. ting at 75. The health authority’s plan to. reduce that number Numbers ' them allotted for acute care. The remaining beds are broken . _ Staff over the summer holidays but said she is expecting the number will pick up in the fall. The average of acute care ‘said, noting that Terrace’s facilities extend to numerous © ‘ small communities throughout the northwest’ region. “If It’s big money ‘residents in each community cluster have access to residen- on the rise THE NUMBER of seniors to the Terrace area is expected to rise, and the chair of the city’s health task force is concerned that there aren’t enough resources or facilities to Properly | support them. City councillor and task force chair Lynne Christiansen said that the group’s main concern is bed shortages at Mills Memorial Hospital and at Terraceview Lodge. Mills Memorial Hospital is a 52-bed facility, with 30 of down as follows: four ICU beds, 10 psych beds, and eight. overflow beds the hospital will open if it is needed and if staff are available. Rowena Holoien, the local administrator for the Northern Health Authority (NHA), points out’that the bed numbers O30 increased from Previous years, from 25 acute care beds to : Holoien also said there can’t be any more beds until there are more nurses. Fortunately, she said, the new nursing pro- gram starting this week will help, and adds that additional nurses have been hired over the past year. , . Holoien admits that bed space was down due to limited Fe, by Ro beds used in the hospital for July and August were around 24 and 22 respectively. McConnell Estate is an independent living facility that. houses and aids 24 seniors as it is made up of 20 single units and two units for couples. The number of beds at Terraceview Lodge i is currently sit- to 50. beds for those needing very complex and continuous care hasn’t changed, but is currently under review. Seniors who live by, themselves or with family would also be able to - Stay there temporarily. * According to a 2004-2005 Northern Health report, the north has the highest projected growth rate of seniors in the The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 7, 2005 - AS rt Serving community appetites MARY ANN Dilley, Florence Schulmeister, Kathy Downie and Bev Dilley are part of the kitchen crew at the Happy Gang Centre on Kalum Street: Affiliated with the B.C. Old Age Pensioners Organization,.the self-sufficient centre is a community service that serves an-affordable lunch to 50-60 people per day - and offers activities for seniors. The Happy Gang is celebrating its 25th An- niversary by holding a tea between 2p.m. to 4 p.t m. September 10. province, with a 48 per cent projected increase by 2010. “We’re serving a huge catchment area,” Christiansen we're stretching now, we need to look at what’ s coming,” she said. THE NORTHERN Health Authority recognizes the need for” seniors programs and has made home and community care programs one of their spending priorities for the $482 million operating budget of 2005-2006. -Last year Northern Health spent $67,684, 941° for home and community care in their budget of a little‘over $457 mil- lion. Home and community expenses came second only to - acute services, which ate up over $173 million of last year’s’ budget. Community programs came third with over. $58.5 million, with support services running to almost $48.9 mil- . lion. . The Northern Health’ Strategic Plan for 2004-2008 has singled out.seven goals for that time period, some of which will benefit senior citizens, : “While thie"first’an, doVerarching. goal'is better health, an- other'goal is labelfed “high’ quality health Services.’ "One objective in this goal is to put’support services in place for people assessed at being at risk of losing their ca- pacity for independence. Another objective is to ensure that tial care as well as independent living facilities consistent with their assessed needs. Another goal is to create a health care organization to help people meet their needs by integrating services and re- sources. No home for this veteran during the Second World War and ended.up driving a - truck onto the beaches of Normandy a few days: after D-Day. When he returned to Canada in March 1946,. he worked as a mechanic in the northeast part of his home province Saskatchewan, then in northern Manitoba, the Ontario. Tired of the cold weather, the veteran* moved to Ter- the city home ever since. Now he’s part of the grey-haired population of Ter- ‘glasses. when he talks about the old days. He grew Christmas trees ,and specialized nut trees from southern Ontario in his tree nursery. " - His coaxes colourful roses to bloom. him. the end of Maich, the veteran went to Kitimat for sur-. gery because there are no bone specialists in- Terrace. Following a return from Kitimat