"There are over 25,000 B.C. seniors living in residential care and over 29,000 who are receiving home care. While this is only seven percent of seniors, together these two groups represent our most frail and vulnerable seniors. As such, we must ensure that we are properly monitoring their health status and their care needs. During this first year as Seniors Advocate, one of my key priorities has been to obtain and analyze information that will help us understand the needs of our most vulnerable seniors and how well we are meeting their needs. Part of this will be achieved through standardized client/resident experience surveys my office is conducting. We will be surveying all 339 publicly-funded residential care facilities and 29,000-plus home support clients, including family members. Complementing this will be the health assessment data my office has obtained and initially analyzed, with the findings in this report. This report, Placement, Drugs and Therapy…We Can Do Better, is produced as part of my mandate under the Seniors Advocate Act, to report publicly and independently on systemic issues that affect seniors. The findings in this report highlight three systemic issues I have identified:
- inappropriate placement in residential care of higher functioning seniors who could live more independently with changes to home care and assisted living;
- the overuse of both antipsychotics and antidepressants in residential care;
- the significant gap in the level of rehabilitative therapies in B.C. residential care facilities relative to other provinces."
-Isobel MacKenzie, Seniors Advocate, Province of British Columbia
