Editor:
The following is an edited version of a letter addressed to B.C. Minister of Health Adrian Dix and shared with Coast Reporter.
While I understand the tremendous pressure everyone is under regarding accommodation for the homeless, we also have a disgraceful lack of accommodation for elders requiring care facilities.
This condition is prevalent in virtually every community across Canada. So while it isn’t just a B.C. government lack of planning in this regard, it is nevertheless terribly disconcerting to those of us endeavouring to get help for our aging population.
An example of one such poor decision is in Sechelt, where we have recently opened up a new care facility named Silverstone.
While this is wonderful, the ministry shut down two functional care facilities in the area at the same time.
This leaves us with virtually the same capacity to house elders in this area. At least one of these facilities should have been retained until further builds could take place.
We are currently filling up costly hospital rooms with three and four aged individuals being “warehoused” awaiting someone to pass on in our existing facility.
These people likely are not receiving the type of care and activity in their final years that they should be entitled to.
This doesn’t even take into account the numbers out in the community that are waiting nine months to a year to be assessed before getting a chance to get on a one-year to 18-month waiting list for a care facility.
What an indignity! It is disgusting!
Verne Bullock
Sechelt
