Isobel Mackenzie, British Columbia’s Senior’s Advocate announced a new survey today (Wednesday) for Senior’s and their family members to complete regarding their experiences with care facilities.
This is the second survey released this year on long term care facilities, the results are being compared and will be used to shape a visiting policy for the next year.
“When we get this information back,” says Mackenzie, “my hope is that before or around the end of October, we are able to release a report to British Columbians that says this is the experience of residents and their loved ones in long term care under the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“We are asking family members and residents for their health status both before the pandemic and now,” explains Mackenzie.
The questions will be on a range of topics, such as visiting regulations.
“My office is looking at the period of time from April 1st, 2019 to June 30th, 2019 and we are comparing that to the data from April 1st, 2020 to June 30th, 2020 to determine what kind of differences we see, and if there’s a meaningful difference it will tell us that.” adds Mackenzie, “It won’t pinpoint the person but it will definitely tell us that something has happened, and that’s it’s a systemic pattern.”
“Every day my office hears directly from family members and some residents about how they are struggling,” @SrsAdvocateBC says #COVID19BC #bcleghttps://t.co/hlHeMOULUm
— Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc) August 26, 2020
The province has assisted seniors during the pandemic in a number of ways, including the one-time payment from OAS and GIS, the BC 211 Safe Seniors Initiative and the additional $300 monthly payment for those on Seniors Supplement.
The survey is available until September 30th, to complete the survey, click HERE.
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