BR Costly Care Waits – CP

Source: The Canadian Press – Broadcast wire
Nov 5, 2017 

HALIFAX – The younger sisters of a Nova Scotia woman with epilepsy and M-S say the costs of waiting to get her into a nursing home are hard for them to bear.

Fifty-eight-year-old Maureen Dares is being put up in a Halifax hotel room by her sisters Janet and Sandra Glazebrook after a live-in caregiver had to move out, and her own home developed a mould problem.

Her sisters say people need to realize that the cost of private home care will quickly eliminate their savings.

They say they ran through 40-thousand dollars in just a few months to ensure someone was available to look after Dares.

The family says it’s now an emergency, and they can’t keep moving their sister around to temporary spots in homes.

A spokesman for the health authority says he can’t comment on individual cases, but says if a person is offered a placement they’re encouraged to take it even if it is some distance from their hometown.

Advocates for retirees say the problem of the high costs incurred while waiting for a nursing home spots is growing in Canada as the population ages.

They’re urging provincial governments to make plans to take into account the rising number of people in home care who are going to have to shift into nursing homes in the next decade.

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(The Canadian Press)

INDEX: HEALTH NATIONAL ATLANTIC POLITICS