''This report focuses on vulnerable seniors in Metro Vancouver and the Sea to Sky corridor.1 It recognizes multiple dimensions of vulnerability in order to grasp the situation of at-risk seniors and identify ways to improve their quality of life. The contents of this report are based on a review of relevant statistics and secondary literature pertaining to the quality of life of vulnerable seniors in our region, as discussed in a series of discussion papers authored by scholars and researchers from post-secondary institutions and public interest research organizations in BC.''
"Moving the problem of elder abuse up the list of public priorities and engendering a productive public conversation around the issue requires a new communications strategy. An effective reframing strategy can foster better understanding of the issue, raise its salience in public thinking, and generate support for needed policies. This report represents the frst step in a larger research project to develop such a strategy. The project is funded by Archstone Foundation and the John A. Hartford Foundation, and is managed by Laura Robbins of Laura A. Robbins Consulting. The FrameWorks Institute is conducting this project in conjunction with a parallel collaborative project on reframing aging. The project on aging is in partnership with the Leaders of Aging Organizations, a group administered by Grantmakers in Aging that includes the AARP, the American Federation for Aging Research, the American Geriatrics Society, the American Society on Aging, the Gerontological Society of America, the National Council on Aging, and the National Hispanic Council on Aging."
Source: The FrameWorks Institute
"This document is the first annual report from the newly established Office of the Seniors Advocate and reports on the period of April 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015. It also describes activities underway and planned for the Office of the Seniors Advocate for the period of April 1, 2015 to March 31, 2016."
"In the past year, the Seniors Advocate has met with thousands of seniors and their families in every region of the province. Among the many issues and concerns these seniors have raised and brought forward for discussion, they expressed a deep concern around the affordability, availability and appropriateness of seniors’ housing in the province...The goal of this report is to emphasize some of the most pressing housing priorities facing seniors living in British Columbia. It is focused on recommendations that are practical, realistic and have the potential to leverage significant change."
Source: Office of the Seniors Advocate
"There are over 25,000 B.C. seniors living in residential care and over 29,000 who are receiving home care. While this is only seven percent of seniors, together these two groups represent our most frail and vulnerable seniors. As such, we must ensure that we are properly monitoring their health status and their care needs. During this first year as Seniors Advocate, one of my key priorities has been to obtain and analyze information that will help us understand the needs of our most vulnerable seniors and how well we are meeting their needs. Part of this will be achieved through standardized client/resident experience surveys my office is conducting. We will be surveying all 339 publicly-funded residential care facilities and 29,000-plus home support clients, including family members. Complementing this will be the health assessment data my office has obtained and initially analyzed, with the findings in this report. This report, Placement, Drugs and Therapy…We Can Do Better, is produced as part of my mandate under the Seniors Advocate Act, to report publicly and independently on systemic issues that affect seniors. The findings in this report highlight three systemic issues I have identified:
- inappropriate placement in residential care of higher functioning seniors who could live more independently with changes to home care and assisted living;
- the overuse of both antipsychotics and antidepressants in residential care;
- the significant gap in the level of rehabilitative therapies in B.C. residential care facilities relative to other provinces."
-Isobel MacKenzie, Seniors Advocate, Province of British Columbia
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