Nathan VanderKlippe
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Feb 08/02) - A city seniors' group is calling on the territorial government to help build a care facility for people with Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

The Yellowknife Association of Concerned Citizens for Seniors (YACCS) wants to sign a contribution agreement with the GNWT to build a 15-person facility.

Allan Falconer: Aven Manor "is not a building that was ever designed to cater to that level of care." - Nathan VanderKlippe/NNSL photo

YACCS would use Aven Manor and Aven Court as equity on the loan, and then look to the government for annual operating payments that would include the cost of retiring the mortgage.

Such a facility could cost around $3 million.

Aven Manor is currently being used to care for patients with advanced forms of dementia, but according to YACCS director Allan Falconer, "it is not a building that was ever designed to cater to that level of care."

That means other seniors are being forced onto waiting lists and a natural retirement progression -- from home to Aven Court to Aven Manor -- is being stymied.

"The whole role of Aven Manor has been changed," said Falconer.

A September 2001 review of seniors in Yellowknife found 31 who suffer from dementia, and another 35 with early signs of the disease.

Currently, 10 people with dementia are being cared for at Aven Manor, and another 10 at Stanton Regional Hospital. Dementia affects about eight per cent of seniors over 65.

A dedicated care facility "would allow the government to start on the road to bringing a solution," said Falconer, although he cautioned that "even if we could build a facility tomorrow it would not solve all of the problems."

MLA backs idea

YACCS is waiting on the GNWT to come up with the money to make the plan happen.

Great Slave MLA Bill Braden said "there has to be" money for such an endeavour.

"Dementia care is part of the scope of health care," he said. But, he added, "this is probably something that's a few years out."

Seniors are the fastest-growing demographic as the North becomes a more attractive place for people to age, and more elderly care facilities are needed to care for entire territory, he said.

The number of people over 60 is predicted to jump from 2,750 to more than 7,000 in the next 20 years.

Marjorie Sandercock, an occupational therapist who has studied Alzheimer's, said that most people with dementia will require a long-term care facility at some point in time.

"The strongest of families have difficulties caring for someone with this disease," she said. "It isn't easy for anybody."

Even long-term staff can get burned out "without tools, resources and specially-designed facilities," she said. "The end result is a poor quality of life for just about everyone."

Sandercock called on the government to develop an overall plan to deal with dementia care.

"What we need is to provide good care over the whole continuum -- how do we provide good dementia care across the whole board?"