Principles
1. The basic purpose of our health care system is to provide citizens with necessary medical services, regardless of age, on the basis of need, not ability to pay.
2. For seniors who are physically frail or cognitively impaired, the personal care they require is a medically necessary service.
3. All Alberta seniors have a right to age with dignity, respect and freedom from physical, mental, or financial harm.
4. The dignity and wellbeing of seniors is a concern not just of individuals and their families, but is also a matter of public interest and responsibility.
Strategies
1. Residents of seniors’ care facilities and their families must be consulted on the nature and quality of staffing and services and on the development and evaluation of policies that affect them.
2. It is essential to distinguish between the accommodation of seniors,forsome portion of which they are financially responsible, and the care of seniors, which is the responsibility of the publicly funded health care system.
3. Regardless of the venue in which it is offered, the cost of both the medical and personal care required by frail seniors (those with physical and cognitive impairment), and the cost of prescription medications for seniors with chronic medical conditions, should be fully paid by the province as though offered in an acute care or auxiliary hospital.
4. While the “aging in place” strategy is desirable for many seniors, it requires that full support services, including an adequate number of fully qualified home care staff, be provided as a normal part of public health care services.
5. The number of full service nursing homes (long-term care facilities), with adequate and fully trained nursing and other staff must be increased to accommodate the growing population of aging seniors with cognitive or physical impairment.
6. The province must stop converting long-term care facilities, with the full nursing and care services they provide, into supportive and assisted living facilities that do not provide such services.
7. The government should require all seniors’ care facilities (lodges, apartment complexes, other supportive living environments and long term care facilities) to establish patient/family advisory councils.
8. An independent seniors advocate is required to provide personal assistance to seniors in distress in navigating the seniors’ resource system. Data collected will improve the integration between the many seniors care services operated by the various departments of the federal, provincial and municipal governments, non-government agencies, voluntary organizations, corporations and private operators.
9. All seniors care facilities, including private group homes, should be subject to unannounced inspections on an annual basis.
10. The province must establish and publicly promote standards that provide quantifiable levels and qualifications of staffing and care to be provided in each category of seniors care facility, whether publicly or privately funded, and must provide the resources and commitment to enforce those standards.
11. Seniors who are assessed by qualified medical practitioners as requiring medical care or personal care such as feeding, bathing, etc., must be provided such essential care as part of the publicly funded health care system, regardless of where they may be within the continuing care system (home, supportive or long term care facility).
