Calgary – Harry Chase, Official Opposition Critic for Seniors and Community Supports, says that while he welcomes the additional supportive living spaces announced today, he’s concerned that there are no additional long-term care spaces, which provide essential medical services supportive living spaces cannot.

“Across this province there are hundreds of vulnerable Albertans, many of them senior citizens, who are waiting in pain and anxiety for public long-term care beds,” Chase says. “While supportive living spaces are fine for those who need minimal care, they do nothing for the most vulnerable Albertans, those with serious and ongoing medical needs who don’t have the money to pay for expensive private care.”

Chase says that supportive living represents the lowest level of care, but at a very high cost. To truly provide the care Albertans need, the province must invest in publicly funded, publicly delivered continuing care, including long-term care and non-profit community-based home care.

“By ignoring the desperate need for public long-term care, the government is condemning hundreds of vulnerable seniors to very unpleasant circumstances,” Chase says. “Many are stuck in crowded hospitals, occupying acute care beds and contributing against their will to the emergency room wait-time crisis. Others live in fear that their retirement savings will run out before they die, leaving them in desperate poverty in their final years of life. What kind of thank-you is this to the men and women who sacrificed so much to build this province?” 

– 30 –

For more information contact:

Earl J. Woods
(780) 904-5430

[direct link to this article]