It’s official: another seniors’ home shut down by Campbell government

Forced relocation of Burnaby facility residents increases risk of death

Burnaby’s Cascade Residence will shut its doors March 31, 2003 despite the negative impact that relocation has on nursing home residents and in the absence of any plans to accommodate the long-term care needs of the area’s frail seniors says the Hospital Employees’ Union.

“This is another unacceptable example of the impact of the Campbell Liberals’ ill-conceived scheme for seniors’ care,” says HEU secretary-business manager Chris Allnutt.

“Patient relocation studies suggest that when frail elderly residents are transferred, they are two to four times more likely to die than those not transferred.

“Cascade residents are being moved in order to meet the March 31 closure date and the risk of forced relocations is raising concerns for residents and family members that politicians and health bureaucrats are ignoring,” says Allnutt.

HEU-commissioned research released last week indicates that forced relocation — recognized in the United States as a bona fide diagnosis known as Relocation Stress Syndrome but unacknowledged in Canada — results in elevated mortality risk and is physically and psychologically traumatic to frail elderly patients and facility residents.

“Cascade Residence, while not new and modern, is a functional, public, extended care facility,” says Allnutt. “It is ludicrous to close Cascade when there is a need for more seniors’ residential care and no alternative plans for providing that elsewhere in the municipality.”

The Fraser Health Authority is shutting the doors of Cascade after reneging on an earlier deal to replace it with 200 new multi-level care beds and assisted living spaces in Burnaby .

-30- Contact: Margi Blamey, communications officer, 604-456-7094

Click here for a copy in pdf format of “A brief literature review of the effects of relocation on the elderly” by researcher Victoria Robinson

Click here for a copy in Microsoft Word format of “A brief literature review of the effects of relocation on the elderly” by researcher Victoria Robinson