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More care options needed for seniors Private investment could supplement public services: GNWTLyndsay Herman Northern News Services Published Wednesday, Aug 15, 2012
Avens - A Community for Seniors commissioned a study last fall on the support and housing needs of seniors in the city. The study was released in August and identified a significant need for assisted living options for seniors.
"One of the things that came up very, very strongly in our survey was the apparent and perceived gap that we have here in Yellowknife for caring for seniors," said Bill Braden, president of Avens.
The study, entitled The Housing Needs for Yellowknife Seniors, found most Yellowknife seniors would prefer to live in a seniors community if they could not continue to live in their current home. It also identified a need for support services, such as house cleaning and cooking, beyond the need-based services provided by Yellowknife's well-established home-care program.
Michele Ray-Jones, director of care for Avens, said communities or apartments with communal meal or visiting areas where seniors live independently, but have varying levels of help with housework and other chores, would likely be well-received in the city.
"There is no program like that here," she said, "and we see a need through our other programs.
"Avens is looking at some options for providing assisted living. Of course, the programs would have to be in partnership with the territorial and the local government because that doesn't exist here."
Ray-Jones said some senior-targeted housing options exist in Yellowknife but offer few services officially beyond what a regular landlord would offer. She did add that Avens and other establishments often provide extra support unofficially, such as snow clearing or household repairs, but are limited by what can be accomplished by goodwill alone.
The care gap identified in the study is also on the GNWT radar and will likely be included in a planning study within the next year or two, said Vicki Lafferty, manager of health systems planning for the Department of Health and Social Services.
"What we recognize as a gap is more independent living with supports to allow people to live in their own homes for as long as possible," Lafferty said. "We know (seniors) do better when they're at home and when they're maintaining their daily routine and activities and doing things for themselves as much as possible."
Lafferty said in order to be most effective, support services and housing options must also help seniors stay social, particularly as leaving the house becomes increasingly difficult.
"The winters are long in the North and dark," she said. "If people get depressed and withdraw then they get more isolated and depressed, then they don't eat well and their function declines. Socialization is very important."
Former Yellowknifer Stephen Crane said his mother, the late Theresa Crane, liked the idea of an assisted living complex, which she saw while visiting friends in the south. She applied for the most similar options available in Yellowknife, but sat on wait lists for years and was ultimately never accepted.
"If they had assisted living (in Yellowknife) then people wouldn't have to leave, they wouldn't have to go south for those services," he said. "They have to leave the place they love, people who have lived here for 30, 40, 50 years."
Being a market economy, Lafferty said she sees an opportunity in Yellowknife for successful private investment in assisted living for seniors and home-based support services, although she stressed the right group would need knowledge about the unique challenges of Northern construction and business.
"(As a government), we only have so much capacity to build bricks and mortar," said Lafferty.
"There really is no reason why if someone provided something here that was sort of that independent living where you could have that socialization ... I think that could go over well."
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