Health Minister Terry Lake has issued the following statement on the Office of the Seniors Advocate report entitled “Caregivers in Distress. More Respite Needed”:

“I’d like to thank the seniors advocate for this report. It highlights important issues that many British Columbians are facing as they care for their loved ones. The ministry shares the seniors advocate’s commitment to high-quality, patient-centred senior’s care and we appreciate her work in examining systemic issues for older adults and their caregivers.

“Government established the Office of the Seniors Advocate to identify issues that may be systemic, and to work with the ministry to improve care for seniors in this province in a sustainable way.

“We recognize the enormous amount of care unpaid caregivers in B.C. provide in supporting seniors’ independence and quality of life. There is no question that caring for an aging loved one with increasingly complex care needs or diminishing physical or mental capacity is stressful.

“While we have made significant increases to our investments in home-health services in the past 10 years, and the number of clients receiving these services has grown, we are also faced with a rapidly aging population. We will examine this report closely to determine what improvements we can make to better support seniors. We must take fresh approaches as we work to address the challenges we face in caring for our province’s growing number of seniors.

“Based on the strategic direction set in our ‘Primary and Community Care in B.C.’ and ‘Rural Health Services in B.C.’ policy papers, we are partnering with health authorities, physicians, unions and other partners across the health system to develop innovative solutions to care for seniors. We know we need to move away from our over-emphasis on hospitals by focusing on better, more integrated community- and primary-care services.

“Health authorities, in collaboration with local health-care teams and the ministry, are finalizing plans to introduce new projects and programs in a number of prototype communities that will better support primary- and community-care for seniors.”