BY NORM TOLLINSKY

Aging at Home programs funded by the North West LHIN are helping to keep seniors from across northwestern Ontario out of long-term care homes. Respite care, housekeeping, home maintenance, snow plowing and transportation services are also designed to reduce pressure on emergency departments and acute care hospital beds.

“What we’re seeing is that caregivers are often quite elderly and often have some health issues of their own,” said Carol Neff, community services facilitator with Wesway, a non-profit organization providing respite care in Thunder Bay. “You might have a couple who are both in their 80s and one is the primary caregiver of the other. They need to have a break to carry on giving that care because, without family caregivers, the health-care system would collapse.”

Wesway received a little over $300,000 under the LHIN’s Aging at Home program to provide respite care services in Nipigon, Terrace Bay, Marathon, Manitouwadge and other communities east of Thunder Bay.

“We knew we wouldn’t be able to replicate the service we provide in the city, so we decided on a family directed funding approach in the district,” said Neff. “The families themselves are being empowered to make decisions on how the funding is to be spent and hire their own workers. It might be a friend, a neighbour or another local service provider agency that’s already providing some support to them.”

Respite workers may either care for frail seniors at home or take them out, allowing their caregivers to recharge their batteries. The program was launched in the fall and was up and running in December.

Being able to pay for respite services is important because caregivers are often reluctant to ask for favours. “You might ask for help once,” said Neff, “but if what you need is regular, ongoing help, people are reluctant to ask for it, and, even if you’re a kind neighbour willing to help out now and then, it becomes a burden if you’re going to be relied on a couple times a week, every week, so there’s that informal support network that we all rely on, but there’s something beyond that for respite.”

Seniors being cared for at home have much more challenging needs than ever, making respite care much more than a frill, she added. “Family caregivers need something they can really count on, and being able to pay for the service makes it more dependable. It frees them up to be able to ask for help.”

Red Cross
Another program under the LHIN’s Aging at Home program is enabling the Red Cross in Thunder Bay to provide transportation services, snow plowing, light housekeeping and home maintenance.

Funding from the LHIN covered the cost of two vans, which are used to take seniors to medical appointments. Unlike the Handi-Transit service in the community that is primarily for seniors with severe mobility issues, the service operated by the Red Cross is for seniors with more moderate mobility limitations who have given up driving. Operated by volunteers, the service is available for the modest price of $5 one way.
“The objective is to allow people to stay in their own home longer,” said Rob Kilgour, district manager for the Red Cross in Thunder Bay.

The Red Cross has also been funded to provide four hours a month of housekeeping services for seniors who require help vacuuming and cleaning. There is also a program for home maintenance and repair, including snow removal in winter and grass cutting in summer.

“In Thunder Bay, we can have seniors who are literally bunkered in when it snows,” said Kilgour. “We had one couple who were both legally blind and didn’t qualify for other services. We went to meet them, looked at their situation and, within two days, we had the snow plows out so they could get in and out of their house.”
The service is provided for the price of $15, substantially less than the going rate of $40 to $50, said Kilgour.

Another Red Cross program provides congregate dining opportunities for seniors, allowing them to remain connected to the community.

Several transportation services have also been funded across northwestern Ontario to take seniors to medical appointments in Thunder Bay. Manitouwadge General Hospital, for example, has been provided with a 14-seat van that will pick up seniors in communities along the Highway 17 corridor and bring them home three times a week.

Manitouwadge
A private service offering transportation on a daily basis was unsuccessful because of the frequency of the service and inadequate volume, so the MedXpress service offered through Manitouwadge General will go one step further and co-ordinate specialist appointments to coincide with its thrice-weekly service.

“Instead of just phoning and asking for an appointment, family physicians will be asked to make the referral through a co-ordinator here at the hospital,” said Jocelyn Bourgoin, director of planning and organizational effectiveness at Manitouwadge General.
The co-ordinator will then phone the specialist office and make the booking for a day and time when the van will be in Thunder Bay.

“It’s a huge problem because we don’t have any transportation services in our community, not even Greyhound, and what’s happening is some people just don’t bother going to their appointments,” said Bourgoin.

The problem is especially acute in Manitouwadge because the community has become a haven for retirees attracted to the town’s cheap housing. “When the last mine closed, the housing stock was sold to a promoter, who marketed it around the world, so we have approximately 800 seniors – many from southern Ontario and even some from overseas – who have purchased homes for as little as $25,000 to $30,000 and have retired here.”

The 800 kilometre return trip to Thunder Bay from Manitouwadge costs seniors $278, which is the same as the provincial government’s travel grant.

For people who don’t have the cash on hand to pay up front, MedXpress allows seniors to sign over their travel grant to the hospital “because it can take three months to get reimbursed by the government,” said Bourgoin.

The LHIN has also provided vans to organizations in Dryden, Kenora, Fort Frances, Sioux Lookout, Greenstone and Marathon to transport seniors to medical appointments within their own communities.

These and other Aging at Home initiatives in the northwest and similar initiatives in the northeast are part of a three-year $700 million province-wide initiative announced by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in August 2007.