NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

Residents and dignitaries from Hay River toured the site of a program support centre for clients with cognitive disabilities during the facility's grand opening on Thursday.

Ten Hay River residents with disabilities ranging from brain injury, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) and autism have been using the centre, located near the HH Williams Memorial Hospital, since May 2010.

There, they've engaged in activities meant to get them out of their assisted-living homes, such as baking, exercising and connecting with friends and family using Skype.

Thursday's tour gave some people, including Hay River South MLA Jane Groenewegen and town councillor Kevin Wallington, their first peek at the medium-sized facility.

"This day program is an added program to the campus that provides work readiness and community participation skills," said Sue Cullen, CEO of the Hay River Health and Social Services Authority, which owns the three apartment buildings that house the supported living campus' clients.

In addition to a large recreation area, "It has a kitchen and a bank of computers in another room. They're working with their personal outcome support workers to actually cook their meals in their houses. It's fairly open-concept."

According to Cullen, the centres serves two key roles. While it gives clients the chance to stretch their legs beyond the confines of their homes, it also gives them reason to stay in Hay River instead of moving to another town or region.

Three out of 10 current clients moved back to Hay River after the facility opened last year, while some of the remaining seven patients say they were persuaded to stay in Hay River because of the services and space offered by the centre, said Cullen.

"I think this has provided that opportunity to put together a more fulsome program to integrate them into the community, to provide that life enrichment that potentially otherwise might not have been taken up," she said.

"There certainly are more clients in the south who have not been able to repatriate and many of those clients - who did move south - are settled there and have established a sense of permanency in the south."

Mayor Kelly Schofield said having free access to the Internet will not only help clients brush up on their computer skills but maybe even help them find work.

"I think it's a great opportunity for these clients to gain vital knowledge with how to do the day-to-day living as well as career-wise," he said. "It gives them that opportunity to advance themselves and possibly stand on their own two feet with a career and a life of their own."

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