Brookview Residential at 740 Vernon Street in Bethel. Bethel Citizen photo by Alison Aloisio
BETHEL — When Kim Remington was training in Florida in 2011 to become a licensed practical nurse, part of the curriculum was completing clinical hours in a nursing home.
While there, Kim observed that many of the residents’ needs were not being met adequately. The experience left her wishing she could someday provide help to such people.
That opportunity came along last year, in what proved to be a silver lining in a family cloud.
Tim and Kim Remington in the kitchen of their Brookview Residential assisted living home at 740 Vernon St. in Bethel. Bethel Citizen photo by Alison Aloisio
Area natives Kim and her husband, Tim, had returned to Bethel from Florida and were working at the Ledgeview Living Center in West Paris, she as residential care director and he as head of maintenance and housekeeping. In the summer of 2018, it was announced that Ledgeview would close. Two dozen elderly people lost their home, and both Remingtons lost their jobs at the same time.
The couple had been thinking for the past five years about starting their own residential care center, and the necessity of finding new work made the time seem right.
“It pushed it into a higher gear,” Tim said.
There was also a sense of urgency as Bethel-area people who had been living in West Paris were displaced and sent elsewhere. The Remingtons wanted to offer at least some of them an alternative closer to home.
As luck would have it, Tim’s parents’ rental home on Vernon Street in Albany Township became available. After months of research and steps taken to meet state licensing requirements, in February the Remingtons opened Brookview Residential, with six beds.
The adult family care home, as it is known, offers meals, medication management and transportation, as well as assistance with such daily living tasks as showers and dressing, if needed. It does not provide nursing home-level care, and thus the residents must generally be able to stand up and get around on their own, and provide some self-care.
The home is staffed 24 hours a day.
The converted home still has that feel, offering two bedrooms upstairs and two down, with two of them semiprivate and two private. There are five residents, three of them from the Bethel area.
The Remingtons try to keep their residents as active and involved as possible. Residents and staff meet monthly and talk about interests and plan activities. They also help out in the kitchen when they want to.
The Remingtons have received applications for the sixth bed they have available, but the match must be right, Tim said. In some cases a family will visit and conclude that they wish a loved one to continue to live at home, perhaps with health care support, while in other cases care beyond what Brookview can provide is needed.
“It has to be the right fit,” Tim.
When residents are no longer able to function at a level to continue staying there, Tim and Kim help the family find the next level of care such as skilled nursing facilities in the area.
Tim said he and Kim may consider expanding Brookview to accommodate a few more people in the future, but it would require another level of licensing and administration. Whatever they do, they want to preserve the home-like atmosphere.
A former Ledgeview resident from Biddeford, Rita Rondeau, has high praise for the Remingtons.
“I like it here,” she said. “It’s like a family. And he’s a good cook.”
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