The provincial government is trying to improve care for people staying in assisted living residences with a series of amendments to strengthen the Community Care and Assist Living Act and protect the vulnerable.
However, those protections won’t come into effect for at least another two months, according to a release from the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions Wednesday.
The ministry says the amendments will give residents in assisted living conditions and community-care clients the opportunity to remain in their communities without allowing their level of care to slip.
"Many seniors in the past have had to make the difficult decision to leave their assisted living residence, which is their home, due to previous restrictions," said Adrian Dix, Minister of Health. "That's why we are empowering seniors and people living with disabilities with more independence to make choices about where and how they live and receive care."
Assisted living allows people to retain some independence while also providing extra support to help with daily life, as well as medication management, recreation and psychosocial work. It’s an option for residents – including many senior citizens, people living with disabilities and adults requiring other types of help – to live somewhere that feels like home, whether it’s in a detached house or a building with suites.
According to the news release, the amendments will give assisted living residents and community-care clients the opportunity to remain in their communities without allowing their level of care to slip.
It goes on to say one of the challenges faced by those in assisted living is being transferred from their residences into long-term care “sooner than necessary” due to existing rules preventing people from accessing more than two of these prescribed services:
- Assistance with the activities of daily living
- Managing medication
- Provision of and monitoring therapeutic diets
- Behaviour management
- Psychosocial supports
- Safekeeping of money and personal property
The government says as a result of that rule, seniors were forced out of assisted living residences simply when they needed more support.
The amendments will allegedly increase the “oversight powers” for assisted living residences to maintain the health and safety of residents, which includes the ability to “conduct routine and monitoring inspections” and take action when there is an “immediate risk” to someone’s health or safety.
The province says the changes will improve “accountability and oversight” in B.C.’s supportive recovery homes by ensuring employees are properly trained and that care homes will provide better support to patients transitioning out of care as well as to “develop personal service plans” for individual residents.
Mental Health and Addictions Minister Judy Darcy says the new regulations will help ensure people in recovery will be safe in supportive care facilities.
"When people and their families turn to supportive recovery homes for help, they have the right to receive safe, quality care," she said in the statement.
The amendments were originally passed by legislature in 2016, and come into force Dec. 1, 2019. CTV News Vancouver asked the ministry for an explanation of the timing. The ministry was preparing a statment in response at the time of initial publication.
