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Seniors'
families swamp researcher with nursing-home complaints By
Larry Johnsrude The
Edmonton Journal, August 21, 2003
EDMONTON - After watching her father's health deteriorate in a nursing home, Stephanie Baziuk thought there had to be a better way for him to live out his final years. She pulled her 90-year-old father, John Lisowy, out of the long-term care facility after less than two months and built a special room in her house. An outside caregiver spends eight hours each day with him. Lisowy also benefits from the convenience and comfort of living at home. Capital Health pays $3,000 a month for the caregiver. "When he was in the nursing home, he was drugged all the time," she said. "He was there for four weeks before they even took him outside for a walk. He seemed distant and unfocused. He just wasn't the same dad." Now, her father is healthy and happy, thanks to what is known as "self-managed care" offered by the Capital Health authority. "It's the best of all worlds," said Baziuk. "It's the way I would want to be cared in my old age." Yet according to a new study, home care -- and not long-term care -- appears to be the weak link in Alberta's network of services for seniors. The report, by University of Alberta nursing professor Donna Wilson, found that seniors living in nursing homes tend to be healthier and cost the health-care system less than those staying at home and receiving care from nurses and other caregivers who drop by regularly. "I was as surprised by it as anyone else," Wilson admitted. "We think of people in long-term care as being the frailest and sickest of all our seniors." Since the report was made public, she has been inundated with calls from people complaining about the poor service and bad experiences of family members living in seniors' homes. "I'm not saying that doesn't happen, but it does appear that those instances are in the minority." At the same time, Wilson's findings are no reason for the provincial government to reverse its policies of encouraging seniors to live at home, she said. "What it tells me is that home care is too little, too late," she said. "People don't start receiving home care until they're sick, until they've had a stroke, an accident or a chronic illness. Maybe they should start getting home care earlier as a way of keeping them healthy." Long-term care and home care aren't an either/or proposition. Regional health authority staff decide whether seniors are capable of living on their own with the help of home care or if they require long-term care. Analysing 12 years of Alberta Health data, Wilson found that seniors receiving home care are three times as likely to end up in hospital as are those in long-term care homes. They stay in hospital an average of 16 days, compared with less than three days for those in nursing homes. Diane Mirosh, executive-director of the Alberta Long-Term Care Association, said she's not surprised. She said nursing homes offer many of the same services as hospitals but at a fraction of the cost. "Our residents get nursing, physical therapy, recreational therapy, regular meals, visits by nutritionists and regular visits by doctors," she said. "A lot of these people would be in hospital if they didn't have long-term care." She said the cost of long-term care averages $125 a day per resident, of which residents pay $42. The remainder is covered by government-funded seniors programs or by Alberta Health, which pays for nurses and other health professionals. By comparison, it costs $1,100 a day to keep a patient in a hospital. Alberta Health covers the total cost. It is unclear whether the per-resident cost of nurses in long-term care homes is less than per-person home-care costs, because the Capital Health Authority doesn't make those comparisons. A spokesman for Capital Health said the study could result in more resources going into home care. "We're always looking for ways to improve the system," said Ed Greenberg. Health and seniors department officials said they want to study the report before commenting.
Copyright
© 2002 Global Action on Aging |
