Affordable housing isn’t in place for seniors who need home support and have complex health needs, says seniors advocate Dan Levitt
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While Gwendolyn Deraspe was returned to Ridge Meadows Hospital after the director of the DTES Women’s Centre said there was no space for her, senior’s advocate Dan Levitt says this was not an isolated case.
“Our office hears stories like this from families where seniors are discharged from the hospital, they feel the process wasn’t smooth, particularly when the senior has complex health and housing needs,” said Levitt.
“When we hear stories like this, it’s very concerning because that affordable housing isn’t in place for seniors who need home support and have complex health needs. Seniors have the right to health care and housing support when they’re going home from hospital.”
He said there were 13,000 seniors on a waiting list for subsidized housing as of March and about 40 per cent had been waiting for more than two years. A further 17 per cent had been waiting for five or more years.
Health Minister Josie Osborne was not made available for an interview Thursday but in a statement said: “Fraser Health has apologized to the patient and her family for the distress they have experienced, and I would like to extend my apologies to her and her family as well.” Osborne added the case is under review.
She said that Deraspe “is receiving care and support at the Ridge Meadows Hospital and Fraser Health is connecting her with housing supports to ensure a safe discharge is co-ordinated when appropriate.”
Deraspe’s son-in-law, Jim Caya, said Thursday he met with the director of Ridge Meadows Hospital and was satisfied with the response. Deraspe is able to stay at the hospital so she can receive care for several medical conditions, including cataracts, heart disease and mobility issues.
Caya also hopes she will be able to get cataract surgery, which would allow her to have more independence. In the meantime, he said he’s trying to find an immigration lawyer to take her case pro bono so she can access B.C. health and housing services.
“She doesn’t need to be in hospital, she doesn’t want to be in hospital, but it’s where she can get the care she needs,” he said. “We are happy to be moving forward.”
Caya is married to Deraspe’s daughter, Maria, and the couple is not able to house her, physically or financially. Deraspe was born in the U.K. in 1938, and moved to Canada in 1994 to be closer to her daughter and grandchildren.
Shortly after arriving, she met and married Jim Deraspe, a Canadian citizen, and the pair lived together first in the Tri-Cities and then with his son in Cranbrook until Jim died suddenly in July. Jim had been caring for Deraspe.
Green Leader Sonia Furstenau said she hears frequently about members of her community having similar experiences to Deraspe.
She said a “recurring theme” of reports by Levitt and his predecessor Isobel Mackenzie has been a lack of planning for an aging population.
“The best starting place is being able to support seniors in their homes, the least expensive option, but in cases like this with vulnerable seniors, I shudder to think of us as a society that drops people off outside of shelters.”
Conservative Health critic Anna Kindy said Deraspe’s situation is the result of a lack of seniors housing and long-term care homes, overcrowded hospitals and affordability challenges.
She believes the situation will only get worse.
“Our hospitals are at 150 per cent capacity, and about 15 to 20 per cent of the beds are what’s called alternate level of care. So what that means is the bed is taken up by somebody who’s ready to be discharged,” said Kindy.
“Often it’s elderly folks waiting for placement in care homes, like a long-term care home or some other transitional bed. And since those beds aren’t available, some of them languish in hospital for a long time. So the hospital, there’s always that pressure of discharging patients.”