After being packed and ready to go, only to lose his bed at the last minute, 89-year-old Terry Barker moved into Shorncliffe Care Centre this week, in time to be with his wife for Christmas. Connie Barker, 92, has been a resident at the facility since August 2015.
The Barkers’ love story is well known to many on the Sunshine Coast. Terry, a local artist and poet, wrote about it in his 2012 collection, A Fine Romance, and its latest chapter is part of the bigger story unfolding around the future of long-term care.
It’s a happy ending, but the road to get there is an example of the frustrating and exhausting struggle some families are facing because of the shortage of long-term care beds on the Coast.
The Barkers’ daughter Shannon has been working since May to get her father into Shorncliffe.
“It was as hard to get a bed for my mother last year, so the frustration has compounded,” she said. “It starts with an assessment – that’s usually weeks. Then you have doctors’ appointments, etc. I think Dad’s been assessed three or four times since we started this process in May … and then you wait.”
She said it’s incredibly hard on the people waiting for beds, and their families. “A big part this is that they’re loading all this – advocacy, plus the care, plus the issues, plus everything – it goes onto the family members. They’re downloading all of this.”
That said, Shannon and Terry Barker have high praise for the work done by local Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) staff. “I’m a user of the system as it is right now, and I can tell you the way I’m treated up there is golden,” said Terry, who has been visiting his wife daily since she was admitted to Shorncliffe.
As Shannon sees it, the staff is in a frustrating position too.
“These are good people, and they can’t do the job. They need more beds, they are robbing Peter to pay Paul. They’re so professional, but without the tools that they need … I can’t say enough about how they manage. They know what’s going on, they know how hard it is on the caregivers,” she said. “Everybody wanted these two together for Christmas. They worked so hard.”
One thing Terry Barker had in his favour was Vancouver Coastal Health’s spousal reunification policy. “All health authorities make every effort to keep couples together wherever possible and work hard to accommodate the wishes of couples and their families,” explained VCH spokesperson Anna Marie D’Angelo. “We are extremely pleased that this client will be moving into Shorncliffe this week and spending Christmas with his wife in residential care together.”
Shannon Barker’s advice to other families trying to navigate the wait list is to be persistent, although she recognizes that not everybody has the time, energy or knowledge of the system to do that.
“There are lots of us in this position. That’s why I think it’s important to speak out,” she said. “I don’t think the government has any idea of the pressure it’s putting on people… They shouldn’t have to go through this.”
D’Angelo said VCH has a good wait list record compared to other health authorities. She pointed to the latest review from the Seniors Advocate, which found the average wait for long-term care had dropped to 23 days, and was the shortest in the province. Half of those waiting for a bed get one in seven days or less.
That doesn’t line up with the experience local doctors are reporting, however. In a letter to Health Minister Terry Lake, members of the Sunshine Coast Division of Family Practice said as of November there were about 16 patients in Sechelt Hospital waiting for a long-term care spot. The doctors said the average wait was four months, and in one recent case nine months.
The Seniors Advocate also noted a drop in the number of VCH clients who get into their preferred facility. It was just 17.6 per cent in 2015-16 (the lowest in any health authority), although a further 30 per cent manage to get transferred to their first choice later. The implication for Sunshine Coast residents on a wait list is that the most likely outcome is the offer of a bed on the Lower Mainland.
Lake’s response to the doctors was released this week. He said he supports VCH’s current strategy to close Shorncliffe and Totem Lodge and enter a deal with private provider Trellis for a net gain of 20 beds in 2018.
Terry Barker has his own thoughts on VCH’s plan.
“It’s insane to me to be tearing down two buildings that provide a place for guys like me to go,” he said. “Why would you do that? If you say on the one hand we need to build a new building because there are 20 people waiting for beds, why would you tear existing places down?”
Shannon said the responsibility for finding a solution lies with Victoria.
“The point that I would want to make if I had Christy [Clark]’s ear right now is bigger than what it took for me to get dad in. On a provincial level, these things need to be funded. We’re not serving society. We’re putting undue pressure on people, family members, resources, caregivers.”
