June 1-7 is B.C. Seniors week, how will you put the focus on seniors during this week?
B.C. Seniors Advocate, Dan Levitt will be in Courtenay and will speak about “Aging at Home in British Columbia” on June 4 at the Florence Filberg Centre, from 2 to 3:30 p.m.. Admission is by donation.
We all want to age at home. As we age, the familiarity of our environment can be a great comfort. But aging, whether at home or elsewhere, is “not for sissies!” Challenges run the gamut from “I’m not buying that milk anymore, I can’t take off the new little sticker on top” to, “my husband was wandering, I did not want to put him in long term care, but I was completely physically and emotionally exhausted and now I feel saddened that we are separated.” There are both government and private programs that help the family caregiver to get a break, but they are impossibly expensive for low-income seniors.
In 2023, then-B.C. Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie made two recommendations around home support services. They were 1) eliminating the financial barrier to accessing home support and 2) increasing respite care.
The family caregiver may receive respite in the form of an Island Health worker spending time in the home with the loved one. There are also programs (day programs, hour or longer programs) that provide some respite, and where the need indicates it there is the opportunity to book up to six weeks a year in a long term care facility, so the family caregiver can get a complete break. But there is a cost to these programs.
We are fortunate to be one of the three provinces in Canada with a provincial Seniors Advocate. The role of the Seniors Advocate is to identify and raise widespread problems concerning seniors, and to a) conduct research, b) review policies and c) make formal recommendations to government. Levitt has added his voice to that of Mackenzie in making one of his recent recommendations: “Eliminate respite home support daily rate charge.”
How can we fully benefit from having a senior advocate? Attend Levitt’s talk and bring your questions and concerns related to aging at home in B.C.. Local government officials have also been invited, so there will hopefully be “ears in the room.”
Two years ago, our local municipal representatives took concerns raised here with the Seniors Advocate, to the Annual meeting of the Association of BC Municipalities and presented the recommendation of free respite care to our provincial government. On April 25, 2025, the B.C. government allocated $4.2 billion more to home care in B.C. over the next four years. But what are the specifics? Now is the time to advocate again for free home care respite for family caregivers.
Levitt’s presentation has been arranged by Comox Valley Elders Take Action with support from Senior Support North Vancouver Island.
For more information, contact the ETA coordinator, Jennifer Pass, at passj@telus.net or phone 250-334-2321 and leave a message.
Jennifer Pass is the co-ordinator of Comox Valley Elders Take Action (ETA).
