Seniors advocate loses father Better care | Special-care, nursing home officials say dementia patients’ needs often outstrip resources ADAM BOWIE THE DAILY GLEANER Just hours after going public this week with her family’s struggles to access the appropriate care for her ailing, elderly parents, Shelly Harris’s father died, a loss she says only strengthens her desire to push for systemic changes. Last July,Harris’s mother Glenna Jones was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Because her father, Harvard Jones, had health complications as well, both parents were approved for placement in a special-care home. That was the beginning of what seemed like a nightmare for Harris and her parents. The aging couple would have to move a total of seven times over seven months, transitions that were required because of a laundry list of problems they experienced at both special-care homes and nursing homes across the capital region. There was a serious error with her father’s medications. The couple survived a fire at one facility,a blaze caused by an illegal marijuana grow-operation housed in a section of the home. Through it all, according to the doctors responsible for their care, their health quickly deteriorated. When Glenna Jones passed away on March 17, doctors told Harris that her mother’s health faded more quickly than it should have due to the stress she experienced in the system. Harris told The Daily Gleaner that her father’s death this week is also connected to the struggles her family experienced seeking care. “He lost a lot. It was hell for him, watching her deteriorate and all that they went through”she said. “He was going to die anyway.His heart was a mess. But (their struggles) didn’t help. He looked after her every night when he was in the special-care homes. He played himself out. He gave her everything he had right until the end” She said that’s why she’s launched a campaign – which can be found on Facebook by searching for A Voice For Seniors – to pressure government into reviewing access to appropriate levels of care for New Brunswick’s aging citizens and why she’s calling for more accountability in the system when things go wrong. It’s what her late father wants,she said. “He said to me (Monday) afternoon, ‘Shelly, you go after them. You’re doing a good job,’”she said. “And then, there was no warning or anything. He was just gone.” The Daily Gleaner requested an interview with Social Development Minister Madeleine Dubé on Tuesday, but was told she was unavailable. The department, which can’t respond to questions about specific cases based on privacy protections in the Family Services Act,did provide information about accountability measures for both special-care homes and nursing homes. Jan Seeley, president of the New Brunswick Special Care Home Association, said it’s important to note that aging New Brunswickers require different levels of care and that those needs typically fluctuate over time. Some citizens will benefit from placement in a special-care home, particularly those who are medically stable, butrequire assistance with the activities of daily living and who need supervision. Others, notably dementia patients who are beginning to display wandering tendencies and who exhibit sundowning symptoms, require a greater level of service. That care, she said, is often found in a provincial hospital or a nursing home facility. She said the Department of Social Development is taking steps to improve access to specialized care, investing in hundreds of new 3-B beds, which are set aside specifically for patients in advanced stages of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. However,while that work is underway, the demand is still often greater than the existing resources. “There’s a lot of people who are waiting in hospital with advanced dementia. And there’s quite a few waiting at home. I think there’s (about) 604 people on the waiting list (for nursing home care) and I think,of that,there’s about 135 that are assessed as 3-B in New Brunswick,” she said. Seeley said she knows there are people out there who have struggled while making their way through the system but there have been successes too. “For every bad story out there, there’s probably 100 wonderful stories,” she said. “I think we have a pretty good system set up in the province. But it’s not perfect.” Michael Keating, executive director of the New Brunswick Association of Nursing Homes, said a lot of good people, from organizations and care providers across the province, have been participating in an ongoing collaboration to try to improve the provincial system, to identify areas of concern, and to generate ideas that could turn into potential solutions. “There’s a group of about 40 organizations that is not government-controlled, but are working together,”he said. “To date, they’ve held a summit and a (massive, interactive phone conference) to look at ways to be better able to seamlessly move about the system, and to make sure the system is accountable.” Keating said there are families that have trouble getting the appropriate care they need based on the demand, often because of the great demand for care. “Given the demographics of New Brunswick, with us being the second oldest province in the country,we’re getting older and there’s not enough young people to come and look after us,” he said. “What’s happening is that we’re trying to find better ways, if we can, to look after our seniors. So there is a lack of resources … Are the resources that we need necessarily the resources that we’re providing? That’s something that our collaborative is looking at.” He said that can be particularly tough for patients who are suffering from dementia-related illnesses. “One of the biggest gaps in the system is being able to house people who are suffering from various forms of dementia”he said, noting that the waits can be long if a person requires specialized care. “(It can be difficult) to house them, to look after them so that there’s a reduction in the unacceptable behaviour, plus give them the freedom to live their lives as well” Often, he said, they find themselves living in the hospital, often for weeks, months,and sometimes years,until they can secure a placement in a nursing home facility. “There is a gap in the system that makes it extremely difficult, even for nursing homes,”he said. “You’ve heard, I’m sure, of the cases of people being in the hospital for lengthy periods of time.They can’t be placed and so on. In a lot of those cases, there are patients,in the hospital,that suffer from these behavioural episodes and there’s just not the resources in a nursing home to look after them”
Posted on: Fri, 25 Apr 2014 00:00:18 +0000
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