This afternoon, the Office of the Seniors Advocate (OSA) released its 2024 report on Monitoring Seniors Services, which highlights the rising pressures of the growing aging population on essential supports and services.
Data in the report reveals key trends over the past five years. Alongside the rise in the population aged 85 and older, wait times for both long-term care and assisted living have both increased, 150% and 37% respectively. With higher wait times, there is worse hospital congestion across the province, placing additional strain on the broader healthcare system, and stress on family caregivers.
While the number of publicly subsidized home support clients increased (+11%), the rate of clients serviced on a per capita basis has declined (-7%). This indicates that although more people are receiving home support, the system is not keeping pace with the population growth. Given this, the report notably calls on the provincial government to expand home health services and to eliminate the client co-payment for these services, similar to Ontario and Alberta.
Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt’s recommendations call for a coordinated, cross-ministry approach and a comprehensive seniors’ plan. Building on this especially in reference to the four resolutions passed by our membership last week, BCCPA is urging the provincial government to collaborate with family-funded providers and to increase investments, alleviating the pressure on publicly funded services and ensuring the system can meet the needs of the rapidly growing aged population.
A recently published Vancouver Sun article references BCCPA’s All Hands on Deck white paper, which also warns that the province is unprepared for the growing aging population, in reference to the new OSA report. Read it here.
Read the full report here.
