Patients with dementia sent out of region TURN TO PAGE 2
A lack of dementia beds has meant eight patients in South Canterbury had to be transferred to other regions for care up until March 2022.
A report tabled at the South Canterbury District Health Board meeting said eight people were placed ‘‘out of area’’ in March, due to dementia rest home and specialist beds being unavailable.
The same report said ‘‘demand is outstripping capacity’’ for the Needs Assessment Service Coordination (NASC) team, who assess need and allocate support services, and who had ‘‘106 overdue reviews still from 2020’’ outstanding.
SCDHB health of older persons manager Lee Cordell-Smith said the number of people sent out of area due to dementia rest home and specialist beds being unavailable fluctuates over the year.
She said since December 2021, one person had been sent out of area in December, followed by two people each in January and February and three in March. Those people were in Ashburton, Oamaru and Christchurch, said Cordell-Smith.
The SCDHB’s Talbot Park complex had previously been the only facility in South Canterbury to provide care for the highest level of dementia, known as D6.
When the SCDHB closed Talbot Park, it committed to operating the D6-level Watlington Wing
‘‘We’re just continually full.’’ Carolyn Cooper
South Canterbury Presbyterian Support Services chief executive
ward as a stand-alone unit until another operator was able to provide that service.
SCDHB reporting in 2017 showed 19 people requiring highlevel dementia care being sent outside Timaru due to the lack of beds over a period of almost two years.
Cordell-Smith said there are a total of 60 rest home dementia beds and 20 hospital level dementia beds in South Canterbury.
No vacancies are listed for dementia beds in the region using the Eldernet facility search on Friday, which is updated daily, nor are any impending vacancies indicated.
Two hospital level care vacancies were listed in South Canterbury, one each at Lister Home in Waimate and Radius Elloughton Gardens in Timaru.
Carolyn Cooper, chief executive of South Canterbury Presbyterian Support Services, which operates three rest homes, The Croft and Margaret Wilson in Timaru, and Watlington in Temuka, said there is a constant demand for dementia beds, at both rest home (D3) level and the highest level (D6).
‘‘We’re just continually full.’’ A new $2.2 million dementia wing opened at The Croft in Timaru in May 2021 did not provide any increase in available beds, Cooper said.
‘‘Remember that Talbot [Park] shut at the same time, so it didn’t increase the bed numbers, it just moved them.’’
Cooper said PSSC do not turn people away themselves, as all referrals come through NASC.
‘‘People do ring and ask us, but we refer them back to NASC to help find the bed.’’
Cordell-Smith said the 106 overdue reviews ‘‘are for people that we consider non-complex, who are receiving household management’’.
She said although the clients are overdue for reviews by the NASC team, ‘‘they are reviewed on a three-monthly basis by their Home Based Providers’’.
Cordell-Smith said the criteria set in South Canterbury for the frequency of reviews is once a year for this client group, but new national guidelines require NASC reviews once every three years.
Alzheimers New Zealand chief executive Catherine Hall said South Canterbury has less residential care beds than other parts of the country and occupancy rates for dementia beds were the highest in New Zealand by 2020, at 98%.
She said that the unfamiliarity
and isolation a move could provoke is distressing for patients and their families.
‘‘One of the things that’s really important for anyone in a rest home, and certainly for people living with dementia, is having close contact with family and friends.
‘‘If family and friends are in another centre and a long way away, they’re going to feel very isolated, very abandoned.
‘‘Depending on their dementia, they may or may not understand why that’s happening.
‘‘It’s a very very distressing situation for the person with dementia, but equally very distressing for family.’’
She said sending people out of town was unfortunately not uncommon practice, and is reflective of the inadequate services available for people with dementia, affecting residential or rest home care and community based services.
‘‘Just because you have a dementia diagnosis doesn’t mean you need to be in residential care, but residential care is really important for people who need it, and there’s not enough of either.’’
Hall said the majority – about two thirds – of dementia patients live in the community, and services for them are also overwhelmed in many parts of the country.
‘‘What we desperately need is more and better community based help available close to where they live.’’
She said the worsening crisis has been apparent for some time.
‘‘We have known for years we have an ageing population and have to get ready for that, and have also known for years that age is the biggest risk factor for dementia, so the number of older people with dementia is going to grow rapidly because our population is ageing.
‘‘None of that is a surprise, what is a surprise and a huge disappointment is that really nothing has been done in preparation for that.’’
Hall said there are also ‘‘significant staffing issues in the aged care sector’’ due to the impact of Covid, and more specifically in relation to registered nurses, ‘‘because the aged care sector isn’t in a position to pay the same type of rates as DHBs and others are paying’’.
‘‘The numbers of people living with dementia are going to more than double over the next 30 years.
‘‘We’re going to have a very big population of people that need the help and a workforce that just can’t meet the need, so this is a major crisis for us.’’
Hall said the issue of long delays for reviews from NASC is also troubling.
‘‘The system theoretically works by having those in need of help assessed.
‘‘That’s the gateway into getting help, and if you have to wait one, two, three years to get an assessment, then you’ve got lots of people living in communities around New Zealand not getting the help they desperately need – individuals and families that are really struggling and putting people under a lot of pressure that they shouldn’t be under.’’