By Ed Helfrich, BC Care Providers Association CEO
There has been a lot of ink spilled in the last decade about the various challenges our society faces with an aging population and the looming "silver tsunami".
As we turn the corner into a new decade it is time for all of us to understand that the wave has arrived. Three comprehensive reports in the last month have reaffirmed that the future tense of this discussion is becoming more out of date each day.
This month's report from the Alzheimer's Society of Canada (ASC) predicted the number of Canadians living with the disease and other forms of dementia will more than double in our generation to 1.1 million. To accommodate demand, the number of long term care beds in Canada will need to increase by over 140% - from 280,000 today to 690,000 by 2038.
Prior to the ASC study, the BC Ombudsperson released her first report on the investigation she has led into our seniors' care system over the past year. In addition to providing a thorough overview of the complex nature of residential care, Kim Carter included a list of 10 recommendations focussed on the rights of seniors and improved access to information. At the same time, she indicated that her office had never seen a response to an issue like they have on seniors' care.
The Ombudsperson's findings confirm that without increased transparency, families will remain in the dark on some of the most important decisions they will have to make in their lives. Why shouldn't seniors and their loved ones be empowered with the basic facts about our how our residential care system operates?
The Ombudsperson's list of 10 recommendations was preceded by 10 more ideas the BC Care Providers Association (BCCPA) provided to Health Minister Kevin Falcon before Christmas. This report identified a crisis in seniors care and focussed on ways to make the system safer, more efficiency and sustainable (available at www.bccare.ca).
The BCCPA report identifies achievable measures that support the Ombudsperson's focus on transparency and recommends a series of constructive ideas to renew the seniors' care partnership in BC, including:
- quickly apply new revenue to increased staffing & front-line residential care services
- establish ongoing consultation mechanism with care providers to & attack inefficient practices & develop solutions to emerging cost pressures
- fill empty residential care beds with long stay seniors waiting in acute care hospital wards
- increase emphasis on home support services
- create more training opportunities for new care aides & LPNs in BC
- finalize a single & fair administrative contract for BC care providers
The BCCPA report also challenge the status quo by questioning the practice of health authorities awarding themselves care contracts at higher rates without public tender.
This arrangement is not in the best interest of taxpayers or seniors and has resulted in unequal standards of care from one community to the next. According to the Ombudsperson's report, some care facilities are receiving as little as $95/day to deliver complex seniors care while others are receiving up to $260/day.
These three reports have sounded the alarm. Now governments have to demonstrate that they understand that the challenges of our aging society are no longer arriving at the feet of future leaders. They are knocking on the door today.
Failure to take action and make strategic investments will cost taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars more in the long run and place a crippling financial and personal burden on families.
While the scale of this challenge can be deflating, there is hope and these recent reports have identified some real solutions. In BC, our new Health Minister has demonstrated a renewed interest in listening to care providers and getting ahead of the grey wave.
But provincial efforts will not be enough. National leadership is required and all federal parties should expand their focus to the immediate challenges of our aging society - including our new federal Minister for Seniors.
A country that had the wisdom to invent our cherished national public health system can surely marshal the will and wise judgement to make sure it survives the silver tsunami landing at our door.
The BCCPA has been representing BC care providers for over 30 years. In addition to employing over 7,000 people, BCCPA members care for over 10,000 seniors each day in residential care facilities and an addition 4,000 each year through home support.
