Latest news with #DanLevitt
The Province
5 days ago
- Health
- The Province
B.C.'s failure to fund home care driving premature moves to overwhelmed senior-care facilities, experts warn
Unlike Ontario and Alberta, where home care is free, B.C. charges $10,000 a year for a senior making $31,000 a year to get only one hour of care a day Seniors advocate Dan Levitt's most recent report found that 12.5 per cent of seniors admitted to long-term care homes could have stayed in their own homes if they had got support to do so. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO / PNG As B.C. struggles to keep up with increasing demand for long-term care beds, the NDP has failed in recent years to move the needle on helping more seniors stay in their homes, advocates say. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Seniors advocate Dan Levitt's most recent report found that 12.5 per cent of seniors admitted to long-term care homes could have stayed in their own homes if they had got support to do so. Yet the cost of home care remains prohibitive for many families. Unlike Ontario and Alberta, where home care is free, B.C. charges $10,000 a year for a senior making $31,000 a year to get only one hour of care a day. This has led to a 10 per cent decline in the number of seniors receiving home care over the past five years. 'We recommended that they eliminate the copayment altogether, but especially for people who are on the waiting list for long-term care, because we know that in jurisdictions like Alberta or Ontario where they don't have the copayment, people aren't moving into long-term care prematurely,' Levitt said. Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Levitt's report said the unaffordability of home care is increasing the strain on B.C.'s long-term care system, which is already facing a shortage of 2,000 beds and has a waiting list that has soared past 7,200 people. The advocate also found that housing a senior in a publicly subsidized long-term care home costs the province over $100,000 annually, compared to home care at $15,000 a year. 'We need to at least keep up with the demographics, because we're falling behind. And when we think about long term care, we may be able to bend the curve a little bit on demand. Really, it would be fractional compared to the number of beds that will be required for seniors who need long-term care.' The previous seniors advocate, Isobel Mackenzie, who has 20 years of experience in home care, said Thursday that the government has, for the most part, raised the amount spent on home care only by the rate of inflation, which is not enough for the increasing population of seniors. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. She said the focus should be on directly funding families to take care of their loved ones, which will help the government save money in the long term. 'There's no doubt that the we are going to need a lot more long-term care beds than the government currently is projecting to build,' said Mackenzie. 'We still could reduce the demand by looking at what would keep people out of long-term care. And what would keep them out of long term care would be high intensity care at home.' In 2023, Mackenzie found that 61 per cent of seniors didn't have access to home care in the 90 days before their admission to a long-term care home, despite the province spending $693 million on home care and related supports in the 2021-22 fiscal year. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Mackenzie estimated then it would cost the government $14,000 a year to provide an hour of home support a day to a senior while it then cost $60,000 annually to house a single senior in a long-term care facility. Budget 2025 greatly increased the amount directly spent on home care, from $45 million in 2024-25 to $146 million in 2025-26 and $163 million in 2026-2027. In a statement, the Ministry of Health defended its spending on both home care and long-term care, stating that it had increased the budget for long-term care to over $2 billion in 2023 and allocated $354 million over three years as part of the 2024 budget to expand home care, including $227 million to 'improve (the) quality and responsiveness' of home care and $127 million for services that provide non-medical supports. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. It said it has also spent $175 million on respite care and adult day services over the last five years and signed the Aging with Dignity bilateral agreement with the federal government in 2023, which will give B.C. $733 million over five years to spend on old-age supports. 'With more seniors opting to live at home longer, we believe that means less demand than there would otherwise be for services such as long-term care, alleviating pressures in those aspects of the health-care system,' said then health minister Adrian Dix in 2024. Mackenzie had told the Times Colonist following the announcement of more money for home care that she was concerned the funds were being used to increase staffing but not to reduce the costs for seniors to receive home care. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. This concern has borne out, says Brennan Day, Conservative seniors' health critic, with the percentage of seniors unable to get home care largely unchanged from 2023. 'They expect to lower the number of beds required by increasing home support and keeping people at home. But we haven't actually seen that play out in any meaningful way.' Jeff Moss, executive director of the Jewish Seniors Alliance of B.C., said the lack of seniors care is not new but that he is worried that decades have passed with no government implementing a solution. He said 65 per cent of Canadian seniors live on under $65,000 a year and can't afford the types of care that are offered in the province. 'We can't keep punting this down the road. We need to be able to address it, to actually deal with the crisis that we're in with the growing seniors population over the next 15 years,' said Moss. alazenby@ Read More For more health news and content around diseases, conditions, wellness, healthy living, drugs, treatments and more, head to – a member of the Postmedia Network. News Vancouver Whitecaps Sports Local News Vancouver Canucks
