Twenty minutes might not seem like much time, but it can mean a lot to a senior in residential care. The provincial government wants to buy them that extra time. In the throne speech, the government pledged to increase the amount of time caregivers are able to spend with seniors.
Seniors in care should be getting three hours and 36 minutes of hands-on care every day, according to provincial standards, but, on average, that’s not happening. Island Health, for instance, is only four minutes shy of the standard in the facilities it runs directly, but contracted facilities are averaging only three hours and 13 minutes.
B.C.’s seniors’ advocate has found 85 per cent of residential care homes are not meeting the standard.
“An extra 20 minutes of care for a frail elderly person in residential care could mean a shower rather than a sponging, a bathroom visit rather than diapers or even just a conversation,” the Times Colonist’s Cindy E. Harnett reported Wednesday.
Health Minister Adrian Dix estimated 1,500 new jobs — about 900 care aides, 300 licensed practical nurses, 165 registered nurses and other health workers — would be needed. One report pegged the cost of meeting the standard at an additional $113 million a year.
The province should also look at why the publicly run homes are closer to the standard than those that are publicly funded but contracted out.
The government seems committed to bringing care up to standard. Keeping it there will be a long-term job.
