During a tour of the province in 2008, B.C. ombudsman Kim Carter encountered a frustrated, angry and often scared faction of the population: seniors living in residential care.
The shocking numbers of those appealing for her help prompted Ms. Carter to launch a fulsome investigation into the system that was spawning the complaints. On Tuesday, the most extensive – and disturbing – examination of the state of seniors' care in the province landed in the B.C. Legislature with the kind of thud that often portends trouble for a sitting government.
Three years in the making and more than 400 pages in length, the report is an often uncomplimentary indictment of efforts by the Liberal government to address issues that have been known about and discussed for years. In fact, two years before Ms. Carter launched her probe, the government had received a similarly themed report from a blue-ribbon council on aging and seniors' care that made several recommendations that the ombudsman would revisit in her review.
To that extent, it's not that the ombudsman's findings will strike a person as terribly revelatory, but they are certain to incite head-shaking among a citizenry that has heard the B.C. government say before that is addressing age-old problems among the province's old agers.
For instance, there remains no minimum standard of care in many facilities, it seems. On that front, Ms. Carter's report is loaded with anecdotal evidence: residential home beds soaked in urine; feces caked on bed railings; residents agreeing to go to bed at 4 o'clock in the afternoon because of a shortage of staff.
Clearly not enough is being done to crack down on homes that continue to offer what would charitably be described as sub-standard care.
Ms. Carter's report includes 176 recommendations, many of which the government said on Tuesday it would be implementing. However, the ombudsman let it be known she was disappointed the government wasn't going far enough with many of her suggestions.
Among the areas the government's watchdog is demanding action on are:
-An internet venue from which seniors can navigate the home and community care system. Among the information that seniors should be able to access is space availability at residences around the province as well as important background information on the homes;
-Consistent reporting and tracking of elder abuse and neglect;
-The protection from retaliatory action for seniors who complain in good faith about the home and community care services they receive;
-Objective and enforceable standards of care for home support services. This would include legally binding minimum requirements for assisted-living residences on staffing, residents' rights, food safety and nutrition, emergencies and record management;
-Ensuring equal treatment, benefits and protection of seniors in residential care by establishing one legislative framework that applies to all residential care facilities instead of the two that currently exist;
-Enhancing dementia and end-of-life care services in residential care;
-Helping seniors stay in their homes by assessing the adequacy of current support programs and analyzing the benefits and costs of expanding those services.
As we say, many of these recommendations have been made before, either formally or informally by people inside and outside the seniors' health care system. And while the B.C. government should be applauded for many moves it has made over the years to help an increasingly vulnerable part of the population, it clearly has not done enough.
And it is not a good sign that the ombudsman, who gave her report to the government some time ago to consider, already seems discouraged by the Health Ministry's response to many of her recommendations.
B.C. has 22,000 people in residential care. Ninety-five per cent are 65 years or older – 52 per cent are past the age of 85. The number in residential care is only going to increase as the baby boomers get older and require greater care.
"Our goal is for there to be consistent, province-wide standards and processes that treat seniors across B.C. in a fair and equitable manner," Ms. Carter said in her report.
That doesn't sound like too much to ask.
Gary Mason