New Beds, Old Beds, and the Election

When the liberals came in, they promised 5000 new long term care beds. Then it somehow seemed to change so that they could close some beds, and open others. Anyway, they never came near to what they promised. They also never came near to the assisted living beds that were supposed to be around.

There are not enough residential care beds. The hospitals are getting blocked up at times. People have to be pretty frail to even qualify for residential care. At the same time, home care--that is services available to help people stay at home- has been cut over the years.

What does that mean?

It means that increasingly, the burden of care is on families. So if you are working, or live out of town, and you have an elderly parent you bettter have some money or a lot of time, because there isn't a whole lot of help available.

By the way, incase you are confused, here is a bit of an explanation about the terminology.

Assited living facilities are pme wjere there is no, or minimal nursing care. People are provided with some help for their personal needs, such as washing, bathing, medication reminders, etc. There are usually recreation programmes, alert systems in rooms, and weekly housekeeping. Beyond that, people are supposed to be independent

Nursing Homes/Complex Care facilities/Extended care facilities, means that they have all of the services of assisted living, plus twenty four hour nursing.

There is another term we don't hear much of in British Columbia, usually called Congregate care. That is where there is no personal care provided. That is what a lot of the private seniors housing is, the new luxury places, and the older seniors apartments. If you want personal care you either have to pay for it, or if you are too needy, you will have to move.

The second category is where all of the bed closures have been, and these have been closed by the hundreds (Remember St. Vincent's Hospital? Gone the way of the dodo bird) They have not been replaced by any thing nearthe numbers promised or needed.