Leela Sharon Aheer Chestermere-Strathmore MLA

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on seniors in Alberta shows the failures of the province’s seniors care system, according to two Alberta organizations.

On Oct. 1, the International Day of Older Persons, the Friends of Medicare and Public Interest Alberta’s Senior Task Force, composed of over 15 seniors groups and allied organizations, hosted a press conference to discuss issues facing seniors in Alberta.

The group spoke out against the disproportional impact of COVID-19 on seniors. In Alberta, 97 per cent of COVID-related deaths have been people aged 60 or older, including 165 residents in continuing care, as of Oct. 1, 2020.

Across the nation, 81 per cent of COVID-19 deaths were residents of long-term care homes, according to the Royal Society of Canada, a rate outpacing other countries worldwide. These impacts have been the worst in for-profit facilities, which had more extensive outbreaks and more deaths, according to research published in the journal Vulnerable Populations.

The disease exposed the shortcomings of the seniors’ care system, from decades of privatization and inequity from “perpetual cost-costing.”

According to the organizations, change is needed, including getting profits out of senior care, ensuring the system is easy to access and navigate, legislating staff-to-patient ratios and stopping the offloading costs of items on residents.

“We are calling for a fundamental cultural change in seniors’ care, a move away from the culture of corporatization,” said Sandra Azocar, executive director of Friends of Medicare, in a release. “We are calling for changes in provincial policy to reflect the values of public health care, to embrace clear provincial standards that will improve access to care and to establish ways of assessing the quality of care that our seniors receive.”