HALIFAX — In Jen Powley’s Halifax apartment, there’s a bustle of activity as moving boxes fly open and her new roommate arranges for an independent life beyond the walls of a nursing home.
“It feels so good,” says Vicky Levack, the new arrival. “I really appreciate it. It’s changed my life. In fact, it may have saved my life.”
The scene in a south-end condominium is the result of a provincially funded pilot project for younger Nova Scotians being shifted out of long-term care into renovated apartments in the city, with round-the-clock care available.
Levack, a 31-year-old with cerebral palsy, has been a prominent activist for people with disabilities, fighting for the past decade to leave a nursing home.
Meanwhile, Powley, an author and community activist who lives with advanced multiple sclerosis, has offered to take a roommate in her apartment — where she has lived with caregivers for 15 years — as part of the project.
The roommates are an early sign of the Progressive Conservative government’s commitment of $3.5 million to move 25 young adults from care homes into the community over the next year, with the goal of moving 200 people over a four-year period. It’s being watched across Canada by advocates for independent living, who argue the programs respect human dignity, save money — and may be safer.
Powley, who speaks softly due to her advanced multiple sclerosis, says the shift can’t come too soon, especially after COVID-19 — during which Canadian nursing homes had one of the highest death rates among western nations.
“I’m glad Vicky is around and out of a nursing home,” Powley said Wednesday in an interview. In her 2017 autobiography, “Just Jen,” she wrote of her own fears of losing her independence, saying, “the thought of institutional care invaded my dreams.”
Others will soon be joining the two activists. Jennifer Saulnier, a 50-year-old with a spinal cord injury, said in an interview Wednesday she’s moving next door to Powley later this month, exiting the Northwood facility — where 53 residents died during the pandemic.
“We’re too young to be in nursing homes. We need some care but we’re not fully to the point where we need total care,” she said.
Saulnier said the program is cheaper for tenants than the nursing home, adding that while a portion of her pension still goes for rent, she expects to have more money left over than the $200 to $300 she had available for expenses each month while at the nursing home.
The two Nova Scotia apartments have required about $200,000 in renovations, estimates Carrie Ernst, the director of Independent Living Nova Scotia, the non-profit operating the project. There will also be the costs of round-the-clock staff to help with the care of the new apartment dwellers.
Ernst argues the costs of long-term care homes are likely higher considering the need for full-time medical staff and the expense of maintaining and renovating aging buildings.
Staff at some of the earlier centres for independent living in Canada say there’s solid evidence that housing younger adults in their own apartments is ultimately cheaper.
Kevin Kowal, the human resource consultant at Ten Ten Sinclair Housing Inc., in Winnipeg, said the centre has steadily grown from the early 1970s, when it offered housing to people with spinal cord injuries, into a system that has multiple units around the city, providing rental units and care to about 100 people.
“Everyone is paying rent. Some people are quite well off and pay normal rent, and others are living under the Manitoba housing program. We just have to pay someone to see the tenant for the number of hours they’re assessed to need someone,” he said.
Then there’s the basic dignity of having greater control over one’s life, he explains.
“If someone (an attendant) shows up to help with lunch, and the tenant says, ‘I’m not hungry,’ then the attendant will say, ‘OK, let’s do something else,’” explained Kowal. “The tenant directs the attendant.”
The Nova Scotia model was also influenced by Vie Autonome Montérégie, a program based in communities southeast of Montreal, where a school was converted into a series of apartments for young adults with disabilities, now known as the “Le Sieur de Normandie” in St-Jean-sur-Richelieu.
Nineteen of the units provide partial care, while 11 provide round-the-clock staffing for younger adults with disabilities, and there’s space for social gatherings and communal meals, when desired.
Jacques Lapointe, the director, said his own son is among the residents, and it’s changed his life over the past decade. “Those people in the apartments are happy. They have a real way to live. The way they put things in their apartment, it’s so important,” he said.
