Are seniors being left in the dust by Northern Health?

More bad press for the embattled Northern Health authority, the Daily News featured a front page story on Tuesday about home support cuts. Using concerns that seniors are at risk, the Daily quoted extensively from local MLA Gary Coons who took offence to the changes apparently being implemented even more annoying to the MLA is the secrecy that Northern Health has put in place over the issue.

Pointing out that Northern Health seems to be going against the Ministry of Health’s own policies when it comes to care designed to maintain a safe and supportive home. Coons calls for memos, budgetary information and other documentation on the issue to be provided, all to no avail thus far.

Now we’re not sure that targeting the seniors is possibly the best cost cutting adventure that Northern Health could take on at the moment. Having already fought the Acropolis Manor battles over and over again, one wonders why they seem to have a hard time finding some common ground with those over 65 and well the optics are just horrible.

Talk about going out of your way to draw unwanted attention to your struggling bureaucracy. Instead of trying to sweep the controversy away, perhaps the folks at Northern health should get busy sweeping away the dust bunnies instead.

The Daily had the full story on the front page on Tuesday.

COONS FEARS HOME SUPPORT CUTS PUT SENIORS ‘AT RISK’
Clients no longer getting the help they need to keep homes clean
By James Vassallo
The Daily News
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Pages One and Three

Northern Health has potentially left local residents living in filth after cuts to home support services that provincial guidelines state they should be offering.

“It came to my attention recently talking to seniors in the community and family members that light housekeeping was deleted from the tasks home support would cover,” said North Coast MLA Gary Coons. “I’ve got a major concern that seniors are at risk.”

According to the Ministry of health’s policy manual housekeeping includes a “minimum set of household tasks required to maintain a safe and supportive environment for clients and includes cleaning, laundry and meal prep.” The Ministry of Health’s web page and the latest version of the Home and Community Care Guide note that home care services include ‘light household tasks that help maintain a safe and supportive home.”

“This is their policy, and it’s key because the whole concept of health care is preventative,” said Coons. “When we look at where we’re going with home support and maintaining seniors in their home the necessary support for a bit of light housekeeping is a necessity.”

However, a letter dated January 27, 2006 from NH informs home support recipients that the services’ we provide are designed to supplement, rather than replace the efforts of individuals to care for themselves with the assistance of family, friends and community supports.’

Housekeeping and cleaning services were cut on February 15, although recipients were told they could appeal and the exceptions may be granted ‘where health and safety are demonstrated to be at significant risk.”

The result has seen some local senior’s home support – which is designed to keep community residents independent and a major focus of the province’s health care strategy – cut as much as 50 per cent. However, the real impact is unclear as the health authority seems unwilling to provide answers to anyone, he said.

“I’ve asked for the documentation of how many clients there are in Rupert and the Charlottes, total hours for the region, what was budgeted for home support in Rupert and the Charlottes over the last four years, what’s the budget now and was there any recent directions for memo’s from Northern Health to cut back,” said Coons.

“I’ve been after Northern Health for over two months and still nothing.

“I thought I could get the information, and I’m really concerned that if an elected representative can’t get it from Northern Health, then how can concerned family members, how can seniors and how can the public?

The North Coast MLA, who wonders why the health authority hasn’t held a board meeting in his riding since November 2003, is calling on NH to come clean on their activities surrounding home support and care. He’s also encouraging local home care recipients to contact him (624-7734) if they’ve been harmed by the cuts and is interested in organizing a health care summit to address issues like this and Acropolis Manor.

“Their reason for the cut is that everywhere else has cut back and our region is the last,” said Coons. “Yet you can easily see the numbers in Prince Rupert and Charlottes have gone up dramatically and … they’ve got more clients and older clients over the last four for five years, it’s the trend.

“We shouldn’t be the last to cut back if we have a need for it. For that matter, light household tasks are part of home support and everyone should be offering it.”