Tuesday July 29, 2025 | VICTORIA, BC[Posted at 11 am | Updated 11:44 am & 12:12 pm]
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
While emphasizing the shortfall of long-term care facilities for seniors in BC, the BC Seniors Advocate says that there needs to also be more housing and community organization for seniors to age in place within their communities.
This is about two approaches converging … the idea of live-in medical-style care for aged people (i.e. institutional long-term care) versus aging in place at home and in community. Both are long-standing concepts and both now require a continuum of planning and funding, says BC Seniors Advocate Dan Levitt.
Current intake system:
- It’s long been known that seniors who end up in hospital for lack of a long-term care space will be fast-tracked to get into long-term care.
- Seniors who have some home support (whether provided by government or family members) will generally not be prioritized.
Need for long-term planning:
Levitt points out what he feels is a lack of long-term planning by the provincial government, citing the number of long-term care beds currently in place and being built, versus the needs of a significant increase in the number of people over 75.
Spend on both:
The finance ministry is always juggling priorities within the provincial budget. That’s especially the case now with the impacts of the trade war with the United States (BC has been reviewing expenditures and paring back where they can).
Levitt said a few times today that government seems to find money for a range of things. He is pushing for government to prioritize seniors care, especially with regard to building more long-term care spaces.
As well, there should be attention to developing housing so that seniors are part of the community — both in terms of housing type and situational arrangements.
Levitt says there should be a “continuum” of government attention to both long-term care (a service within the health-care system) and appropriate housing (largely under the purview of Housing and Municipal Affairs).
Long-term care demand:
Over the past 10 years, the waitlist for long-term care in B.C. has ballooned, says Levitt.
- Between 2016 and 2025, the number of people waiting to be admitted to long-term care went up from 2,381 to 7,212, an increase of 200%.
- The provincial average wait time has grown by 98% over the past eight years, from 146 days in 2018, the first year data was collected, to 290 days in 2025.
Six recommendations:
Of his six recommendations to government today, Levitt includes a deadline … that government announce their intentions to build more long-term care by October 1, 2025 which is the International Day of Older Persons.
The BC Seniors Advocate has made six recommendations in his report ‘From Shortfall to Crisis: Growing Demand for Long-Term Care Beds in B.C.’ aimed at meeting current and future demand for long-term care:
- Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Ministry of Infrastructure, extend and update the Long-Term Care Bed Expansion Plan to increase the supply of new long-term care beds with funding commitments beyond 2030/31 to increase capacity, meet growing demand and reduce wait times.
- The Ministry of Health improve access to community-based supports to help seniors remain at home longer and reduce the demand for long-term care by:
- Eliminating the financial barrier to accessing the provincial home support program;
- Increasing the availability of adult day programs; and
- Increasing the availability of respite care.
- The Ministry of Health strengthen the navigation of the long-term care system by establishing a consistent and transparent process, and expand access to essential supports for seniors and families waiting for publicly-subsidized long-term care. Improving supports for seniors and their families should include eliminating the home support assessed client contribution cost for people waiting for long-term care.
- The Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the ministries of Housing and Infrastructure, develop a comprehensive plan to expand access to a broader range of publicly-subsidized seniors’ housing options.
- The Ministry of Health must act with urgency to conduct a comprehensive review of health authority waitlist management practices and develop wait time targets.
- The Ministry of Health develop a detailed action plan outlining how it will address the findings and recommendations of this report, including clear timelines and deliverables with annual updates. This plan must be submitted to the BC Seniors Advocate by October 1, 2025, the International Day of Older Persons.
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NEWS SECTIONS: AGE & GENERATIONS | SENIORS | HEALTH | LONG-TERM CARE | ISLAND HEALTH