Campaign mission

To build, support, and maintain a high-quality long-term care residence on North Haven, so that our seniors—after they can no longer stay in their homes—can remain in our community, surrounded by caretakers and visitors they know and love. 

To create a residence that is home-like, integrated into the community, sustainable to maintain and operate, and that fully utilizes its beautiful location on Southern Harbor. The facility will also provide respite care and hospice services in the residence when possible and provide assistance to seniors at home. 

-- Southern Harbor Eldercare Services & North Haven Sustainable Housing

SEE MORE FROM OUR 2016 AGING ON ISLANDS CONFERENCE

the beginning

In March of 2014, just as the cold stretched well beyond its welcome, the generosity and vision of one summer resident helped shake the island from the late winter doldrums. Mary White offered to donate her historic “yellow house” (the former Rice family home or Peleg Thomas Farm) for the purposes of creating an eldercare facility and a publicly accessible conservation area. The project was a joint partnership of North Haven Sustainable Housing (NHSH), North Haven Conservation Partners (NHCP), and Southern Harbor Eldercare Services (SHES), a newly formed organization whose primary objective is to develop an island long-term care facility. 

THE PLAN

North Haven architect and summer resident John Tittmann and his firm worked with our NHSH/SHES design committee on a renovation and expansion plan for the “yellow house”. The goals for the design included incorporating the current yellow house and its assets, building a highly efficient expansion that would be affordable to build, heat and maintain, designing an expansion that would be visually consistent with island architecture, and a plan that would allow residents and visitors to enjoy this beautiful piece of property. Creating a space that would be home-like and inviting for residents—with shared community spaces and opportunities for privacy was also key.

Click here to view our Frequently Asked Questions page.

Planning Process
Three other year-round island communities have small, state-licensed assisted living facilities: the Ivan Calderwood Homestead on Vinalhaven, the Boardman Cottage on Islesboro, and the Island Commons on Chebeague. Some facilities, like Islesboro’s Boardman Cottage, also provide in-home support, day programs, hospice, and respite care to year-round and summer residents.

A sustainable business plan is essential, and learning from the experiences of the three other offshore island facilities and experts in the development and operation of small long-term care facilities was extremely important. The pitfalls, challenges, improvements, and financials of the other facilities proved essential to launching a sustainable and well-planned concept.

Adult Family Care Home
We spent a great deal of time thinking about what type of facility will sustainably serve the needs of North Haven.  Our thinking was informed by conversations with State Licensing staff, national experts, and administrators and staff members of other small rural care facilities.  In those conversations we talked about models that allow for quality care, stable funding streams, and allow residents to remain active in the North Haven community.

This facility is licensed as a six-bed adult family care home, a State of Maine term for a small community long-term care facility. These long-term care residences provide care and assistance to community members who can no longer stay in their homes because they need help with some or many activities of daily living (meals, bathing, mobility transfers, etc.)

We learned from the other islands and other rural communities that adult family care homes can meet most seniors’ needs through the end of life, including hospice care. There are some individuals with greater medical needs (like those with severe memory disorders) whose needs can’t be met in this type of facility because they need the level of skilled nursing that only a specialized nursing home provides. This island project won’t guarantee that all long-term care residential needs can be met on island, yet it will be viable option for the majority who need this care and want to stay on the island.

SHES currently operates a caring, community-integrated long-term care facility where staff is largely from the island, community members are engaged regularly as visitors and volunteers, and residents enjoy respect and the highest quality of life possible in their final years. The facility is licensed by the State such that eligible residents can receive MaineCare (Medicaid) support.

Financial Planning for the Future

Our goal was to create a facility that would be sustainable over time.  The challenge for small, long-term care facilities serving entire communities is that many of the residents are paid for by MaineCare (Medicaid) and the current reimbursement rates cover approximately 50% of what it costs to maintain a quality program for a resident. We assumed that the mix of residents would vary, but the projected budget scenario assumes that four of the six beds are paid for by MaineCare, as we felt it was best to plan for the most challenging budget conditions. We then began to make sure we could care for all community members, regardless of their ability to pay.

One important goal of this campaign was to launch North Haven’s eldercare facility on the best possible financial footing, assuring its success for the future, and reducing the scope of the future annual fundraising to a limited amount.

To view a detailed informational booklet on the project, please click here to view the PDF.  For more information, we welcome you to read through our Frequently Asked Questions document or check out the Southern Harbor House website. Thank you for your interest and support!