February 6 2015 I attended “System for Change for Seniors Care” presented by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives & BC Health Coalition.

I would like to share what I have learned with the community. In the first part of the conference I had a chance to hear Kim Carter our B.C. Ombudsperson speak. I was happy to hear that her office is still in place monitoring the government on Seniors Care. She has presented the government with 176 commendations. It has agreed to look at all but two of them. My hope is that the government will do more than look on them but act on them. We still have access to the Ombudsperson.
www.ombudsperson.bc.ca or call 1- 800-567 -3247.

The government has appointed a new Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie. I had a chance to listen to her speak and even though I do not agree with everything she says, it looks like we will be heading in the right direction. She did talk about services for Seniors but one of the concerns we all had was how they access them. Most of this information is on line and difficult for seniors who do not have a computer to access this information. I encourage people to contact her office.
info@seniorsadvocate.bc.ca or call 1-877-952-3181

In the afternoon we had a chance to break into groups and attend different sessions. I attended the transit session. There is a clear divide between urban and rural. The one thing that was promoted was walking and here in Oliver we can promote this. With walking we will need more benches for rest stops. The benches should have a arm rest to assist people to stand up. I have noticed that we do have benches but we can always use more.

The last session I attended was residential care. What I heard is there is a growing concern about staffing ratios across the province. This group would like to see this standardized Levels of care are different in every facility. There is some good resources that comes from the U.S. talking about 4.1 hours of care being an acceptable level in residential care. I also heard that we are sometimes not good at looking at the residents as a whole. We tend to put the social needs aside. This information came from the panel speaking.

I was glad to see that the event was sold out. It sounds like there will be more events like this one across the province and I encourage people to attend. I also encourage anyone with concerns or needing assistance to contact Kim Carter Ombudsperson or Isobel Mackenzie B.C. Seniors Advocate.

Rhonda Bruce Mattes