New data released by B.C. Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt shows the province’s population of people over the age of 65 is growing nearly four times as fast as the number of new care home beds.
“We are at the beginning of a rapid increase in the number of people 65 and over, and we know the gap between the seniors’ population and older adults requiring public services will only widen if we don’t act now,” Levitt said in a Tuesday (Jan. 29) news release.
Levitt released the information along with a 2025 directory of the 301 long-term care and 133 assisted-living facilities currently in operation in B.C. He finds that the total number of beds has increased by five per cent since 2019/20. During that time, the number of people over 65 increased by 19 per cent.
The Office of the Seniors Advocate has sounded the alarm about this trend before, releasing a report last summer on the growing demand for long-term care. Levitt says the waitlists continue to grow.
“Public home support services remain unaffordable for many seniors and don’t provide adequate help for older people to age at home,” he said. “The stories I hear from families at their breaking point caring for their loved ones are heartbreaking. We simply must do better.”
The directory is released each year to keep the public informed about what is included in each care home, such as funded care hours, number of beds and room configuration, spending on food, medication use, use of physical restraints, complexity of care in the resident population, licensing complaints, reportable incidents and inspection reports.
This year’s directory added information about admissions from hospitals and the community. Levitt says it also revealed some improvement, such as an increased number of single rooms instead of double or triple rooms.
“However, there are still many areas of concern, including use of antipsychotic medication without a diagnosis of psychosis remaining above the national average, as well as increases in substantiated complaints and reportable incidents last year,” he said.
The Health Ministry’s 10-year expansion plan aims to increase the number of beds by 10 per cent between 2025 and 2030, with no new beds planned after that. This would add 2,935 beds.
But the Office of the Seniors Advocate says there is already a 2,000-bed shortfall, and at this rate, with current population trends, this will result in a 16,000-bed shortfall by 2035.