Source: Vancouver Sun
Moving into a residential care home is a huge, often traumatic step for seniors and their families. By definition, it comes at a time when people are less able to look after their own interests.
So, family members are often involved in both the decision to move to residential care and ensuring that their parents, aunts or uncles will get the best quality of life possible under difficult circumstances.
When Vancouver Sun reporter Chad Skelton looked into residential care in British Columbia last year, he found an appalling lack of information available about the quality of care provided by publicly-funded facilities. Using B.C.'s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, he was finally provided with data that showed cause for concern -- reports of what the government considers high risk institutions that families have a right to know about before deciding whether to place a loved one.
Following the Sun stories, B.C.'s Ombudsman -- now officially the Ombudsperson-- asked British Columbians to contact her with their concerns.
The result, she said in a report released last week, was the largest response to any issue ever raised by her office.
The complaints ranged from lack of information, delays in access to medical help and poor food.
Since the Sun stories and the Ombudsman's investigation began, the government has acted on some of the issues. They have brought in a patient's bill of rights and started posting facility inspection reports on a government website. In her report last week, however, Ombudsperson Kim Carter complained that the government isn't doing enough to address a number of issues she has raised, including setting up a single website where seniors and their families can get the information they need to make informed decisions about care facilities.
For the growing number of seniors and their families, the issue here is simple. They should be able to find behind a single doorway both the information and access to services that they need.
The information needs to be couched in language that makes sense to families in a time of great stress, not just to bureaucrats.
What facilities are available in my community? How do I figure out what kind of facilities offer the best home for my loved one? Are there waiting lists? How long? What happens if we turn down a bed that is offered? Who do we talk to about the suitability of a facility? Where are the inspection reports?
Now we have two different ministries involved in residential care and two separate pieces of legislation governing the standards facilities must meet, depending on what category they fit into.
Such bureaucratic divisions may make sense from the government's point of view, but families shouldn't have to hire professional advocates to find their way through a bureaucratic maze on their behalf.
