VANCOUVER

Uncaring homes for elderly

Long term care for the elderly
in this province, those who can-
not live without help and who are
looked after in institutions such as
community care facilities, ex-
tended care hospitals and private
hospitals, is seriously inadequate
in many respects. Among the
worst offenders are the private
hospitals. -

This is the conclusion of the
23,000 member Hospital Em-
ployees Union in a well docu-
mented study entitled Long Term
Care in British Columbia, com-
piled: under the direction of its
staff member Jean Swanson.

The number of elderly people
in B.C. receiving institutional
care as of September, 1980 was
21,129. This figure did not in-
clude the 24,000 who live at home
and receive special home care
treatment there, and whose ser-
vices are now being drastically cut
by the provincial government.

Today, one out of every 11 Ca-
nadians is a senior citizen. It is es-
timated that 50 years from now it
will be one in every five. So the
problem of care for the elderly is
not going to go away; it will in-
crease if anything.

JEAN SWANSON . au-
thored HEU report on extend-
ed care facilities.

The inadequacy of long term
care for the elderly affects every
aspect of their welfare — under-
staffing, the lack of adequate fa-
cilities, insufficient funding by the
provincial government, the use of
drugs and restraints to pacify resi-
dents, the lack of uniform stand-
ards of care and treatment, fire
safety, the lack of inspections by

government inspectors, the lack
of inadequate activity and exer-
cise programs for residents, ade-
quate care for the disturbed resi-
dents — the list is endless.

Here are some comments by
hospital workers, taken from the
report, which typify the situation:

“Residents are left lying in wet
beds for hours.”’ )

‘People are often coming up
to me and saying they want to
die.”’

“A lot of residents feel like
prisoners because of restraints or

Harry
Rankin

being left in small, lonely rooms
while other residents are yelling.”

“Tt’s understaffed. Half the
patients go around with no shoes
or socks. Half are in wet beds.
There aren’t enough girls to feed
the ones who can’t eat. They tie
them on the commode and the
patients scream and yell to get
off.”” (That was from a private
hospital.)

“They beg us to sit down and
talk or they grab your hand. But
you wrench it free because you
know you don’t have time to do
your assigned chores.”’

“‘T’ve seen a number of resi-
dents drugged to the point of not
being able to feed themselves, just
because they’re noisy.’’

“Enema rubbers and dispos-
able gloves are washed and re-
used. They are not sterilized.”

“It?s been almost three years
since the last fire drill.”

What does the Hospital Em-
ployees Union propose to correct
this bad situation?

Summed up, they want ‘‘the

time, training and supplies need-.

ed to provide first rate physical
care, and enrich the quality of life

- for the residents.”
Specifically, they recommend:
@ The.government should es-
tablish fixed and adequate staff
levels for every type of care facil-

ity with provision for upgrading,

and increased training;

@ All residents in all facilities
should have a planned physio-
therapy program to improve their
physical ability;

@ Special reality orientation
programs for very confused resi-
dents;

@ Residents must be able to
use their own money to build or
maintain their independence and
brighten their lives;

@ Stricter control over the un-
necessary use of drugs, with all
medications to be given only by
trained R.N.s or graduate nurses;

@ Facilities should be requir-

ed to provide some choice of
foods;

@ New guidelines for fire
safety should be adopted and im-
plemented;

@ Inspectors should make
frequent, rigorous inspections
with no advance warning;

e A total overhaul of all regu-
lations, guidelines and standards
for care facilities in B.C. is essen-
tial;

@ Toeliminate the last vestige
of profit from B.C.’s health care
system, the government should
launch an aggressive program of
purchase and, if necessary, ex-
propriation of all profit-making
privately owned care facilities. (It
was noted in the report that in one
case the owner of a private hospi-
tal subsidized by the government
paid himself a part-time salary of
$42,000 a year as well as paying
his own company $128,000 a year
in rent for his own premises.)

The Hospital Employees Un-
ion is working hard to change
things for the better. It should be
commended for its efforts and it
deserves public support.

These institutions for the elder-
ly must not be ‘‘waiting rooms for
death.”” They must be places
where residents ‘‘enjoy new
lives’’ in the time they have left.

We owe it to the elderly and we
owe it to ourselves. Any one of us
could land up there one day.

Socred committee
stalling on wards

There should be no debate on the
merits of a ward system for Van-
couver by the provincial
legislature’s committee on private
members’ bills, COPE alderman
Bruce Yorke said this week’

“The issue has been settled — by
a plebiscite in which a majority
voted for a full ward system and by
city council which voted to have a
ward system in place for the 1982
elections. The duty of the
legislature is simply to make the ap-
propriate changes in the charter,”’
he said Tuesday.

The charter amendment was
drafted by Vancouver city council,
presented as a petition to the
legislature by Socred MLA George
Mussallem and then referred to the
private members’ bills committee.
The bill requires a majority vote of
the committee to send it back to the
legislature and then a unanimous
vote of the legislature for it to
receive first reading.

