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May 18, 2024 – 7am
A Kamloops woman who fought to find long-term care for her three aging parents is warning others to prepare years in advance to care for their dwindling loved ones.
A woman who works at the Royal Inland Hospital said: “People think it's OK to introduce home health care for a few hours a day and hope nothing else happens.” iNFOnews.ca has agreed not to identify her due to the risk of impacting her work.
She fought for adequate long-term care for her father in Kelowna in 2006 and more recently for her mother and stepmother in Kamloops. She learned a few things along the way.
“My father fell off a ladder and hit his head,” she said. “He had a brain hemorrhage, which appeared to be dementia, and his health rapidly deteriorated, and then he contracted pneumonia.”
She took her father to Kelowna General Hospital. There, patients are coded according to the level of care they require. Although he overcame pneumonia, his health continued to deteriorate.
“Once the initial problem is solved, the coding is changed, the level of care is changed, you have nowhere to go. My mother is in her 80s and couldn't take care of him. You just endure and… I’m just waiting for a bed to become available somewhere.”
The woman put her father's name on a waiting list for a long-term care home in Kelowna while he waited in his hospital bed.
“They were changing the diaper, giving him an IV, and that was it.”
A few weeks later, the hospital's discharge team met with the family and told them that if they couldn't find a place for the father within 30 days, they would be charged for a hospital bed. Back in 2006, the price was $825 per month.
“We have to speak up and advocate because there is no discharge support in our health system. I couldn't afford it.”
Because the father died before the 30 days were up, the family did not have to pay for a hospital bed.
Years later, a Kamloops woman's mother-in-law was diagnosed with dementia.
“She had been showing signs for a long time, but her children refused and no one listened except for me and my husband,” she said. “In order to get her into the system, we needed to get her psychologically evaluated.”
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A year later, my mother-in-law's cognitive function had deteriorated to the point where she could no longer safely continue living at home. There was a shortage of long-term care beds in the city, so the family took advantage of what was available, allowing the mother to live independently in a retirement community for $2,500 a month.
“We sold her house and moved… but she started wandering. She went downhill and couldn't find her way and couldn't easily change direction.”
After failing a mental health assessment, it was determined that the elderly person needed residential care in a facility, but no funded bed was available.
The woman insisted on having only one private paid bed available on that side for her mother-in-law, which she got, but at a high cost.
“It was about $7,000 a month,” she said. “I calmed her down and put her on the waiting list for a funded bed. Beds are funded based on 80% of your income, so in her case it was $3,600. We waited for almost 11 months, and I called Interior Health every month to ask where she was on the waiting list.”
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After almost a year, when the family began to run out of money for the monthly payments, the woman insisted again and was able to provide funds and get her mother-in-law a bed.
“Whatever you want to leave your kids, get over it. They're going to take all the money you have.”
Her biological mother lived in an independent care facility for 16 years with the proceeds from the sale of her home until it closed in 2019, she said. Her mother lived on a pension.
“They gave us eight months to find a place, but when we said they didn't have a bed to move her to, they told us to take her to the hospital so they could take her to the emergency room.” I’m so angry because it’s so full.”
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Her mother was transferred to another care home and forced to pay large private fees until she was accepted into a publicly funded bed 14 months later.
The province has a shortage of long-term care beds, with wait times of up to two years in Kamloops and the Okanagan.
To avoid some difficulties, children of older adults should prepare years in advance and start getting their loved one's mental evaluation while they are still able to live at home. she stated.
“During the evaluation, patients are given a score that allows Interior Health to know what level of care is required,” she said. “The evaluation is repeated every six months for her, so we can track cognitive decline and prioritize patients to available beds. If your loved one is not in the system, You’re going to be so terrible.”
Women said speaking up is a good tool.
“Tell your story loud and clear. Plead and call back, plead and call back.”
Read more: Kamloops man fights to get mother with dementia into long-term care
According to Interior Health's website, admission to a publicly subsidized long-term care home requires a medical needs assessment by an Interior Health Home and Community Care Manager.
Access to long-term care services is determined based on the person's needs and risk, and requires 24-hour specialized care due to a physical disability or mental and behavioral conditions, including brain injury and dementia. Applies to adults.
Those at high risk are allowed to sign up for a temporary waiting list for a nursing home, in case a spot becomes available at their preferred facility, and remain there until their preferred facility becomes available. I can.
If long-term care is determined to be necessary after hospitalization, a care manager will assess your needs to help you return home, provide support services, and begin the access process. Those who find it difficult to return to their homes can move into a private paid long-term care facility while waiting for a publicly subsidized long-term care facility to be provided.
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