EDMONTON — The first full week of June each year is Alberta Seniors’ Week. It is a chance for Albertans to show appreciation for Alberta’s seniors and all that they contribute to our province. Friends of Medicare is marking this Seniors’ Week by continuing to call for properly funded home care and for the Alberta government to stop their attacks on Continuing Care.
“This is a week to appreciate and celebrate Alberta’s seniors, but the truth is, they deserve so much better than they are getting from our provincial government,” said Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare. “If they truly wanted to celebrate seniors, our provincial government would be doing more than putting out a statement once a year, they would be supporting and growing the programs that provide much-needed support to seniors. But just the opposite: they have been actively watering down the regulations and services that keep Alberta seniors safe and healthy.”
Two 2023 reports from the Auditor General showed clearly how badly we are failing Alberta seniors living in Long-Term Care. The reports highlighted how decades of underfunding and chronic understaffing in seniors' care have spelled disaster for seniors and for the workers in the system. Yet, instead of listening to these reports, new provincial Continuing Care Act regulations came into effect which removed the minimum hours of care for residents in Alberta.
“Minimum care hours in Alberta were already woefully low, leaving far too many seniors and other Albertans suffering without their care needs being met. The further gutting of continuing care regulations has only made a bad situation worse,” said Gallaway. “Rather than watering down regulations even further, our provincial government should be adopting the national Long-Term Care standards, bringing back an independent Office of the Seniors Advocate, improving working conditions so that facilities aren’t relying on a low paid, precarious workforce, implementing things like paid sick days for all workers, and ultimately taking back control of the system by removing profits from the equation for seniors care altogether.”
At the end of April, Albertans learned that even more public money would be going to create spaces in private, for-profit continuing care facilities, instead of bolstering public seniors’ care. Even as the most recent Protection for Persons in Care (PPC) report showed the number of cases of abuse in Alberta’s continuing care facilities more than tripled as compared to the previous year.
“At every turn, our provincial government is shovelling public health care funding into the profits of private health care providers, rather than investing in the public good,” said Gallaway. “But while Alberta makes it easier and easier for corporate shareholders to profit off of the care needs of seniors, we’re continuously failing to support frontline care workers to deliver the timely, quality, accessible continuing care that seniors need and deserve. Seniors Week should serve as an urgent reminder to this government that we can, and must, do so much better.”
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