Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Seniors advocate calls for free or reduced home-support costs

Most provinces don’t charge for home support, and of those that do, B.C. is the most expensive, which means fewer people are using it, says a new report from the seniors advocate. Instead, they’re going into long-term care.
web1_vka-seniors-4620
Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie releases a new report on home-support services for B.C. seniors at the legislature press theatre on Thursday. DARREN STONE, TIMES COLONIST

Seniors Advocate Isobel ­Mackenzie is calling on the ­province to eliminate or ­drastically reduce home-support fees for seniors within the year, saying the high cost is ­prematurely forcing people into long-term care.

Most provinces don’t charge for home support, and of those that do, B.C. is the most ­expensive, said Mackenzie, who released her latest report on home support at the legislature press theatre on Thursday.

Mackenzie said B.C. has twice as many low-care-needs seniors in long-term care as Alberta and Ontario, two provinces that do not charge for home-support service. The total number of ­seniors in long-term care in B.C. is above the national average, the report says.

She argues it would cost health authorities $14,000 annually to provide one hour of home support per day compared with $60,000 annually for a long-term care bed for a senior with an income of $29,000 per year.

“The world has not fallen apart in Alberta and Ontario where they do not charge for this,” said Mackenzie. “They can do this immediately.”

Home-support services are also free in Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Yukon, ­Northwest Territories, and Nunavut. In Quebec, clients receive a refundable tax credit for home support.

In provinces that charge for home support, the annual cost for one-hour daily visits is $1,494 in Nova Scotia, $4,906 in Newfoundland and Labrador, and $5,917 in New Brunswick.

In B.C., the annual cost to clients for one-hour daily visits is $8,952 — even for a senior with an annual income of only $29,000, said Mackenzie, adding she has previously raised the issue of home-support costs with the government.

Health Minister Adrian Dix, responding to the report, said 70 per cent of ­clients in B.C. who are below the income threshold pay no fees for home support, while another 15 per cent have their fees capped at $300.

Dix said the province has been “dramatically” ­increasing access to adult day ­programs where seniors can go for ­supervised recreational ­activities, and increasing respite care for caregivers and other community-based programs that allow seniors to live in their homes longer.

Home support is designed to help seniors live safely at home, offering everything from ­assistance with bathing and daily personal care to more ­complex tasks such as ­catheter care, oxygen therapy and ­management of medications.

In B.C., home-support ­services do not include non-­medical tasks such as ­housekeeping, laundry, grocery shopping and meal preparation.

The report — the second on home care since 2019 — looks at five-year trends in home-support for people age 65 and older including funding, hours of care, affordability and ­caregiver distress.

The average age of a person receiving home support is 84. Almost half of clients live alone, 64 per cent are female, one third are married, one third have ­Alzheimer’s or other dementia, and 55 per cent are at high to very high risk for long-term care placement.

“When we examine the ­five-year trends, we find ­client complexity and frailty is ­rising, care hours are not ­growing to meet this need, and more care is being shifted to ­family ­caregivers who continue to ­experience high levels of ­distress,” said Mackenzie.

Over the last five years, the number of home-support clients over age 75 has dropped — by 10 per cent for clients age 75 and older, and five per cent for those over 85.

The cost barrier is one ­reason why 61 per cent of those ­admitted to long-term care are not receiving any home supports 90 days prior to admission, ­Mackenzie said.

Nearly 60 per cent of those clients receive less than an hour per day of home support, while care hours by family ­caregivers over the last five years have increased to about five for every one hour of home support.

The review includes survey responses from about 6,000 seniors who receive home-support services.

The province spent $693­ million on paid home-support hours, including respite, in ­2021-22, a 42 per cent increase in the last five years, with about 41,000 seniors receiving care.

Mackenzie made five ­recommendations:

• Eliminate the financial barrier for accessing home support.

• Increase respite care.

• Standardize and set targets for all aspects of service delivery.

• Modernize care plans.

• Measure, monitor and report on performance.

[email protected]

>>> To comment on this article, write a letter to the editor: [email protected]