Editor:
Over and over the “shocking plight of seniors in for-profit care facilities” has been published. Have any of these nay-saying people taken a tour of the facilities that seniors are enduring while they wait for a space? Take a walk through the third floor of the hospital! The staff are trying their best to make the people on that floor happy with a monumental lack of mental comfort available; for instance, there is no way to hook up any television in the individual rooms. Those people can look at four walls or sit in the hallway and watch those who are able to walk up and down. There is a common room available with one large television (set on a single station), tables and chairs for those able to eat their meals in the company of others, and puzzles to put together. A worker comes and talks to those who are there and tries to find some sort of entertainment for them.
Then let’s move over to Totem. More activities are available for those able to take part in the main room. However, most of the rooms are four-bed wards with little privacy. There is a long waiting list to move to Shorncliffe. Some have been waiting for over a year. There is no space in the wards to have anything personal larger than a paperback book.
I am fully aware that Trellis will not be perfect, but something is needed now. It would have been built by now if everyone had cooperated. Will that be enough for our aging population? I doubt it, but at least it just may be a step in the right direction.
Staff bears a huge burden with antiquated space and a “full house” with more people on the waiting list. According to the newspaper, wages and positions have been worked out long ago for staff at Trellis. I agree with Shirley Fearnley (“Goodbye, Sechelt,” Letters, Feb. 14): something needs to be done NOW.
Martha Scheel, West Sechelt
