Call for a Representative for Seniors

March 12 2008

Over the last number of weeks there has been a tremendous amount of media coverage of seniors care issues and the call for a Seniors Representative. Everyday seems to bring a new disclosure of seniors in care who are not receiving the care they deserve. In our own area, stories have come forward about Mt Cartier Court in Revelstoke and Joseph Creek in Cranbrook, with residents' family members saying that the number of staff assigned to care for their loved ones is simply not high enough.

As a result of this inadequate staffing ratio, seniors are missing baths, left in soiled clothes and afraid that they will fall and no one will be there to help them. Family members say the staff that provide care are wonderful, but there simply are not enough staff to manage the workload.

It is unfortunate that in British Columbia family members have to be willing to go public in order for their complaints about care to be heard. The people who have come forward recently took their complaints to the facility managers and to the health authority but their concerns were not taken seriously. They were forced to have their pictures on the front pages of their local newspapers and to have their stories told in the Legislature.

This should never have to happen. No senior should ever have his or her medical issues discussed in such a public forum in order to get proper care and no government should allow families be pushed to this place before it will even consider doing the right thing.

Last fall, Opposition Leader Carole James put forward a Private Member's Bill that would develop a new and independent office of the Legislature, a Representative for Seniors, that would monitor all aspects of senior care and work independently to address any issues that would arise. If this province had a Representative for Seniors, each of these extremely private cases of inadequate care would have been dealt with by the Seniors Representative's office in a private manner. These family members would not have had to watch the Minister of Health sneer at their concerns when they were raised in Question Period.

Every person that I have talked to has indicated that they agree: we should have a Representative for Seniors in British Columbia. Local governments from across the Kootenays have indicated their support, as have Seniors Associations.

If you think that seniors deserve the protection that a Representative for Seniors would provide, please take the time to write to Premier Campbell. Please include my office in your communication so that I can continue to press this issue on your behalf. Premier Campbell can be reached at premier@gov.bc.ca. My email address is norm.macdonald.mla@leg.bc.ca. Or call my office at 1 (866) 870 - 4188 to get mailing addresses or phone numbers.

Your voice can make a difference on this issue. Please take the time to speak out.