Last week Norm Macdonald and constituents held a seniors tea and discussion regarding the recent investigation into seniors care in the province.
On August 21, Kim Carter, B.C. Ombudsman, announced the investigation, which will consider a variety of seniors’ care services including home support, assisted living and residential or long-term care. It will look at issues such as the standards of care and how they are established, monitored and enforced, decision making processes, including the adequacy of information provided, how decisions are communicated and how concerns about decisions are reviewed. Macdonald, MLA for Columbia River Revelstoke, said he is very pleased that the Ombudsman is holding this investigation.
“The Ombudsman is independent of government and political parties and will be able to look objectively at the situation. The discussion in Golden was an opportunity to identify problems and solutions. I believe seniors’ care is of fundamental value in Golden and it should be the same across the province.”
Macdonald said his office is available to assist people in accessing the Ombudsman’s services and he also plans to visit each of the communities in the area this September and will meet with seniors at that time.
“Seniors’ issues are important to me and I want to do what I can to assist people in being part of the Ombudsman’s investigation.”
Macdonald says that with an election coming, this is a good time to make these issues the focus of the politicians.
“When you put pressure on the government, my experience has been that you get results. I have heard consistently that people expect senior care and child care as a priority.”
Bernice Bechthold, a volunteer at the Abbeyfield House, said she sees the need for more assisted living facilities in Golden.
“At Abbeyfield we provide service to healthy seniors living alone. We are there to make sure they are getting the care that they need.”
Bechthold said that there are many seniors that require more care than those living at Abbeyfield.
“We need more facilities in this town to better accommodate the seniors that need it. More home care workers would be a good idea too.”
Interior Health representative Erica Phillips said that while attending the discussion she heard concerns from seniors regarding assisted living.
“The problem is that there are a lot of seniors that choose to live at home because they have preconceived notions of what senior care facilities are like. Because of this, they might not be getting the care that they require.”
“We need to send the message out that it is not the end of the road when moving in to a place like Durand Manor. There are a lot of great activity programs there where the caregivers encourage full and active participation of all the seniors in the facility.”
Phillips said some of the other concerns she heard were limited access to services and long waiting lists for hip and knee surgeries.
Phillips encourages residents of the community to make their concerns known to the Interior Health office at the hospital, especially if they are concerned about a particular person they feel is in need of extra help or care.
“Ten phone calls about the same person is better than us having no knowledge of them at all.”
With regards to lack of space in assisted living facilities in Golden, Phillips said that Interior Health is meeting the requirements of the capacity of beds available to the seniors in the community according to the government requirements.
“We recognize that there are seniors in the community who think there should be more.”
If people do have concerns, Phillips said the Interior Health employees want to be able to do everything that they can. There is a Home and Community department at the hospital where a full list of services for seniors is available.
“We have heard many concerns today,” said Joy Orr, constituency assistant to Macdonald.
“There are housing issues, aging in place, couples being split up due to different needs of health care and financial issues when seniors are forced out of their homes.”
Orr said it can be difficult for seniors to approach a politician regarding their concerns.
“Imagine some of them are already going through difficult and stressful times so add having to deal with politicians to that.”
Orr said there are still some major gaps in the system though there have been improvements over time.
“The Liberal government made massive cuts in beds in 2002 and we have seen a small return since then, but the guidelines for beds are made up by the government. B.C. has the poorest ratio of number of beds to seniors that need them.”
Orr said that is what the meeting was all about.
“We wanted to have this meeting to make it easier on the seniors that would like to have their voice heard. We had people here today who, we hope, can spread the information by word of mouth to their friends. We don’t want to see a person being pushed out of the community because their needs cannot be met here.”
“Seniors care in a rural community is quite different,” said Orr, “and we want [Kim] Carter to hear about rural-specific issues.”
The Ombudsman’s office says it has already responded to more than 50 individual complaints about seniors’ care that its received since the investigation was announced. The office has received complaints about neglect in care facilities, accessibility of services, placement decisions, separation from spouses and the closure of facilities. Carter said she decided to launch the systemic investigation in response to these complaints, and after meeting with a number of seniors’ groups about their concerns.
In a recent press release Carter said, “Seniors are part of a generation that had to do without and overcome adversity, so they may be less inclined to complain. Some seniors may be unable to complain effectively because of their physical or mental challenges, or may be reluctant to do so because they feel vulnerable.”
As part of the investigative process, the Ombudsman has posted a questionnaire about seniors’ care at www.ombudsman.bc.ca, to which the public is invited to respond in confidence. People who have a specific complaint about seniors’ care services may submit a complaint online or by calling 1-800-567-3247.