More than a third of B.C.'s seniors in long-term care homes are being prescribed antipsychotic medication even though only about three per cent actually need the drugs.
That's one of the conclusions in a report released by the province's seniors' advocate this week.
It's a disturbing thought.
Overprescription of anti-psychotics may be robbing people in their golden years of lucidity in the name of convenience.
Not only that, the report found that up to 4,400 seniors with moderate physical needs or mild dementia could be getting by comfortably in their own home rather than in long-term care homes - if they had access to adequate home care services.
Ontario and Alberta are both ahead of B.C. in that respect, the report found.
Not only is prematurely going into a care home bad for a senior's own health, it takes up a bed that could be used by someone more in need.
As seniors' advocate Isobel Mackenzie pointed out, the scarcity of residential care beds is a huge issue in B.C.
"If we are filling even five per cent of these scarce beds with folks who could live independently, that is 1,500 beds that could open up provincewide," she said.
Moreover, Mackenzie noted a significant lack of rehabilitative therapies in B.C.'s residential care facilities - therapies that are key to keeping seniors moving properly and preventing the downward spiral towards more acute health-care needs.
Unfortunately, the problems highlighted in the report are indicative of a larger trend across all sectors of government.
When service providers complain that they are underfunded and/or understaffed, the familiar mantra from the provincial government has been that service providers must "be creative."
As the baby boomer generation continues to grey and requires more medical intervention, hospital stays and - eventually - long-term care beds, "creativity" will only go so far.
Those in that demographic would do well to start asking now what they want their final years to look like - and what they're willing to invest today to ensure it happens.
- guest editorial from the North Shore News
