Seniors

This op-ed was originally published in the Edmonton Journal, May 18, 2017

EDMONTON—Family members with loved ones in care in Hinton were joined this morning by Public Interest Alberta Executive Director, Joel French, and Friends of Medicare Executive Director, Sandra Azocar, to call on the provincial government to take action to support Hinton residents in need of long-term care.

EDMONTON - Today the Parkland Institute issued a new report, Losing Ground: Alberta's Residential Elder Care Crisis, which shows a clear need for reforms of Alberta’s seniors’ care system.

If the appointment of Kwong See is not followed by a redefinition of the role, the advocacy positions described as a “work in progress” may turn out to be a tragically missed opportunity.

"There is a group of Albertans being treated as second-class citizens. They have a second-class illness and get second-class treatment in our so-called universal health-care system. How else can you describe a health-care system that either refuses to treat or knowingly aggravates a patient’s condition.

We have received a very powerful story from an Albertan whose experience having a mother in the continuing care and hospital system shines a light on the need for major changes to be made. She is an 85-year-old woman with dementia who has been moved several times between facilities in Calgary.

Yesterday, Public Interest Alberta's Seniors Task Force Chair Noel Somerville spoke to the Calgary Sun about the lack of delivery of some $245 million desperately needed dollars to over 80,000 low-income seniors through the federal Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) program. GIS is supplemental income support for low-income seniors in addition to the Old Age Security Pension from the Canadian Government.

Public Interest Alberta's Seniors Task Force has put together a new MLA Briefing Document to help interested Albertans to meet with their provincial representatives to advocate for changes to seniors' care, including fixing its under-funding, phasing out private, for-profit care, and ensuring care is properly regulated and monitored. 

"Alberta’s continuing care facilities have a patchwork of ownership models. While these facilities are all funded by public money, they are owned and operated either publicly, through Alberta Health Services and its subsidiaries (CapitalCare in Edmonton and Carewest in Calgary), or privately, by both non-profit organizations and for-profit corporations."

"The Prentice government's pre-election budget would have resulted in larger class sizes, fewer students enrolling in post-secondary education, less capacity in our health care system, and seniors losing their drug benefits," said Joel French, Executive Director of Public Interest Alberta."