Vancouver Sun
02-08-2025
- Politics
- Vancouver Sun
B.C. NDP has promises to keep, but no money to spend
VICTORIA — The New Democrats face increasing pressure to live up to their commitments on long-term care for seniors, child care for families, and safeguards for children in government care. The most recent push came this week from the B.C. seniors advocate, Dan Levitt. He warned that seniors on the waiting list for long-term care facilities are clogging hospital beds and ER waiting rooms. The number of seniors on waiting lists for publicly funded long term care has tripled under the NDP, from 2,381 the year before they took office to 7,212 currently, Levitt reported. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. Premier David Eby defended the government's performance, saying the New Democrats had added 5,500 spaces since taking power. Yet Levitt provided a scorecard on NDP election promises. The party's 2020 election platform promised 3,315 new beds and replacements for 1,755 others. To date, it has only delivered a fraction, 380 net new beds in all. The advocate identified the current shortfall at 2,000 beds. Eby professed to welcome the findings and conceded, given an aging population, 'we have to build faster, we have to build more and we have to build it more affordably to meet the demand that's out there,' Earlier this summer, the Coalition of Child Care Advocates lamented B.C.'s faltering progress on $10-a-day child care, a key promise in NDP election platforms going back to 2017. 'In 2018, because of $10-a-day advocacy, B.C. became a national leader in child care,' said spokesperson Sharon Gregson in a June 24 news release. 'That progress has now stalled. With just three years remaining in the government's 10-year plan, the province has flatlined provincial child care funding in the last two budgets, with no new provincial funds committed to achieving the promise of quality, universal $10-a-day child care by 2028.' Joining Gregson in the call was former NDP MLA Katrina Chen, who served as the NDP's minister of state for child care under Premier John Horgan. 'We need to get child care back on track in B.C.,' she said. Three weeks later came a survey from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives which found that B.C. had the most expensive child care in the country. Only 10 per cent of the province's licensed spaces met the $10-a-day standard promised by the NDP. Also in mid-July, the child and youth representative, Jennifer Charlesworth, provided a one-year update on the recommendations in Don't Look Away, her report on the horrific case ofYou saw there is a correction Colby. Colby is the name the representative gave to the 11-year-old Indigenous boy, tortured to death by the extended family members into whose care he was placed by the government. While acknowledging the province had made 'significant progress in some areas,' the representative said it still fell well short of where it needs to be in safeguarding children in care. 'We said in our report Colby's death was entirely preventable and without significant change future deaths are entirely predictable,' Charlesworth told Simi Sara on CKNW. 'Important changes have been made. But we are still in a very precarious state in child well-being and we've got a lot of work still to do before I can say with confidence that it's extremely unlikely that this kind of horrific situation would not happen again.' Charlesworth credited the New Democrats with good intentions in their response to the report. But she also flagged the main reason for the lack of sufficient progress on her recommendations. 'I am very concerned that with fiscal limitations, these good intentions will not translate into timely on the ground improvements,' the representative told Ashley Joannou of The Canadian Press. 'The government has a significant deficit, there are fiscal reviews underway, and what we worry — because we have seen it many times — that what gets cut are social programs.' One could readily adapt the same excuse for the NDP failure to deliver on child care, long-term care and any number of other programs and priorities. Premier David Eby referred this week to the 'fiscal challenges' facing his government, an understatement if ever there was one. The government is budgeting for an $11 billion deficit this year and shortfalls of $10 billion each of the next two years. Moreover, with the economy slowing and revenues faltering, the fiscal situation could get worse. In his time as premier, Eby has failed to manage the budget or set realistic priorities, instead spending as if there were no limit. Now, when he's run out of money, he faces the challenge of satisfying the expectations he and the New Democrats themselves have raised. In a column Friday on the LNG Canada terminal in Kitimat, I wrote that an LNG Canada spokesperson said 'a new facility of this size and scope may face operational setbacks.' The quote marks wrongly gave the impression of a direct quote from the company. Rather, it was a paraphrase from a story by the Reuters news agency. An LNG Canada spokesperson says the company told Reuters: 'A new facility of the size and complexity of LNG Canada requires a break-in period to stabilize, which is normal in new LNG facilities.' vpalmer@
Vancouver Sun
31-07-2025
- Health
- Vancouver Sun
Opinion: I do not want to spend my waning years staring out a window in an LTC facility. Is there an alternative?
