Another year, another report that finds the province is failing to meet its own guidelines when it comes to staffing at seniors care homes.
Except now, we’re actually losing ground. Where it was 80 per cent of care homes not providing the recommended 3.36 hours of direct care per patient, per day last year, it’s now 90 per cent.
In its defence, the province notes that it is spending $1.3 billion more per year now than it did in 2001, which would be laudable if we had the same number of seniors needing care. We don’t.
B.C.’s seniors advocate is calling for the province to increase funding to ensure our parents and grandparents are getting the help they need when it comes to the necessities and the comforts we all agree they deserve. Oftentimes, they’re vulnerable and not on a solid enough footing to advocate for themselves.
But these numbers, troubling as they are, only apply to the residents who are living in government-funded care homes now.
Outside the system, there are long waits to get in. This is going to become painfully relevant as the baby boomers go from the generation looking for safe and comfortable accommodations for the parents, to the generation trying to get crammed into the existing infrastructure.
If we want a more humane system, we need to start investing in it now. That may include more home care, which is the direction the federal government is now favouring.
The one piece of good news in the seniors advocate’s report was that the number of seniors being given anti-
psychotic medication without a diagnosis of psychosis is going down.
But, as the song goes: every silver lining has got a touch of grey.
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