The Office of the BC Senior Advocate has launched their second province-wide survey to hear directly from residents living in BC’s long term care homes.
“The survey is aiming to approach every single resident in publicly-funded long term care facilities in BC,” said Emily Jurek, Regional Engagement Lead for the North for the Office of Patient-Centred Measurement.
The survey project is being managed by the BC Office of Patient-Centreed Measurement and Providence Health Care.
The survey was first done in 2016, and was the first of it’s kind in Canada.
Jurek added that a promise was made following the results of the survey in 2016, to conduct the survey again in a few years to assess how things had changed.
“It’s become especially important with the events around COVID-19, now we’re able to assess how the pandemic has affected seniors in long-term care facilities,” Jurek explained.
Jurek said the results will be presented in the aggregate, so nobody will be identified.
“Those results will be used for a provincial report, which the Seniors Advocate office will release sometime in the Spring following the completion of the survey,”
She added there will be three levels of results that will be reported, each individual care home, each health authority, and the provincial report.
“The survey covers a number of topics, those include things like meal time, safety, security, quality of life, visitation, anything really that relates to the quality of life that seniors are experiencing in long term care facilities,” Jurek explained.
“We’re also including some questions that are new since 2016-17, and sort of seek to address some issues of the pandemic, mostly around connections with other residents, and also visitation from family members.”
To reach the over 29,000 residents in long-term care homes across the province, the Office of Patient-Centred Measurement is recruiting volunteers to conduct the survey.
More information about the survey and volunteering can be found here.
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