The number of seniors on waitlists for publicly subsidized long-term care (LTC) in B.C. has increased from 2,381 in 2016 to 7,212 in 2025. That's a whopping 200-per-cent increase. Dan Levitt, B.C.'s senior advocate, has called on the government to invest in the creation of 16,000 new LTC beds, at an estimated cost of $16 billion, to offset the needs of an aging population. By 2036, almost a quarter of Canada's population will be over 65. But here's the thing. Seniors don't want to be sequestered in LTC. When I worked as a private caregiver in LTC, I never met one person happy to be there. I personally do not want to spend my waning years staring out a window in an LTC facility watching the world go by. And while proponents will highlight social interactions, activities, and the peace of mind of medical care to match needs, the reality is that LTC is not a home with familiar surroundings and a lifetime of memories. A daily roundup of Opinion pieces from the Sun and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of Informed Opinion will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. I am not alone. The 2024 Ageing in Canada Survey by the National Institute on Ageing reveals that 91 per cent of older adults in Canada would prefer to age at home. In Quebec, a 2021 study found that government costs for long-term care services delivered through home care would be less expensive than services delivered in LTC settings. Of course, B.C. is not Quebec, but as a general rule in most provinces, individuals pay rates based upon taxable annual income and services required — community nursing, meal support, etc. As care needs increase, so do costs. Private agencies can fill gaps in care support, but often their services are not covered by public monies. For those unable to continue to afford the high costs of private health care, publicly funded LTC often becomes the solution. It is the hardest decision any family can make. It was heart-wrenching when my father found himself in LTC as his needs grew beyond what home support could offer. In fairness, progress on the home care front has been made in B.C., but it is slow. The Vancouver Coastal Health Visits to Vancouver's Elders initiative , for example, has, since 2008, been providing integrated home-based primary care, nursing and rehabilitation services to a diverse population of moderate to severely frail homebound older adults. And last December, the Office of the B.C. Seniors Advocate released its Monitoring Seniors Services Report in which it reported that the Better at Home Program, which delivers transportation, housekeeping, meal programs and non-medical services to help seniors living at home was indeed providing more aid to seniors, but alongside this, the waitlist had increased 56 per cent over the past five years. These programs matter. According to a 2022 report by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, one in 10 newly admitted LTC residents potentially could have been cared for at home if there were supports in place. Just a note that one bed in an LTC facility, according to Levitt, costs the government $1 million annually. For a while, during the early days of the COVID pandemic, the conversation on how to improve elder care was top of mind. In Quebec and Ontario, as the army moved in to care for neglected seniors in LTC, our collective hearts ached and politicians made promises. But the discourse ended. Maybe it's time to revive it. Is investing in more LTC beds the answer — maybe, but what if the vision of the National Seniors Council became a reality? The council was created to look at strategies and recommendations for Canadians to age at home. Their final report in 2022 envisioned a country where everyone can maintain a quality of life as they age, with access to public funds and support to help offset the cost of aging at home. Jennifer Cole is a Vancouver-based freelance writer with a particular interest in senior issues related to long-term care, having worked as a private caregiver.
