A place for elders at home
Senior care increased in Kitikmeot with opening of long-term care unit
Beth Brown
Northern News Services
Monday, March 27, 2017
IKALUKTUTIAK/CAMBRIDGE BAY
Kitikmeot residents requiring long-term care now have an option closer to home.
Elder Bessie Emingak lights the qulliq at an opening ceremony for a new long-term care unit in Cambridge Bay. - photo courtesy of the Government of Nunavut |
A residential long-term care unit officially opened at the Kitikmeot Regional Health Centre in Cambridge Bay on March 22.
"Our residents in our region are finally closer to home and living in familiar surroundings with access to family and friends," said Mayor Jeannie Ehaloak.
The unit has space for seven long-term care beds and one respite/palliative care bed.
The unit was created by renovating and repurposing the in-patient unit at the health centre.
Residents must require care that cannot be provided in a home setting. The first two residents were admitted in mid-February.
Health Minister George Hickes travelled to the region for a ribbon cutting ceremony.
"This residential long-term care unit is an important step towards providing a "made-in-Nunavut' strategy for the care of all elders in the territory," Hickes said.
Besides creating more capacity for elder care, the unit has also created 17 new jobs.
"They have home care workers, cooks and recreation people so the residents are getting some exercise," said Ehaloak.
The personal care worker positions are being staffed by residents of the hamlet, who are currently receiving on-the-job training.
Ehaloak said she had an aunt who was receiving long-term care in an Iqaluit seniors home, but the woman became so lonely she returned to her community despite a need for care.
"She was so far away from home and she didn't speak the dialect. Their dialect is completely different from ours so communication was a problem," said Ehaloak. "She was far away from her children and her grandchildren, she just got so homesick."
The opening of the regional unit helps address the isolation faced by elders who must travel for higher levels of care.
"It allows our residents to continue living in happiness," she said.
The government has also launched a Nunavut Seniors' Information Handbook as part of its current strategy for increasing resources for elders in the territory.
"Elders are Nunavut's strongest tie to our history and our resilient traditions, and to bridging our culture and language in the modern world," said Premier Peter Taptuna when he announced the handbook at the legislative assembly on March 13.
