Several residential care older persons could well be living independently

A whole new report by B.C.'s Seniors Advocate claims so many elderly senior citizens live in residential care that could very well be living independently. "If you are not in need of that level of attention, it can be a rather uninspiring experience to reside in such a restricted community, that is what you need when you find yourself supplying the safety for higher serious clients," stated Isobel Mackenzie. Mackenzie launched the report, Placement, Drugs and Therapy... We Are Able To Do Better, on Tuesday following looking at health assessment data from B.C.'s 25,000 seniors within residential care as well as 29,000 elderly people getting home care. The elderly people advocate has worked in home based care for Two decades. She says as much as Fifteen per-cent of B.C. seniors at present surviving in residential care are usually inaccurately housed and really should be given access to assisted residing or perhaps community care. An excessive amount of medication given by doctors Mackenzie's report also discovers an overuse of medicines as well as a deficiency of rehabilitation therapy in care facilities. It states that Thirty three % of residential care people are getting prescribed antipsychotic medication, yet only 4 per-cent are generally diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder. "This unneccessary use, or perhaps improper use, or even imbalance of prescription is certainly problematic whenever you look at 50 % of seniors in residential care are on 9 or even more medications." Similarly, up to 50 % of residential care clients are recommended by doctors antidepressant medication when only Twenty four per cent have been identified as having depression. Government not surprised by findings B.C.'s Minister of Health Terry Lake states the provincial government is operating diligently to deal with these issues. "We will work hard with many businesses that are in seniors' care to reduce the reliance on antipsychotics along with prescription medicine in general. "I think those are two findings that are not a real surprise to us and we will be working on to address." The Office of the Seniors Advocate will produce a comprehensive review of seniors' housing at the end of spring.