Family struggles to move mother across country to B.C. care home
CBC
Kelowna residents Darla Brown and Nikki Drinkwalter fear their mother's mental health is getting worse by the day. The 71-year-old, who is blind and partially paralyzed, is on the other side of the country, in Crapaud, PEI, where she lives alone in a subsidized care home following the recent death of her husband.
"She's depressed and she's lonely," said Drinkwalter. "A lot of our [phone] conversations are very quiet, she doesn't have a lot to talk about. She's depressed, and she doesn't want to be where she's at."
"She hasn't had visitors," Brown added. "It's very unfortunate."
Brown and Drinkwalter have been trying to move their mom, Elaine Guyan, to a similar care centre in B.C. so she can be closer to family and hopefully improve her wellbeing.
They thought it would be a seamless transition, but over the past two years they say they've run into a series of bureaucratic challenges — including residency requirements and extensive waitlists — that they fear have rendered the move insurmountable.
"We've been directed to different agencies, different people, and they're all very sympathetic to the cause but at the end of the day they say they can't do anything about it," said Brown.
Provincial officials familiar with their situation have acknowledged their circumstances are uniquely challenging, while public health advocates say their circumstances shine a light on glaring holes within B.C.'s assisted living sector, particularly ongoing capacity challenges.
"I talk to families that are confronted with this all the time," said Terry Lake, CEO of the B.C. Care Providers Association. "I really empathize with people in this situation, but the reality is, even if they qualified to access assisted living in B.C., there's simply a lack of capacity."
CBC News has reached out to B.C.'s Ministry of Health for comment.
Health care falls under provincial, not federal, jurisdiction in Canada, meaning subsidized care patients in one province can't simply be transferred to a similar facility in another.
Brown and Drinkwalter say the biggest challenge for getting their mom onto a waitlist for subsidized assisted care in B.C. is the province's three-month residency requirement, which applies to all community care services in the province.
That requirement can be waived under certain circumstances, including if the patient has no loved ones or family supports nearby. However, the daughters said their application was denied by Interior Health.
Their other alternative is to move Guyan to B.C. and pay for her to live in private care and then apply to be on the waitlist once she is officially considered a resident. However, they would have to keep her in private care until she's accepted, which could take years.
"To pay for a private facility for two years minimum, that's going to be $36,000 a year — we can't afford that," said Brown.
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