People with drug addictions living in B.C. long-term care homes raises red flags

The number of people suffering acute brain injury due to drug use that are being housed in residential care homes has risen, and this is a cause for concern in smaller facilities.

The people who run long-term care homes in B.C. say they are seeing more people suffering the lasting effects of drug addiction in facilities.

The number of people suffering acute brain injury housed in residential care homes has risen from 135 to 141 in the past two years.

Terry Lake, the CEO of the B.C. Care Providers Association, told Global News that complex care facilities have always been for those over age 24, although they have been geared towards elderly people in the past.

“But what we’re seeing is a different population now more affected by drug use,” Lake said. “Brain injury due to chronic drug use. And there’s no other place in some communities for these folks to be placed. And so that is a difference we’re seeing now is an increase in this population that’s a little bit different than the conditions we saw before.”

Lake said the issues seem to be limited to health authority-owned and operated sites.

“In larger communities, there may be opportunities to have separate facilities, but certainly in smaller communities and even in mid-sized cities, it may be that you have to use one facility, but they should be separate units with similar populations congregated together,” he added.

Lake said these facilities also need specifically trained staff to deal with patients.

“We shouldn’t be mixing populations and expecting staff that are trained and used to looking after an older frailer population to all of a sudden deal with a younger, stronger population with behaviours that they may not be familiar with, and certainly associated behaviours around drug use that they’re not used to dealing with at all,” he added.