Senior's News Archive

Federal, Provincial and Territorial (F/P/T) Ministers Responsible for Seniors agreed to focus on four priorities by working with their respective provincial, territorial and federal colleagues. These priorities are: championing innovative responses to the needs of seniors in the areas of living arrangements and housing, and transportation; identifying and helping to prevent elder abuse, especially financial abuse; promoting active participation in the community through employment or volunteering; and improving access to government services and benefits.

The Ministers tasked senior officials to advance work on these priorities and report back to them.

By Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters

Measuring certain proteins in spinal fluid can accurately diagnose Alzheimer's and predict which patients with memory problems will develop the fatal brain-wasting disease, Belgian researchers said Monday.

And they may also help identify early signs of the disease in healthy people, the team reported in the Archives of Neurology.

"The unexpected presence of the Alzheimer's disease signature in more than one-third of cognitively normal subjects suggests that Alzheimer's disease pathology is active and detectable earlier than has heretofore been envisioned," Geert De Meyer of Ghent University in Belgium and colleagues wrote.

Fraser Health region received most complaints: Vancouver Island highest per capita

By Pamela Fayerman, Vancouver Sun

The Fraser Health region received the most patient complaints in the province, according to the first report of a new agency set up to improve accountability and transparency in the health care system.

But on a per-capita basis, Vancouver Island outstripped Fraser Health, receiving 2.16 complaints per 1,000 population, compared to 1.37 for Fraser Health, said Dr. Nigel Murray, CEO of the Fraser Health region.

Dr. Jack Critchley, chair of the patient care quality review boards for Vancouver Coastal Health, Fraser Health and the Provincial Health Services Agency, said communication is at the crux of most complaints.