Alberta Health Services has rolled out a new model on how to fund long term care residents based on specific health needs to be implemented on March 1.
In Drumheller, this would affect the Continuing Care Unit at the Drumheller Health Centre. This model, according to a press release, is designed to provide equitable funding for residents in long-term care and provides sustainable funding for providers.
“The more care a resident needs, the more funding their care providers will receive,” said David O’Brien, Senior Vice President, Primary and Community Care. “This is about ensuring that patients with higher health care needs are funded appropriately and that their care providers have the financial resources to ensure that care is provided.
According to Tom Zariski, who sits on the Drumheller and District Seniors Foundation, funding is not necessarily the issue. The challenge they are seeing is the changes in the level of need by seniors.
He explains that senior housing is based on the level of assistance needed. This is categorized as Supportive Living (SL) 1-4; with SL1 being residences such as the manors where there is independent living, to SL4, which would be the Continuing Care Unit.
Lately they have been seeing more who need advanced care.
“Right now our Level 3, which is Hillview is pretty full and we are actually getting pressure to take in more people, and we can’t even accommodate all the people from our area,” said Zariski. “That is the exact same thing at Continuing Care at the Hospital and they have to ship people off because there is not enough room.”
This also backs up the system, he explains, and they find there are people in SL3 that should probably be housed in Continuing Care. While at the same time there is extra space at Sunshine Lodge.
He said part of this change could be because of the Alberta government’s focus on supporting seniors in their own homes.
“A number of seniors, who probably 20 years ago would reside in Sunshine Lodge, are now being accommodated in their own home,” said Zariski. “This is a good thing, but also not, because we are finding it can put an incredible strain on their families.”
He says there are cases where a senior is in their home, however they have family members providing most of the care.
He said the Foundation worries in the near future seniors will enter the Supported Living system already needing the highest levels of care. In response, the Seniors Foundation is exploring creating more units to accommodate higher levels of supported living.
