Seniors call for affordable housing, access to home care
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/09/2022 (1252 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Westman seniors are asking the provincial government to improve access to affordable housing, home care and transportation.
Around 60 seniors gathered at the Minnedosa 50-plus Centre Friday afternoon to meet with Greg Nesbitt, the MLA for Riding Mountain, and members of the Minnedosa and District Services to Seniors committee to discuss a handful of issues.
The seniors congregated around tables and enjoyed coffee, tea and refreshments while filing out surveys about topics the committee put together, including housing, home care, transportation, ageism and discrimination as well as accessibility and social inclusion. They were also asked to share their thoughts regarding public safety and elder abuse services, financial security and affordability, medical support programs and more.
Around 60 people attended an event in Minnedosa meant to inform the province on the needs of seniors Friday afternoon. (Miranda Leybourne/The Brandon Sun)
Foremost in Cheryl Johnson’s mind when it comes to seniors’ needs is access to home care. She said her mother, who is in her late 80s, was unable to access home care after months of trying.
“Home care has got the short end of the straw a lot of times. They’ve been cut back and cut back, and they’re so limited now as to what they’ll actually do for people.”
Assisted living is important for seniors in rural Manitoba because care homes are not available in every community, said Johnson, who also sits on the Services to Seniors board. Ideally, she said, assisted housing would be close to other facilities in town to encourage socializing and stave off isolation.
“It’s important that we have options for seniors to come down and be part of the community and socialize,” Johnson said. “The problem is that some of the Handivan costs are so high that they can’t afford to do that.”
Some ways the province could improve home care, according to Annette Quirk, is to shorten the length of nursing programs in Manitoba. Currently, the Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) program takes two years to complete, while a Registered Nurse (RN) education takes four years.
“Maybe what we need to do is shorten some of these nursing programs and make it a three-year program,” said Quirk, who attended the meeting. “Maybe we need to take the LPN program … and accelerate it to a program of one year out in the rural communities, and pick up some of those LPNs and make them RNs.”
Fast-tracking refugees and immigrants who come to Canada and worked as nurses in their home country is also something Quirk wants the government to consider.
Johnson hopes that Nesbitt’s attendance at the event means the province is going to listen closely to what seniors in rural Manitoba need, not just those living in Winnipeg and near the capital city.
“A lot of decisions in the past have been for within the Perimeter Highway, let’s be honest, and rural Manitoba is very much different,” Johnson said. “We live a different life here … but we’re part of the province as well, and we do have different needs than those in the city.”
Listening to senior Manitobans in his district is incredibly important to the province, Nesbitt said, citing the Manitoba government’s Aging in Place initiative. The program offers seniors alternatives to being placed in care homes, which he said are costly for seniors, their families and the government.
The program operates by using three models: the supports to seniors in group living, where enhanced supports are offered within some designated existing seniors housing at no charge to tenants; the supportive housing concept for seniors that require 24-hour support and supervision, in which community living takes place in a secure apartment setting with personal support services; and personal-care homes.
“We’re listening to the people, and we’ll see what develops,” said Nesbitt, who attended a similar event in Shoal Lake Friday morning. “In the next several months, you’ll see some announcements.”
The turnout to both events, Nesbitt added, was impressive.
“It shows that seniors want to be heard.”
» mleybourne@brandonsun.com
» Twitter: @miraleybourne