Sylvie Paillard
[email protected]
Squamish's ailing elderly residents may soon be able to stay in their own hometown for care, according to Coastal Health's chief operating officer Ellen Pekeles.
That will mean a better quality of life and even longer lives for local seniors, said Tantalus Seniors' Centre president Ray Miles. Currently, there aren't enough beds in local residential care facility Hilltop House to accommodate the growing population of elderly, so those requiring longterm medical attention are sent to North Vancouver.
Miles wrote a letter to Pekeles last January on behalf of the Seniors Creative Connections Committee, listing the numerous reasons that sending sick seniors to North Vancouver is detrimental to their well being.
"For an elderly person to have to leave their home of many years is traumatic," wrote Miles. "To be removed from their community, relatives and friends at a time when the deteriorating physical and/or emotional mental condition has left them fragile can only exacerbate the problems that lead them to seek assistance."
So far, 20 Sea to Sky residents have been sent to North Shore residential facilities. Miles said that highway challenges such as construction and safety lead to a patient's isolation from spouses and friends, many of whom are also seniors.Pekeles responded to Miles' letter with good news.
"We absolutely support the need for expansion of our residential care facility at Hilltop House," she wrote.
She said plans are in the works to expand Hilltop House from 61 to 110 beds at a cost of $21,600,000. Coastal Health hopes to receive funding help from the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, the Squamish Hospital Foundation, the Whistler Health Care Foundation and the Pemberton and District Health Care Foundation. The organization presented a business plan to the various health foundations in December 2005, said Pekeles.
"We will begin planning and designing for the expansion following the successful identification of the funds to support the project," she said.
Local MLA Joan McIntyre has been following the issue and said the expansion is "a couple of years" away.
"I'm optimistic that those negotiations are and those discussions are on going and I'm hoping that those will be done in, well maybe in a couple of years," she said. "But in the scheme of things at least it's all on the table."
The province is on its way to meeting their targeted deadline of 5,000 more longterm care beds throughout B.C. by 2008, said McIntyre. 2,800 units should be finished by 2006.
"We are really committed to making sure these resources go to our seniors and to those who are frail and vulnerable."
