Age and illness can take a terrible toll on seniors, and the frustrating search for care for a loved one can add heartache to the burden. Last week, columnist Jack Knox explored the struggles of Bob Banner, 80, and his wife Jeanne, who have been married for 58 years.
She has dementia and has been cared for in the Priory in Langford. For nine months, he has been working to get her moved to Ayre Manor in Sooke, which is only 1.5 kilometres from the family home.
She was finally moved on Monday, but as Knox wrote, the family鈥檚 experience with the care system is far from unique.
When a parent or a spouse needs care, families have to make difficult decisions. In Banner鈥檚 case, Island Health offered five choices when Jeanne needed to move into a residential facility.
The Priory seemed the best option, even though it was not the place he wanted.
Wants, unfortunately, are outweighed by needs.
Figuring out who goes where is a difficult process because staff have to balance available beds with individual needs and the pressures on acute-care beds. They will place a person in the first bed that meets their needs. Later, that person can be moved to the place they want to go.
However, the final move, as Banner discovered, can take many months. While he had to drive from Sooke to Langford to see Jeanne, some couples end up 70 to 80 kilometres apart, says Isobel Mackenzie, the province鈥檚 seniors advocate.
People get into residential care in two main ways, from hospital and from the community. If you鈥檙e in hospital, it means you needed urgent care, but once the crisis is over, those who need residential care have to hang around the hospital until a bed comes open. Nobody thinks that is a good idea.
Patients, mostly seniors, who need residential care are taking up beds in our already-stretched acute-care hospitals. Staff put a priority on moving them to more appropriate facilities.
As a result, the average wait time for those coming from hospital is 15 days, compared to 40 days for those coming from the community.
In Greater Victoria, Island Health has 2,787 residential-care beds. Although new facilities are planned and some have been built, they are replacing older buildings, so the total number of beds isn鈥檛 changing.
The health region is spending $70 million on a 320-bed facility near Blanshard Street and Hillside Avenue to replace Oak Bay Lodge and Mount Tolmie Hospital. The new Heights at Mount View has opened to replace Central Care Home and Mount Edwards Court.
Looking after seniors in care homes is expensive. The provincial government puts about $1.8 billion into it every year.
As the population of seniors increases, that figure will have to rise, or problems such as those that faced the Banners will get worse.
Programs to keep seniors in their homes longer save money and can improve the quality of life of older people. However, at some point, most of them will need care that can鈥檛 be provided at home. Beds will have to be available.
Mackenzie is working on a special report on seniors鈥� housing that is due in April. The seniors advocate, who has no power to compel the government to act, does have a platform to speak out on seniors鈥� issues. Her recommendations could shine a light that the government will find hard to ignore.
The need for seniors鈥� care will not go away. Government, families, seniors, health regions and non-profit agencies will have to bring their best ideas to the table.
