Q&A talks with Tyson Francis Belanger, owner and director of Shady Oaks Assisted Living.
Q. Can you describe your business?
A. Shady Oaks Assisted Living is an assisted-living facility that provides nursing care in a home-like setting. We help 42 disabled seniors — 60% of whom use wheelchairs.
Ninety-five percent of our clients never need nursing homes. We are more affordable than 24/7 home care, better staffed than other assisted-living facilities, and more home-like than nursing homes.
Check out the other 2024 SBA Award winners
Q. How did you get into this business?
A. America has a senior-care crisis — 24/7 home care is unaffordable; most assisted-living facilities are overwhelmed and understaffed; nursing homes feel too much like hospitals. America’s seniors need an affordable, strongly staffed, home-like alternative. This ‘trinity of need’ defines the moral and professional mission of Shady Oaks Assisted Living.
My parents built Shady Oaks in 1976. My grandmother lived and worked here for 25-plus years. My aunt served 21 years as a supervising nurse. My brother and his wife led major improvements. Seven of my family members lived here.
I bought the home in 2016. I feel a duty to help.
Q. What’s been your biggest accomplishment?
A. Our biggest accomplishment was protecting our residents from COVID-19. During spring 2020, 17 staff and I lived and worked here, bubbled on-site, for 10 weeks. Meanwhile, COVID killed 59 residents in Bristol nursing homes. After our bubble, we used KN95 masks, air purifiers and frequent testing. Only eight residents ever caught COVID here.
Another accomplishment was strengthening our staff. We grew from three full-time nurses to five. We increased nurse-aide staffing 33%. No other assisted-living facility has our quality and quantity of staffing.
We excel at lift, memory and hospice care. While many homes struggle with high care, we thrive.
Q. What’s a major challenge your business has overcome in the past year?
A. Wage inflation was a tough challenge. In 2020, our nurse aides began at $15 per hour. They now start at $24. Nurse wages increased more than 30%. We tried hiring at lower wages, but we saw lower quality, so we kept pushing wages higher.
We also had difficult costs from COVID safety. Seventy percent of our staff has had COVID. We paid COVID-positive staff to stay home, and covered shifts by giving bonuses to healthy staff.
All this strained our home’s affordability. Nevertheless, we found ways to help at-risk residents.