The Gemstone Care Centre

Category: Supportive Housing | Author(s): Madelyn Gammel

Image Credit: Trellis Seniors – The Gemstone Care Centre

Location Address: 1955 Tranquille Rd, Kamloops, BC, Canada

Subject

The Gemstone Care Centre is a long-term care home for the elderly in the Brocklehurst neighbourhood of Kamloops BC. They have been in operation since June 2013, with the average age of the individuals living in Gemstone being about 85 years old. 

Crystal Clark, the General Manager of this care home shares that they have 130 beds, 125 are subsidized and five are private. These rooms have been equipped with “an electric bed, wardrobe, dresser, night table and room chair” and “encourage” individuals to personalize their rooms. There are many common areas including “[a] bistro-events room, a hair salon, a family quiet lounge and a central courtyard to enjoy the gardens with views of the River”. They offer 24-hour specialized care in a secure and safe environment for elderly individuals with complex needs. They “focus on Quality of Life and embrace best practices in Person and Family-centered Care”. 

Some of the different services they provide are “medical or non-medical help; and [meeting] personal needs, such as dressing, bathing, grooming, and help using the bathroom”. They also have a “philosophy of care” that they follow which is a “framework of care goals, values, and ethics and it defines how [they] serve.” Their philosophy reflects the care they provide for their residents who live in this establishment.

As of today, this establishment is at full capacity, with a long waitlist of individuals waiting to get in and receive the quality care they deserve for their last remaining years.

Crisis

In an interview with Karen Cooper, the Director of Primary and Community Care for Interior Health, she confirmed that as of Oct 27th, 2022 the average wait time for long-term care centres in Interior Health was 137 days. While this is the shortest wait time they’ve recorded in recent history, it is still not feasible.

There is a large gap between the number of beds available compared to the number of people requiring long-term care. 

As of November 9th, 2022, according to Interior Health, the wait time to get into the Gemstone Care Centre was recorded as six to nine months. While this data may be correct, the Gemstone Care Centre is a highly sought out establishment. Clark explained that it is many elderly individuals’ number one choice, and this reflects the varying wait times. Due to their popularity as a home, she has seen wait times go up to as long as a 12-month to an 18-month wait. That is 365 days to 547 days of waiting for a bed.

The question arises, why not just put their name down on the waiting list now? What’s the harm in planning for the future? Cooper explained that the only way to be able to apply for long-term care is if the individual meets the criteria for long-term care. She stated that “Individuals must be assessed using a tool called RAI which is used across Canada. They must meet LTC criteria: require 24-hour care and have exhausted all other supports in [the] community.” If they do not meet the criteria they cannot be put on a waiting list for a facility.

According to the Kamloops Affordable Housing Summary 2018, the population of 55+ is “growing faster than the population as a whole” (p. 4), which shows that the need for beds is at an all-time high. The 55+ population will only be getting larger as time moves forward. 

Video Credit: Madelyn Gammel

Community Implications

In Kamloops BC, this affects many elderly individuals and their families and spouses. If they are facing complex issues and cannot care for themselves, this means their family must take on the role of caregiver. This can alter their lives, as it can be mentally draining on the carer. Interior Health can provide day home support to families to care for their loved ones while they wait, up to four times a day. This is helpful as trying to balance 24-hour care for an individual, while you have a job, kids, and other responsibilities are very exhausting.

In desperate circumstances, the only options available are respite beds for short-term care if they are available to use that can give the family or spouse a break, or sending the elderly individual to the hospital. Karen Cooper explained that this alternative is not ideal at all. A hospital is a place for sick and injured people. Sending an already vulnerable person there will not improve their care needs. In fact, it may cause them to deteriorate faster. 

In long-term care centres, they offer activities to keep their brain active, physical activities to help them keep what mobility they have strong, three meals a day, bathing, a comfortable bed, and the list goes on. The hospital staff cannot care for an elderly individual in the way they need that meets all the complex care needs. It also fills a bed that may be needed for a hurt or sick individual— just because they have a bed somewhere doesn’t mean it is the right bed. This vicious cycle affects many people in the community in many different ways.

In some cases, an individual’s spouse who was their caregiver, pass away, and now they are left needing a place to live. If there is no availability anywhere, it could lead them to face homelessness. This is not an uncommon circumstance when the waiting period is hundreds of days long.

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A Way Forward

We recognize that no one suggestion will solve the housing crisis in Kamloops, but based on our research, here are some ideas that may help move us even slightly forward.

An idea presented through this research was the idea of “transitional housing” where an individual needing care but is on a waitlist to get into a long-term facility can stay at a “short-term care centre”. Crystal Clark thinks that this idea is a good start and mentions that Ponderosa is doing something similar to the idea of transitional housing, but she adds that there could still be issues regarding staffing. She says “without the staff to be able to run these homes, we’re still in the same boat.” Ideally, there would not need to be transitional housing. 

Another idea that came up while discussing transitional housing with Crystal Clark, was she mentioned the idea of more respite beds. Clark explained that respite beds are “very short-term care” and gave an example, that you would take your elderly family member to one of these facilities (the same idea as long-term care) for a couple of days, which can give these families facing burnout a break and the confidence that their family member is getting food, medication and the proper care. 

Clark suggested that a way to give ease to families facing burnout would be to have facilities explicitly designed for having respite beds along with having them available in most, if not all long-term facilities that are in Kamloops.

Karen Cooper explained that she “long wished for a smaller, more creative housing model for seniors”, similarly designed like smaller group home facilities for developmentally delayed adults. Cooper envisions this style of group homes for 1-10 seniors rather than the 100+ bed facilities. She adds that “if folks don’t have families, others could take seniors into their homes with supports to enable this more home-like experience.” This could be a suitable option for the future of long-term care for the elderly, after all, more beds mean more care.

Overall, looking at the stats that were provided by the Kamloops Affordable Housing Summary 2018, it would be good to recognize that the 55+ is growing and very large. Using this information to facilitate a plan to make more long-term housing for the elderly sounds easier said than done. This is not something that will be solved overnight. If there are more of these care centres this will give ease to older individuals, families and the overall community of Kamloops.