SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
One of the oldest persons living in Yellowknife will soon be leaving the city because there aren't enough beds at the Avens Community for Seniors.

Albert Bohnet, who turns 99 today, will soon have to leave the Avens Community for Seniors because there aren't enough beds, according to his son Darryl Bohnet, who happens to be president of the Avens board of directors. - Evan Kiyoshi French/NNSL photo Albert Bohnet first moved North in 1943 Ninety-nine-year-old Albert Bohnet is the seventh child in a brood of eight sisters and six brothers. He comes from a German-Russian farming family, said his son Darryl Bohnet. At 15, his father "rented" him out to work in the harvest, he said. When Albert wouldn't hand over his three-silver dollar bonus one day, his father "tossed a turkey leg down the table" and banished him from the home. He found lodgings with an elderly couple about 30 km away from his childhood home and worked there for three years until the beginning of the Second World War, said Darryl. "He did his basic training and then he was an instructor for a while," he said. "The army found out he could speak fluently in high and low German so they assigned him to a prisoner of war camp in Lethbridge (Alta.)." Bohnet was tasked with spying on the German prisoners, wandering through the camp with an unloaded gun trying to eavesdrop. "He said that was the worst thing that ever happened to him," said Bohnet. "So he transferred to the Royal Engineers." As an engineer Bohnet got his first look at Fort Smith, where he eventually met his wife around 1943. After the war ended he settled in Fort Smith and worked for the Hudson's Bay Company as a driver for a time, his son said. "He moved into heavy equipment operating for the government ... was the town foreman, and became a heavy equipment instructor," he said. "He was voted citizen of the year ... shortly after he retired." Albert said he has survived so long because of hard work. He quit smoking at age 50, and ate a healthy diet. "I was brought up the hard way that's for sure," he said. "We worked from six in the morning until 11 at night during the harvest." He said he feels "lucky to be alive" in the days leading up to his 99th birthday, which is today.

Albert Bohnet, who turned 99 today, has difficulty walking, is hard of hearing and said he needs a long-term care provider. He said he hopes to be back in the city, staying at the long-term care facility as soon as possible.

"I like it here," he said. "It's nice. You've got to stay somewhere and I'm satisfied here."

Bohnet was allowed to stay at the dementia wing of the seniors home for a respite period, according to his son Darryl Bohnet, who despite being president of the Avens board of directors, is unable to secure his father any long-term care at the facility.

Albert has been ordered to vacate Avens by May 25 in order to make his bed available for another patient.

"He's the oldest man in Yellowknife," said Darryl, while playing a game of crib with his father at the seniors community last Friday.

"The territorial government has a committee called the TAC (Territorial Admissions Committee) and they determine who goes into Avens. The process is extremely slow for accessing this facility. You've got all kinds of paperwork and you've got to see a doctor ... He's done all that stuff and still hasn't made the grade to get in. There's not enough beds."

Bohnet said his father - who was born in a town south of Medicine Hat, Alta., and spent most of his life living and working in Fort Smith - moved to stay with another son, Gordon Bohnet, in Behchoko about a year ago. Darryl said community care workers do a good job checking in on elderly patients in the community but can't be around all of the time.

He said his father fell several times and burned himself while tending a wood stove at the home. The home isn't heated by wood alone but the stove produces heat more to the liking of the elderly man who suffers from poor circulation, said Darryl.

He said he started filling out paperwork to have his father admitted to Avens about a year ago but the process got hung up when they needed to find a doctor to perform an assessment at the home in Behchoko. An assessment of seniors at home is required before an application will be considered.

Eventually, they were able to find a nurse-practitioner to carry out the assessment, which was received by the Territorial Admissions Committee about four months ago. Darryl said now, with his father facing eviction within the week, they're waiting for another doctor to come and carry out another assessment.

"We were told the doctor should be coming in the next week or so," said Darryl. "It's either that or I take him downtown to one of those doctors (at walk-in clinics) but it's more convenient to have the doctor come out and assess him."

His father moved to the Avens home about six weeks ago, said Darryl, and has already exhausted the four-week respite period offered in the NWT to relieve families caring for seniors in their own homes.

"This room is absolutely perfect for him," he said. "He can have a shower when he wants it. These people (caregivers) here are special people."

Darryl said his father will be heading back to his brother's home in Behchoko once his time at Avens is done. There are too many stairs at his house in Yellowknife to let his father stay there, he said.

The home in Behchoko is easily accessed from a back door, said Darryl. He said he's still hoping his father will be admitted to a seniors home in Yellowknife since most of his closest family members live in the city.

Darryl said he has asked the admissions committee how far down the waiting list his father is but was told that information is confidential for privacy reasons.

"It's quite the exercise we're going through," he said. "I don't know if he's number one or 20 or 15. Who knows?"

Jeff Renaud, Avens' chief executive officer, said the home doesn't have the beds to care for all the people currently on the wait list.

He said he estimates that as many as 40 people are waiting for long-term care in the territory, and said he feels the territorial capital should be better equipped.

"Half our territorial population lives in Yellowknife but we only have 29 beds ... and we have to provide support for people from across the entire NWT," he said.

He said respite care is only meant as a temporary reprieve for families and in-home caregivers. The city facility has four beds set aside for respite; there are 13 respite beds across the NWT, he said.

Renaud said Avens itself was never designed to provide long-term care. The rooms and bathrooms are too small, he said, making it difficult for staff to help residents in and out.

"The rooms in Avens were never designed for that," he said.

The kitchen wasn't designed as a commercial kitchen, and staff must carry heavy loads from freezers in the basement during their daily routines.

"We are operating at a risk everyday," said Renaud.

He said there's no heating, ventilating, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, and it wouldn't make sense to install one now at the aging facility. For the past three years, Renaud has been trying to get the territorial government to sign off on replacing Avens Manor, he said.

"You aren't going to put an expensive HVAC system on a building that's already 30 years old and wasn't designed to provide long-term care in the first place," he said.

"I've been working on it for three years since I've been here, and we've been trying to get the government to move our project forward to the capital planning cycle."

The work is time consuming, he said, but in the mean time people in need of care are waiting.

"It's ridiculous," he said. "Not having a strategy to provide care for our seniors is totally unacceptable and unethical behaviour from our government."

Damien Healy, spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Services, said the department was not prepared to comment at press time.

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