Meanwhile, as Nova Scotia attempts to catch up, Levack says she’ll keep advocating for adults in facilities who want to follow her path. She acknowledges there are still long waiting lists to participate, whether in Nova Scotia or elsewhere in Canada.
Sitting in her new living room, Levack gestures to her new assistants, saying she’s still getting used to how they ask her opinion on everything from upcoming housewarming parties to how to move her body and give her care.
“This is new. Caregivers are more saying, ‘OK, I trust you (Vicky),’ which is what I’ve wanted for approximately ever,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 18, 2022.
HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government says it could be months before it reveals how many people are on the wait-list for a family doctor.
The head of the province’s health authority told reporters Wednesday that the government won’t release updated data until the 160,000 people who were on the wait-list in June are contacted to verify whether they still need primary care.
Karen Oldfield said Nova Scotia Health is working on validating the primary care wait-list data before posting new numbers, and that work may take a matter of months. The most recent public wait-list figures are from June 1, when 160,234 people, or about 16 per cent of the population, were on it.
“It’s going to take time to make 160,000 calls,” Oldfield said. “We are not talking weeks, we are talking months.”
The interim CEO and president of Nova Scotia Health said people on the list are being asked where they live, whether they still need a family doctor, and to give an update on their health.
A spokesperson with the province’s Health Department says the government and its health authority are “working hard” to turn the wait-list registry into a useful tool, adding that the data will be shared once it is validated.
Nova Scotia’s NDP are calling on Premier Tim Houston to immediately release statistics on how many people are looking for a family doctor. On Tuesday, the NDP introduced a bill that would require the health minister to make the number public every month.
“It is unacceptable for the list to be more than three months out of date,” NDP Leader Claudia Chender said Tuesday.
Chender said releasing this data regularly is vital so Nova Scotians can track the government’s progress on its main 2021 campaign promise: fixing health care.
The number of people in need of a family doctor has more than doubled between the 2021 summer election campaign and June 2024. Since September 2021 about 300 doctors have been added to the provincial health system, the Health Department said.
“We’ll know if Tim Houston is keeping his 2021 election promise to fix health care when Nova Scotians are attached to primary care,” Chender said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
ST. JOHN’S, N.L. – Newfoundland and Labrador‘s chief medical officer is monitoring the rise of whooping cough infections across the province as cases of the highly contagious disease continue to grow across Canada.
Dr. Janice Fitzgerald says that so far this year, the province has recorded 230 confirmed cases of the vaccine-preventable respiratory tract infection, also known as pertussis.
Late last month, Quebec reported more than 11,000 cases during the same time period, while Ontario counted 470 cases, well above the five-year average of 98. In Quebec, the majority of patients are between the ages of 10 and 14.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick has declared a whooping cough outbreak across the province. A total of 141 cases were reported by last month, exceeding the five-year average of 34.
The disease can lead to severe complications among vulnerable populations including infants, who are at the highest risk of suffering from complications like pneumonia and seizures. Symptoms may start with a runny nose, mild fever and cough, then progress to severe coughing accompanied by a distinctive “whooping” sound during inhalation.
“The public, especially pregnant people and those in close contact with infants, are encouraged to be aware of symptoms related to pertussis and to ensure vaccinations are up to date,” Newfoundland and Labrador’s Health Department said in a statement.
Whooping cough can be treated with antibiotics, but vaccination is the most effective way to control the spread of the disease. As a result, the province has expanded immunization efforts this school year. While booster doses are already offered in Grade 9, the vaccine is now being offered to Grade 8 students as well.
Public health officials say whooping cough is a cyclical disease that increases every two to five or six years.
Meanwhile, New Brunswick’s acting chief medical officer of health expects the current case count to get worse before tapering off.
A rise in whooping cough cases has also been reported in the United States and elsewhere. The Pan American Health Organization issued an alert in July encouraging countries to ramp up their surveillance and vaccination coverage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.
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