one time, the veteran nurses available on shift to open them up. In total, he spent about a month between the hospitals He was moved to Terraceview Lodge in June, but af- ter two months there he was deemed overqualified for the facility and had to be moved somewhere else. There are veteran homes, ‘but the closest one is in Quesnel. The veteran says there are no homes for veter- ans in northern Canada. part of the province,” he said. » | » Hehad served almost five years in the army and spent - part of that time sleeping in the cold outside potentially booby-trapped buildings i in Normandy, France, Holland, Belgium and Germany. _ Now, in Canada, it was difficult to find him a building to sleep in with the care he needed. - the Royal Canadian Legion and concerned community unit in Terrace at the end of July. situations are worse than his. And he’s concerned about what will happen to veterans in the future. “Down the road, there’ ll be other guys having a prob- “Lem,” he saidw. 9) 0? tepey eyes For. now, he” S; ‘being, treated. well and’ says, he, can’t” complain! three health‘caré’ ‘workers arld’ohé tinfse ‘dtop* by every day and friends visit him most days. In the year of the veteran, the year to honour and re- member their sacrifices to the public, one local. vet was displaced for a while. ere ve e rye Terrace. closed. ! HE VOLUNTARILY signed up for the Canadian ‘Army: Northwest Territories, Hudson’ s Bay, and northwest © race in 1972, worked at a car dealership, ‘and has called - race, a man who is more than 85 years old with, big But past those big glasses are blue eyes that twinkle, And he’s been through three different facilities i in the’ » past five months because there has been nowhere to put 2 Aftera fall off a fruit tree ladder broke his left leg at , waited for six hours on a stretcher in the Terrace hos- - pital; despite three empty beds, there weren’t enough. |] "in Terrace and Kitimat, spending the majority of his hos- ‘pital stay in Terrace. ' “To get veteran care, you have to live i in the southern Finally, after months of being’ moved around and: ; with much pressure and vocalization from friends in ‘J*: members, the veteran’ was placed in a seniors housing. He stays upbeat and admits there are people whose’ robert And the veteran is $s only one of the many seniors in. * The veteran has asked that his identity not be dis CHANGES TO the definitions of home and - community care redefined who qualifies for independent housing with support services, assisted . living and long term care. The designations were changed in 2002 by the B.C. Ministry of Health in the hopes of allowing seniors to retain as much independence as possible. Definitions for home care remained the same. The level of home care and nursing and home support services increased to off-set this, said . Mark Karjaluoto, the Northern Health Authority’s (NHA) communications director. In the 2003-2004 ’ year, the amount of home care nursing increased from 59,000 hours to’69,000 hours, or a six per cent increase in home care. But Lynne Christiansen, chair of the city’ s health task force and a city councillor, says the problem is that some seniors fall between the des- ignated levels of care; they are overqualified for . long term care but need more help than what home care can give. Christiansen noted that prior to the changes in assessments, waiting lists to. the long term care facility Terraceview Lodge were sometimes very lengthy; after the change in criteria, there are either no waiting lists or the numbers are minimal. “What happened to all those other people?” she asked, and wonders if they’re getting the care that they need. Caroline Hill, Northern Health’s home and community care manager, spoke at the health task force’s Aug. 24 meeting and said although. wait 4 - Changes i in care definitions change acceptance criteria | lists. for the Terraceview Lodge change all the : time, they are minimal. She’ adds that the lists are based on priority need, not chronological order. Hill also points out that during the assessment “process, seniors themselves may downplay their. medical or physical needs because they do not want to admit their shortcomings.