B.C. earmarks $354M to help seniors stay in their homes

Health Minister Adrian Dix laid out details in Victoria last week for $354 million in funding over three years to expand programs to keep more seniors living at home. The funding was part of the provincial budget unveiled last month.

In a news conference at the James Bay Community Project, Dix said community-based seniors’ services, delivered by non-profit agencies, and home health services, delivered by regional health authorities, will be enhanced to benefit seniors and take pressure off long-term care and assisted-living homes.

“With more seniors opting to live at home longer, we believe that means less demand than there would otherwise be for services such as long-term care, alleviating pressures in those aspects of the health-care system,” said Dix.

About 95 per cent of B.C.’s population aged 65 and older live independently, according to B.C.’s seniors advocate.

The $354 million in funding includes $227 million over three years to improve home health services for more seniors. Dix said the province will add 900 more health-care workers over three years — 400 full-time equivalent positions for community-based professional services and about 500 FTEs for homesupport workers.

“These will be nurses and social workers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, and of course, health-care assistants and home support workers,” said Dix.

“People will see improved overnight response or regular contact with a care manager and improved response to care needs that arise unexpectedly.”

B.C. seniors advocate Isobel Mackenzie said the increased funding for services is needed and welcome, but she has reservations as to how much it will help more seniors remain living independently in their homes.

“The degree to which this will address the major shortfalls in home support are unclear, as affordability is a major issue for the 70 per cent of B.C. seniors who are required to pay for their home support services — and this funding is directed to increasing the workforce,” Mackenzie said in an email.

Mackenzie said for those seniors who do receive home support, the average hours of care they receive has decreased four per cent over the past five years.

“Increasing the workforce will have a positive impact on reversing this trend,” she said.

In Mackenzie’s report on home support released last year, she noted that while the province has increased home support spending, a senior with an annual income of $29,000 in B.C. must pay $9,000 a year for a one-hour daily visit of home support, while a majority of other provinces do not charge for home support services.

As part of the announcement last week, Dix said $127 million will be invested to stabilize and expand high-demand nonmedical services that operate province-wide for seniors, such as the 93 Better at Home programs in B.C.

Better at Home, a communitybased program funded by the provincial government and managed by United Way B.C., provides seniors with access to home support services such as grocery shopping, housekeeping, light yard work, snow shovelling, minor home repairs and transportation to appointments.

Dix said increased funding will put more emphasis on social connection.