A CHALLENGE FOR THE AGES
Our seven-part series, Navigating Seniors Care, which concluded today, highlighted many of the challenges B.C. faces as our population ages. It described a system of care for the elderly that seems dysfunctional, underfunded, understaffed and hopelessly unprepared to cope with the surge of seniors expected over the next few years.
According to the 2016 census, B.C. was then home to 848,985 people over 65, roughly 18 per cent of the province’s population. The number of seniors is expected to double by 2036.
“I think with so many aspects of seniors care, the planning for this large cohort of older adults hasn’t really happened. It has never been prioritized to the point where they have the services in place,” Jennifer Baumbusch, a UBC assistant professor in nursing and an expert in long-term residential care, told our reporters.
The NDP government has taken steps to address some of the existing problems: It has budgeted $240 million to hire 1,500 care aides and nurses by 2021 to raise the number of hours of care seniors receive, and announced $75 million over three years to fund respite care and adult daycare programs to give athome caregivers a break, for example.
Notwithstanding future funding and good intentions, access to residential care and assisted living has declined by 20 per cent over the past 16 years and access to home support has dropped by 30 per cent over the same period. Hundreds of seniors awaiting spaces in residential care are occupying acute care hospital beds.
As Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie noted, the growth in residential care spaces is lagging the growth of the aging population.
Health Minister Adrian Dix has acknowledged the situation: “There is only going to be more demand,” he said. “This is why we have to take action on home and community care.”
Dix is right, of course. But finding the financial and human resources required to ensure all seniors have the end-of-life experience we would wish for ourselves is more an aspiration than realizable goal. Like so many dossiers on the government’s plate, seniors care is a bottomless pit.
Perhaps if more effort went into keeping people as healthy as possible for as long as possible, we might be better able to manage the cost of our inevitable decline.
The series is a treasure trove of useful information, complete with phone numbers of government departments, organizations and service providers that can answer questions and direct you to the help you need. Here is a link: vancouversun.com/tag/seniors.