The province's seniors advocate says the good news is B.C. seniors are living longer and staying healthy longer.
But the bad news is service levels are not being maintained year over year despite a growing aging population, B.C. seniors advocate Dan Levitt said Wednesday (Dec. 11) during the release of his office's 2024 Monitoring Seniors Services report. He said services are getting worse, and some are going backward in several areas.
He said his number-one ask is a seniors plan, whether that's around housing, healthcare, transportation or income support. Levitt added seniors are "seeing the fragmentation."
鈥淯nfortunately, despite government investment in seniors鈥� services, we continue to fall behind meeting many basic needs. There is less home care, long-term care beds, rent subsidies and subsidized seniors housing available today per population compared to five years ago," he said.
For people aged 65-plus, there were slight decreases in hospitalization and emergency department visits. The percentage of people with dementia remained the same.
However, the waitlists for knee and hip replacements for people aged 65 or older increased 53 per cent and 59 per cent, respectively.
Seniors, he said, are waiting longer for long-term care. In 2023/24, 6,500 people were waiting for a publicly subsidized long-term care bed, which is a 150-per-cent increase from five years ago. But the wait time for someone admitted to long-term care from the hospital was 36 days, compared to the 225 for someone assessed as eligible but not urgent from the community.
Levitt added it's "particularly worrisome" when the province's senior population has grown 45 per cent over the past 10 years. B.C.'s population is about 5.5 million. About 1.1 million are over the age of 65 and more than 130,000 are over the age of 80.
This is Levitt's first report since the provincial election in October.
鈥淭he new government must develop an action oriented, measurable cross-ministry seniors鈥� plan that defines how it will meet the growing needs of a population we have known for decades will access significant public services as they age."
The report focused on key services in the province, from healthcare and housing to transportation and reports to police. Levitt said it highlights where seniors' needs are being met and where improvements are most needed. was first published in 2015 and is updated each year.
New in the 2024 report is that the population of those 85-plus increased 10 per cent and those over the age of 65 rose 15 per cent.
Levitt added his office plans to release a report on long-term care in the new year.
