're finished with it for the next five years," he said.

On the whole, he said, "we're very pleased with the involvement of everybody. The staff did a terrific job and we appreciate their effort."

Searcy noted that one concern is parking, of which there is a considerable lack. Sun Country must also be addressing the concerns of Elgin Street residents in the near future concerning the removal of trees near their homes.

This summer, staff will be doing landscaping around the facility and putting an asphalt pathway around the nearby retention pond. They also hope to string lights around the pond to light up the lake.