| 2004-01-01 Fostering Hope Readers Digest Living Brenda Battye and Candis McLean Those trying to get a parent into a long-term care home know the frustration and uncertainty. In many places across Canada, the wait may be as long as two years. In Ontario alone, thousands of people are waiting for long-term care. Enter a new idea: Adult Family Care Homes—in effect, foster care for seniors. Stewart Smith, program director for Vancouver’s FolkStone Adult Family Care Homes, came up with the idea when he saw the success of a foster parent program for troubled youth he was running. Two years ago he ran an ad seeking host families for seniors and received more than 200 calls from both lay people and health-care professionals offering their homes. Many of his potential clients are languishing in expensive acute-care hospitals, where a bed costs up to $1,000 a day, while one at FolkStone goes for as little as $1,500 a month. For someone with greater care needs, the cost may be $5, 000 a month, but that’s still cheaper than a hospital bed. “Seniors would be in a home rather than a clinical environment,” says Annette Rose of Sundre, Alta., who spent months looking for care for her 93 year-old mother. “It sounds like an answer to a lot of prayers.” |
In the Media
| HOME SITE MAP CONTACT | ||||
|