VICTORIA — British Columbia's seniors advocate has released her annual snapshot of residential care facilities in the province, highlighting modest improvements in hours of care provided to the elderly, but raising concerns about the drugs they receive every day.
Isobel Mackenzie says provincial guidelines require 3.36 hours of daily direct care services such as bathing or therapy for each senior but data shows just 15 per cent of all facilities met that standard last year.
Her report, covering almost 300 publicly subsidized residential care facilities, says the daily care figure has improved almost six per cent from one year earlier.
However, she says she can't "take a lot of heart" from it when 85 per cent of facilities are still not meeting recommended guidelines.
The report shows a seven per cent drop in the number of seniors prescribed antipsychotics without a diagnosis of psychosis, but Mackenzie says the use of the drugs is still far higher than in many other provinces.
She also raises concerns about the 48 per cent of residents prescribed antidepressants because just 24 per cent have been diagnosed with depression.
She says the many side effects from antidepressants, such as lethargy and confusion, mimic the symptoms of dementia.
"How do we know what their functionality would be like if we had weaned them off the antidepressants," she says.
"Stunningly high" numbers of new admissions to care homes are prescribed antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs within days of arriving at the home, Mackenzie says.
"Once you start on these medications, it is difficult to make the adjustment to take people off the medications," she adds.
Mackenzie's report covers 293 publicly subsidized residential care facilities and the roughly 40,000 seniors who are assisted by those facilities every year.
