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Health, health care system, pharmacare
It is becoming far too common. Many of us have a parent, relative or neighbour who has struggled to get the home support they need. Perhaps they have even waited in hospital because residential care or rehabilitation services were not available.
Home and community care services in BC—home health care, assisted living and residential care—require urgent attention. For the past 16 years, underfunding, privatization and fragmentation of the system have left many seniors, their families and communities patching together care and even going without.
This report shows that increasing access to home and community care doesn’t just benefit seniors, it is widely acknowledged as key for reducing hospital overcrowding and surgical wait times.
Despite the BC government’s recent $500 million injection of funding into the home and community care system, much remains to be done to provide adequate care for seniors and improve health care wait times for all British Columbians, says a new report released today.
In this issue:
BC’s new (affordable?) housing policies
A bleak jobs picture outside BC’s big cities
The great log export drain
The biggest source of waste in Canadian health care? The private, for-profit sector.
BC’s Jobs Plan doesn’t equal a comprehensive poverty reduction plan
Joining our CCPA–BC community
In January, the government released the Toews report The Future of Home Care Services in Manitoba. The report was commissioned by the NDP government in 2015 as a follow up to an earlier report on Home Care (HC) from the province’s Auditor General. The two most compelling challenges identified in both reports are an anticipated rise in costs resulting mainly from an ageing population, and difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff. However, neither report paints a picture of crisis.
First published on CBC online Dec 3, 2016
Increasing tragic deaths from Fentanyl are raising calls to deal with this crisis. Evidence shows that controlling supply and criminalizing drug users does not address the root causes of addictions, which are complex and multi-faceted. Research shows that supports to those experiencing addictions, both harm reduction and treatment, are needed as this piece will discuss
This book provides concrete examples of promising practices for physical environments in long-term residential care: everything from the location of a nursing home and the structure of gardens to the floor coverings, chair arms, and spaces for memorials. Physical environments are about more than setting the conditions for living and care provision. They also shape and reflect how care and life in nursing homes are understood. They construct limits and possibilities for residents, staff, families and volunteers.
UBC economist Robert Evans calls user fees in health care zombies, a policy option that keeps surfacing despite being killed over and over again by the evidence. During Manitoba’s recent provincial election Brian Pallister invoked zombies anew by saying that he would not rule out the introduction of private sector options in health care. This would be a mistake.