Tunnel Vision for Long Term Care Home

Overview:

The Glebe Centre in Ottawa is a long-term care Home that offers accommodation to 254 Residents as well as providing community outreach services for seniors living in their own home. Community Centre activities for the 55+ set in our city are also provided. The Centre is comprised of three buildings that are connected via an underground tunnel that is currently painted white and grey. This passageway is used by our Residents and community clients, as well as their family members, staff, volunteers and those who live in an adjacent retirement residence. The tunnel’s smooth walkway offers a safe and convenient option as a means of physical and mental stimulation for our Residents, whose needs range from the physically frail to those afflicted with varying levels of dementia (including Alzheimer’s). Our goal is to transform the tunnel into an interactive pathway. It is our hope to ‘landscape’ our tunnel walls with painted al fresco scenes that are symbolic of things common to each of us: houses, people, animals, trees, fields, plants, and more. The landscape will transition from city surroundings to country scenes as one walks along, much like when taking a drive in your car: imagine walking along and watching a scene unfold of a neighbourhood street (notice the smiling face looking out from their window) that leads to fields, which become a farm or a forest. If you look closely, you may notice small animals peeking from behind a bush or a bird’s nest in the branches of a tree. The scenes are intended to provide bright, sunny perspectives; encouraging a cheerful, upbeat tone that will engage enough curiosity to keep moving onto the next scene, in order to find more treasures in the details. To ensure comfort, park benches would be placed along the length of the pathway for areas of rest and contemplation. This project offers the opportunity to transform the bare walls of an underground passageway into a place of wonder and delight for those who use this tunnel. An estimated cost for design, drawing, painting and paint for our 125ft tunnel is estimated at $8,500. Most importantly, it offers those within our Residential community to remain connected, not only physically, but mentally too, with those elements known and familiar to them; while walking along a simple tunnel corridor.