Thoughts on Seniors Care

Reading Andre Picard’s 2021 book, Neglected No More, about long term care in Canada. The introit is so true– covid did not break long term care, it revealed something most knew to be true. A system underfunded, not in the right jurisdiction, and ripe for abuse/neglect. Though there are many ideas on how to make better, and many trying to do just that, it is lost.

It reminded me growing up, when someone would age and need long term care, my Nan & Granddad sharing stories of his parents in care, and how they knew back then that you had to vary the routine of visits to ensure staff would provide (nee: owner-operators-managers would ensure proper coverage) proper care. Are we ready to rise to the challenge? We have abysmally failed the Greatest Generation? Will we do the same to the Boomers? That is proper funding, proper supports, staffing, wages & benefits (a powerful note, using casual & p/t & contract staff to avoid paying healthy living wages and providing benefits. Hmmm… wonder which other sector is using this model currently?).

It is the echo reverberating in lives of seniors since the rise of “common sense” and austerity in the 1990’s. That federally saw 5% reductions across the board, and detrimental and harmful policies in Alberta and Ontario to reduce spending. In Alberta the rally cry to pay off the debt, shifting the debt from government level onto the backs of ordinary citizens, privatization that detrimentally removed competing public sector jobs to keep the equal job in the private sector at a liveable competitive wage. It is something that those working in infrastructure in municipalities I encourage you to track with your own jobs.

But back to seniors, it has been a systemic attack on them in Alberta, back to Klein’s common sense revolution, that saw a system that cared and honoured them stripped away, and a pittance returned. Those on AISH in the province, reaching retirment age, are seeing the the loss of already poverty living, and then having the added insult of losing medical coverage for a cost share through Blue Cross.

Don’t believe me about what was taken from seniors? Read Kevin Taft’s Shredding the Public Interest, from the era. He was a bureaucrat with integrity (lost his job) by not shredding the document outlining the playbook of pain. He would go on to lead the Opposition party in the Legislature. After almost a generation of trying to lift Albertans placed in poverty by the illconceived and executed common sense revolution and gutting of our oil royalty system… anger of a few who were hit with hard consequences of actions that allowed for bully motif, and every stereotype and hate to be allowed, erupted in the 2019 election, and a less equitable governing party was elected.

It is a playbook, provincially that has gone back to with the idea of personhood being politicized while a pandemic is politicized. Our current premier, pointing to human best before dates, pre-existing conditions, as reasons that deaths from covid are not valid.

Does elder care, as Picard terms it, need to be revamped?

Yes.

Even more dire, what needs to be revamped in Alberta, Canada’s Bible Belt, is seeing a person as valid, with dignity for life. And it is a long road to get there unfortunately.

Will Alberta answer the call?

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