Need for more longterm care beds, subsidized living units highlighted by recent report on seniors services

BC Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt says last year saw around 6,500 seniors waiting for longterm care beds in B.C., and that is a 150 per cent increase over the past five years. The average wait time for British Columbians on the waitlist as of March 31, 2024 was 242 days, and in the Interior, that average was measured at 161 days.

“I think overall, while Interior Health might be doing better and the Interior just generally might be doing better in some ways, we simply aren’t investing enough money right now in elder care — and in seniors generally — to hit the demand that’s coming.”

Similarly, the CEO of the BC Care Providers Association, Terry Lake, says the province has made headway in its workforce development for seniors care but the capital investment isn’t there yet.

“Here in Kamloops, we’ve seen AgeCare open up over on Sun Rivers and that’s 100 beds so that’s filling the gap a little bit. But we have Overlander and Ponderosa that are outdated, and the current plan is for Interior Health to rebuild those with help from local taxpayers through the hospital board,” he says. “And you know, there are alternatives that have been used in the past and are still used today.”

For instance, Lake says the Care Providers Association says it has approached the province about utilizing an RFP process that would lower the cost and timeline to build new long term care beds.

“We’ve gone to the government, told the premier and asked the health minister to consider rather than going government built, government operated, to go out to the not-for-profit and for-profit sectors — as we’ve done for decades here in British Columbia — to do a more sustainable approach, get that housing stock on the market at a lower price, and sooner than if government builds and operates these sites.”

When it comes to Seniors Subsidized Housing (SSH), the need for more units was also highlighted in the Seniors Advocate report. Last year saw nearly 14,000 seniors apply for subsidized units in B.C., but Levitt says only six per cent of applicants actually received a unit.

“That means 94 per cent of people who are applying, aren’t getting in. And you think about other things in just general society, if that was something else and people weren’t getting in to other services, we’d be questioning if that service is being effective. What happens to the almost 13,000 people who didn’t get subsidized housing?”

The waitlist for subsidized housing did see an increase of 61 per cent over the last five years provincially, and 17 per cent of applications were waiting more than five years.

From here, the Seniors Advocate says the report will be used as part of ongoing advocacy work for seniors services in B.C., and as a way to gauge if improvements are made or if services are falling short.

And on the housing front, Levitt says increasing the supply is an obvious area that needs to be addressed to keep up with the changing demographic of B.C’s population.

“The population, currently, is one-in-five British Columbians is a senior. In ten years, it’s going to be one-in-four — 25 per cent of us will be seniors, so we’ve got to act now to make the changes that are needed,” he adds.

The read the full report, click here.

by Dylana Kneeshaw

Need for more longterm care beds, subsidized living units highlighted by recent report on seniors services

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