‘‘There is an obvious attempt to
stall the bill in committee,’”” NDP
MLA for Vancouver Centre
Emery Barnes, a member of the
committee, told the Tribune Tues-

. day. “‘If they (the Socreds) intend

to kill it, they will do it in commit-
tee.’’

Barnes echoed Yorke’s position
that the ward system issure should
not be up for debate in the commit-
tee. “To debate the merits of a
ward system would be to deny the
electorate of Vancouver their
choice which they have already
made,’’ he said.

However it appeared that the
Socred dominated committee was

' intending to open debate on the

ward system by issuing informal in-
vitations to a number of people to
appear before the committee and
speak to the bill. Among those to
be invited by committee chairman

Bruce Strachan were mayor Mike
Harcourt, TEAM alderman May
Brown and defeated mayor Jack
Volrich.

“Volrich is a specious choice to
appear before the committee. It 18
just a way of opening the debate all
over again,’ warned Barnes. “If
the committee ends up with @
stream of witnesses fulibustering :
on the matter, that will kill it.” —~

Brown shouldn’s appear before

the committee either, said Yorke:
‘‘Harcourt should speak for the cl-_
ty and the committee should get
one message,” he said.

The 13-member committee in-
cludes five NDP members and
eight Socreds. Barnes is the sole

NDP MLA from Vancouver of

the committee, but it includes three

Socred Vancouver MLA’s, all

cabinet ministers: Evan Wolfe,

Peter Hyndman and Stephen
Rogers. . a
If the ward system is to be im
place for the 1982 elections, the bill
must be passed in this session of the
legislature so that ward boundaries
can be in place by the end of the
year and a voters list prepared on
the basis of the new wards.
According to current rumor.at

the legislature there are only three —
weeks remaining in the present ses-
sion, said Barnes, and that places”
an urgency on the work of the com: —
mittee. He said that he will propos¢
that the committee meet every day
until it is ready to vote on the bill.

“Tf this bill doesn’t pass this ses-

sion of the legislature, then the
government MLA’s for Vancouvet —
must be held responsible,” he said.

The proposed charter -amend-

ment would give Vancouver city
council the same powers as other
B.C. municipalities have under the -
Municipal Act to choose either at
large or ward elections and tO
define the boundaries of the wards. "

Joe was only 30.

People and Issues

Be rc en oe TE art care eo aac OO Ew, EE, SI EES ETE eT
f t was only two weeks ago that we were working alongside him at
Burke Mountain Labor Festival in Maple Ridge. So it was with
an especially deep shock and sadness that we learned of the tragic
’ and untimely death last Wednesday of Joe Yoshida, a close sup-
porter of the Tribune and a friend to all of us on the staff.

A quiet man who gave freely of his talents as a cartoonist and
photographer, Joe’s work had appeared in both the Tribune and the
Fishermen. His most recent photograph in our pages showed a dem-
onstration by the United Fishermen and Allied Workers outside the

provincial legislature. He was himself a member of Local 1 of that |
union, having worked as a fisherman since 1976. Al
He had also been a member of the Young Communist Leaguefor | —
several years, having joined while a student. a
Scores of his friends as well as relatives filled the Glenhaven | —
Chapel in Vancouver Friday for a funeral service.

ae * * * *

The Canadian Peace Congress ‘‘Peace is Everybody’s Business”’
petition drive is gathering steam in B.C. towards its 150,000
signature target. However the petition drive hasn’t yet been visible »
enough, Jonnie Rankin, co-ordinator of the petition drive for the
B.C. Peace Council, tells us. And with that in mind the Peace Coun-
cil has organized a special petitioning blitz for Saturday, June 27 in
Downtown Vancouver. The aim is to put petitioners on every major
corner in the downtown area in a demonstration for peace which | .
should net several thousand signatures as well. Anyone who can | —
spare some time that day are asked to report the Peace Council of-
fice, Room 712, 207 West Hastings, between the hours of 11 a.m.
and 3 p.m. The blitz goes ahead, rain or shine.

Reig

2, CITY
OF VANCOUVER

oliday Shopping Regulation By-Law
Gastown and Chinatown Only

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Watch for the advertisement in the Vancouver Sun and Pro-
vince, June 23rd, giving details of the vote to be taken on the

above by-law and where you may vote.
VOTING DAY —
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 24th, 1981
8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

* * * * *

W. reported earlier that the Communist Party was moving into |
new B.C. offices on July 1. However a considerable amount of | —
volunteer labor has put the new offices into shape sooner than ex- | —
pected and the move is now scheduled for this Monday, June 22.

The new offices will be open to the public on Tuesday, June23.The |
new address is Suite 103 - 2747 East Hastings St., Vancouver, ]
V5K 1Z8. There is also a new telephone number, 254-9836. al

R. Henry
City Clerk

PACIFIC TRIBUNE— JUNE 19, 1981— Page 2 a