The Province
30-07-2025
- Health
- The Province
B.C. seniors advocate warns lack of long-term care spaces contributes to overburdened health-care system
Seniors advocate Dan Levitt found the number of seniors reporting to hospitals is up 26% as waiting list for long-term care beds has soared to over 7,000. Seniors advocate Dan Levitt. Photo by NICK PROCAYLO / 10104839A Seniors unable to get into long-term care facilities are clogging up hospital beds and ER waiting rooms as the province struggles to cope with a rapidly aging population and a decades long underinvestment in old-age care, according to a new report from B.C.'s seniors advocate. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Exclusive articles by top sports columnists Patrick Johnston, Ben Kuzma, J.J. Abrams and others. Plus, Canucks Report, Sports and Headline News newsletters and events. Unlimited online access to The Province and 15 news sites with one account. The Province ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles and comics, including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors The number of seniors languishing on waiting lists for publicly subsidized long-term care exploded from 2,381 in 2016 to 7,212 in 2025 — a 200 per cent increase, seniors advocate Dan Levitt wrote in his report. The average waiting time for a space also increased by 98 per cent since 2018, from 146 to 290 days. He said the province currently has a shortage of 2,000 long-term care beds and would need to build 16,000 by 2036 to meet anticipated demand. 'Here's the real cost of the wait times. It's going to put more pressure on the emergency departments,' Levitt told reporters in Victoria on Tuesday. 'If you go to the hospital expecting to be seen in emergency, you're going to wait longer. It's going to affect everyone, not just the seniors waiting for those long-term care beds. Essential reading for hockey fans who eat, sleep, Canucks, repeat. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'And if a senior does go into emergency and gets seen and gets a bed, well, they'll be occupying a bed in that hospital, which will further delay and perhaps cancel some surgeries because they're waiting in a bed that would have been used for somebody recovering from surgery.' According to Levitt, the number of patients in hospital who can't be discharged because there is no alternate form of care available to them has grown 21 per cent since 2015, with seniors accounting for 80 per cent of those cases overall. Additionally, visits to emergency departments by seniors has grown by 26 per cent over the past decade, worsening the issues of overcrowding in ERs across B.C. Premier David Eby said his government has built, replaced or added 5,500 long-term care beds since coming to power in 2017 but acknowledged the government needs to do more. The NDP's 2024 election platform promised an additional 5,400 long-term care beds. However, no timeline has been attached to that promise. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'The minister of infrastructure is currently having a look at how we deliver long-term care beds to be more cost-efficient, given the huge demand that we know is out there,' said Eby. 'We have to build faster, we have to build more and we have to build it more affordably to meet the demand that's out there.' Levitt pointed out that the government promised to build 3,315 new beds and replace 1,755 others during the 2020 election but so far has only succeeded in installing 380 of those new beds with only six of the 30 projects complete, and the vast majority of the new and replacement beds aren't expected to come online until 2028 or 2029. Even with the new beds, however, Levitt said the number of long-term care beds per 1,000 seniors is still expected to fall to 41 from 58 by 2035-36. That number has already fallen from 77 in 2015-16. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Recommendations put forward by Levitt include requesting that the Infrastructure Ministry to expand the number of new beds being funded through 2031 and asking the Health Ministry to improve community-based supports. In a statement, the Health Ministry said it's allocating $354 million over three years for seniors supports, including $227 million for home health services. Mary Polak, CEO of the Care Providers Association of B.C., says that the current government process for building new long-term care facilities isn't effective and, in some cases, greatly increases the cost. For example, the F.W. Green Home redevelopment project in Cranbrook has faced a $75 million cost overrun, according to reporting by The Cranbrook Daily Townsman, with the project now costing $232 million for 150 beds. That comes out to just over $1.5 million per bed. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Polak said the government also needs to recognize that if it wants to get a handle on some of the challenges it's facing in the health-care system as a whole, then investing more in seniors care, whether that be new beds or other services such as home care and respite support, is a good way to start. 'I'm hopeful that when they start to ask themselves where they can invest that will have the greatest impact across the system, they will look at this report and realize that those investments into long-term care for seniors are their best bet for having a positive impact on the acute care system and emergency rooms across the province,' she said. Brennan Day, Conservative critic for seniors health, said successive governments, both the NDP and the B.C. Liberals, have neglected long-term care for years and the province is now reaping the consequences of that. He said the problems in seniors care go even further then long-term care, however, with 60 per cent of seniors not able to access home care when they need it. 'There's reports going back as far as the early 2000s warning the government they needed to build-out these facilities to ensure that they had a plan for when the baby boomers aged out and into care,' said Day. 'Unfortunately, successive governments kicked this can down the road, and we are where we are.' Read More News Vancouver Whitecaps Vancouver Canucks Golf News
CBC
29-07-2025
- Health
- CBC
Why are B.C.'s seniors waiting an average of 10 months to get into a long-term care home?
B.C. Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt says B.C. will need almost 16,000 new beds by 2036 in order to meet growing demand. He says the shortage is due to a lack of investment from the province, particularly with building new care homes in response to looming demand from the aging baby boomer population. On BC Today with host Michelle Eliot, he responds to a caller who had to care for her elderly mother while wait-listed for a long-term care home. He says caregiving and financial responsibility have shifted to family caregivers.
