SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
One of Yellowknife's most prominent citizens must give up her bed at Avens senior centre in a few days and embark on a years-long wait for a new one because there are not enough facilities in the city to care for her.

Rod Stirling, left, stands with his mother, 88-year-old Jan Stirling whose name has been given to a city building and street recognizing her lifetime of service as a nurse. Stirling will soon be on a waiting list for a bed at the Avens Community for Seniors. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo

Jan Stirling, an 88-year-old Korean War veteran and Governor General award recipient, has been in a respite bed at Avens since late October but it is only a temporary arrangement for the dementia sufferer. Avens offers respite care for a few weeks at a time to assist people with elderly family members. Stirling began developing dementia about three years ago.

Her son Rod Stirling said the family is still going through the lengthy process of completing the paperwork necessary for his mother's name to be added to a waiting list for a bed in the home's 28-bed dementia centre.

He said the family doesn't expect special treatment for his mom even though the city's public health building and a street are named for her and she is the recipient of numerous awards for her years of dedication as a public health nurse in the North.

"There's a long, long waiting list. I don't want to be the whiner and complainer, but I said, 'We're going to try and keep my mom in her house another year' and they said, 'Oh boy, you've got to get going on this paperwork application. It can take up to two years - a good six months anyway," said Rod, adding the pressure on care facilities for seniors in Yellowknife is made even greater because seniors outside the city must relocate here as many smaller NWT communities don't have facilities of their own.

"There's no facilities there and they come down, not that they shouldn't but I mean it's strained. (Avens is) a great facility. We just need a bigger one."

Stirling was born in England and moved to Canada when she was only a couple years old. As an army nurse, she met her husband, William Stirling, in a Japanese hospital after he had been shot on the front lines in the Korean War. After the war, the Stirlings settled with their children in Yellowknife and Jan would be the territory's head nurse for the next 30 years.

Rod said his mother has been the recipient of countless accolades - children around the territory have even been named Jan after her.

He's arranging to have live-in caretakers look after her at her home, located near School Draw Avenue.

"She remembers her kids' names but she doesn't remember who she had lunch with," he said.

Avens CEO Stephen Jackson said the Territorial Admissions Committee admits applicants to the coveted beds on the basis of their needs, not their accomplishments during life. He said the committee considers whether a person can live on their own and if they are living in a home with many stairs, creating a fall risk.

"They decide based on clinical need who goes where next," he said.

Avens currently has four people waiting to get into the Avens cottages - where dementia patients are cared for - and 15 are waiting to get into Avens Manor, the long-term care facility.

Fifty-five people are on a waiting list to get into Avens Court and Avens Ridge, the independent housing units, said Jackson.

"That waiting list is up to six years," he said. "Sometimes people will get on the list and will get in within a year."

Avens' dementia facility has 28 beds and patients pay $25 per day to stay in them, or in its 29-bed long-term care facility. Twenty beds are dedicated to long-term care at Stanton Territorial Hospital and Mary Murphy House, the city's other seniors home, has 16 long-term care beds and the waiting list is similarly long.

Jackson said Avens is waiting for funding to complete an approximately 60-bed expansion in what it calls the "Pavilion Project." A private investor was paying to complete the expansion but backed away from the deal last year. Jackson said Avens estimates the cost to be around $28 million but it's not clear whether the territorial government will fully or partially fund the project, with the remainder made up in donations.

"Once the election is over we'll be meeting with my counterpart there, the deputy minister, and moving forward on that," said Jackson. "Even if the GNWT does not pay for all of the capital, they still have a big say in operations because they provide operating and maintenance money. So we have them onside and we are developing a strong partnership with them."

Jackson said while the Avens seniors home needs more beds, it's still a much better facility than those he's seen elsewhere in the country.

"I remember visiting my grandfather back in the 1990s in London, Ont. and he was dying," he said. "And I kept thinking to myself, 'We can do way better than this. This room is not appropriate. This is a really poor place to end one's life.'"

He said with Ontario's large population, patients really are treated as just another number.

"Compared to where he was, (Avens) is a great facility," said Jackson. "The staff all know each other, we know the residents by first name, they're not numbers. We really do care."

EDITOR'S NOTE: Jan Stirling and her family are also featured in Yellowknifer's Remembrance Day story in today's edition on page A15.

We welcome your opinions. Click here to e-mail a letter to the editor.