-She said that if seniors are deemed capable, there isn’t a lot North- ern Health can do about the individual’s situation. Northern Health does, however, take information from friends, family members, and family physi- . cians into account during the assessment process. “People have the right to live at risk if they choose to,” Hill said at the meeting, and added that Northern Health’s job i is to provide health care, not housing. She advocates using community prograins : and services, saying that long term care facilities should be the last resort. However, Hill admits that Terrace doesn’t have the same infrastructure, volunteer base or transportation opportunities the large cities have. ‘ “We have been able to provide service request- : ed of us,” Hill said. She said they are beginning to look at individual . cases where people may be overlooked. “Generally, I think we’re doing fairly well most of the time,” Hill said. Rowena Holoien, Northern. Health's local ad- ministrator, later said it is working to make the transition from hospital to home or assisted living — a more continuous process for patients, = | Managing themselves as best t they can THERE WAS a time when Linda Perry’s joints were in pain, she felt sick in the mornings and she was napping most of the time. Soon her job as a porter at Mills Memorial - Hospital in Terrace, which consisted of moving people to and from beds, simply became too much physical activity for her. The number of sick days she took increased, and she finally moved to cleri- cal support. :-A trip to the doctor finally shed light on what was wrong; Perry was diagnosed with autoim- mune disorder, which attacks the. connective tis- sue in the body, and diabetes. With the. diagnosis, Perry: became one of the two million people i in Canada to have diabetes. And diabetes is only one of the many chronic diseases affecting people. The most commonly known types of chronic disease are hypertension, arthritis, heart disease, diabetes, asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and fi- - bromyalgia. “It covers a wide expanse, so doa lot of people have it?” Perry asked. “Yes.” - Most chronic disease conditions a are incurable, according to the B.C. Ministry of Health Servic- es. — But there is a program that is trying to make .. life with chronic conditions more bearable. The chronic disease self-management program | was originally developed at Stanford University in the 1980s and is slowly spreading wordwide. The University of Victoria’s Centre on Aging and the B.C. Ministry of Health Services are offering . the program and a training workshop. throughout . B.C. as part of a three-year study. _ The program helps people with chronic con- - ditions learn the skills they need to manage the daily demands of their conditions, and introduces them a network of people in similar situations. Between eight and 15 people meet once a week for two and a half hours for six consecutive weeks to learn how to manage their symptoms, live a healthy lifestyle, learn how to communi- cate with family and medical people, and deal ‘with the emotional stress that comes with the condition. “As the population ages, more and “more people get chronic health conditions,” said Dr. -Patrick McGowan, a professor on the Centre on Aging at the University of Victoria. According to the centre’s population projec- tions, almost one of every four Canadians will be a senior by 2031. The university also says that people over 60 years and above are living with, ’ on average, at least two chronic conditions. “When you get them, you get them for life, and you have to learn how to manage them,” Mc- Gowan said of chronic conditions. “It’s the people themselves with the chronic conditions who need to take care of themselves,” he said. “You can’t be helpless.” Therefore, McGowan says, the program uses techniques and strategies to motivate people and gives them the confidence and practical skills to use them. McGowan also advocates that those with chronic conditions become leaders of the pro- gram, saying that seeing the program led by peo- ple with similar conditions is a powerful motiva- _ tor for those starting out. “They’re lay people who know what chronic. conditions are like,” he said. - : Perry herself took the training workshop in Terrace over a year ago and led the program in here this past April and May. “What you’re teaching them to do is self- manage their disease with coping skills,” she. said, naming activities like .action plans and brainstorming. “The purpose is to help people live ‘with it, deal with’ it, and let them know they’re not alone,” Perry said. Perry has a positive attitude about her condi- tion and says that despite her chronic diseases, ‘she still lives a productive happy life. “It helped me,” Perry said of the program. “If it helps one person, it helps somebody, right?” . At the end of this September, Perry will be one of the three people to lead the program in Ter- race. Space is limited to 15 people: Both the pro- gram and the training program are free. For more information or registration, call toll free number 1-866-902- 3767 or visit www.coag. uvic.ca/cdsmp. oy KAT LEE PHOTO LINDA PERRY is one of the leaders of the Chronic Dis- ease Self-Management Program. The 55-year-old was diagnosed with two chronic diseases seven years ago, and is now intent on helping other people with chronic disease deal with their problems. me