Squamish’s Jessica Loxton wants her ailing mother to be cared for close to home, rather than in a residential care home more than an hour away.
Although Loxton’s family are longtime residents of Squamish, when her mother became very ill with a neurological disease three and a half years ago, she was hospitalized in Vancouver and then placed in a care home in Burnaby. Since that time Loxton, a mother of two, has travelled up and down the Sea to Sky Highway to visit her 59-year-old mother.
When her mother’s mental health took a turn for the worse about 10 months ago, Loxton placed her on the waitlist to get into Hilltop House, the residential care home in Squamish.
“She wants to come home,” Loxton said. “She wants to be able to go to the graveyard to see her son, and see her grandchildren.”
The woman’s son died of cancer about five years ago.
Loxton said the issue is bigger than just her family. Hilltop isn’t able to accommodate the growing population, she said.
“What about all the other elderly people who are eventually going to want to stay in Squamish their whole lives?” she asked.
There are many other families like her own, Loxton stressed.
According to Vancouver Coastal Health, six people are currently on the transfer list to be moved into Hilltop.
Loxton’s mother has been diagnosed with dementia and dystonia and can no longer walk. Because Loxton needs to be in Squamish for her children and her job, she can only get to Burnaby to visit her mother twice a month. Other relatives also visit twice a month.
“Basically, she is sitting in a room by herself,” Loxton said.
In March, her mother fell and broke her sternum.
“When she gets hurt down there, I am an hour and 15 minutes away,” Loxton said. “If she was up here I would go every day, even if it was for half an hour.”
She stressed the staff at the care home in Burnaby is “amazing,” but that doesn’t make up for being so far away, she said.
The separation has taken a toll on Loxton. “When I go down there, I drop my kids off at school, I drive all the way down there, I get two hours to visit with my mom and I have to turn around and drive all the way back here by 3 p.m.,” she said. She constantly worries each trip that traffic may be backed up and make her late to pick up her children, she said.
According to Vancouver Coastal Health, the average wait for a bed at Hilltop is 30 days, after the person has been assessed and approved for residential care.
The facility currently has 71 complex care beds and two respite beds.
“The placement in a first available residential care facility is made within 30 days of being assessed when a resident comes from a person’s private home or acute hospital, as they are in most need of residential care,” said Anna Marie D’Angelo, senior media relations officer with Vancouver Coastal Health.
“It is every fourth vacancy at a facility that someone is brought in from the transfer list. So, one, two and three from hospital or private home to residential care, fourth is a transfer from another facility,” she said. “[If] a person is getting residential care in a facility, they are being taken care of, are safe… although it may be inconvenient for family visits. And those in their private homes or a hospital need to be moved quicker to get the appropriate care they need.”
Loxton’s mother is second on the list to be transferred to Hilltop, likely in a couple of months, D’Angelo said.
Loxton said she was glad to hear her mother may be soon back in Squamish but said that doesn’t fix the overall problem.
“I know there are lots of others in the same position, wanting to get their family back up here,” she said.
Mayor Patricia Heintzman said the District of Squamish has no authority over the regional Hilltop facility, but added, “obviously, we want to have loved ones close by.”
Even if the wait is only 30 days, Heintzman said when a family is faced with such a situation, days can seem like forever.
The mayor said she would bring up the wait time issue with Vancouver Coastal Health representatives.
