Working Group Member, Residential Care Access Policy Review

Have you helped a family member or friend access residential care services in British Columbia? If so, the Ministry of Health would like your assistance to better understand the challenges and successes of the current access policy.

Open to: Patient partners across the province

Lead Organization or Department

Ministry of Health, Home and Community Care

Aim

The Home and Community Care program provides services to adults of all ages who require full-time care and assistance in a residential facility. The aim of the initiative is to review BC’s policy on access to those services. The inclusion of patient partners in the working group supporting this review will ensure that the review is comprehensive and that improvements align with the goals and needs of clients seeking to access residential care. The working group will look to the patient partners to draw upon their lived experiences to ensure that the perspective of service-users is included in discussions and informs the review.

Level of Engagement

This opportunity is at the level of consult on the spectrum of engagement (www.iap2.org). The promise to you is that the health care partner will listen to and acknowledge your ideas and concerns, and provide feedback on how your input affected the decision.

Eligibility

• Experience supporting a family member or friend to access residential care services in BC.
• Comfortable sharing lived experiences related to residential care services, as well as helping the working group (of approximately 10 to 15 people) to understand how decisions might impact patients and the public.
• Interest in public policy and appreciation of opposing views.
• If you have a strong interest in this work but have not yet completed a PVN orientation and Volunteer Agreement, are unsure if your experience is a good fit or feel another format of engagement would work better with your availability, please contact Leah Smith directly.

 

Logistics

• Vacancies: 2
• Date and time: Working group meetings will occur every two weeks, for two hours. Meetings will be held during normal business hours. Ideally, the patient partner will join the working group by July 2017.
• Location: Teleconference. Patient partners in the Victoria area will have the option to join Ministry of Health participants in-person.
• Commitment: This is a time-limited project which is anticipated to last until December 2017. Meeting materials will be provided in advance of each meeting and will take approximately 15 to 30 minutes to review.
• Note: Patient partners may be invited to participate in an informal interview and sign a project-specific confidentiality agreement as part of the placement process for this opportunity.

Reimbursement

No expenses are anticipated for this opportunity.

Background

In BC, anyone can access publicly-subsidized residential care services regardless of income, as long as they meet the eligibility criteria set out in the Home and Community Care Policy Manual. All clients are assessed by a health authority professional to determine their care needs. If they are found eligible, they are offered a bed in a facility based on a number of criteria. Health authorities try to accommodate individual needs and move clients into a facility that is their first choice. However, as the goal is to find a residential care facility that meets the care needs of the person at risk as quickly as possible, sometimes the person is not placed in the facility that is their first choice. In these situations, health authorities facilitate a transfer to the preferred facility at a later date. This working group will review BC’s policy on accessing residential care and how the policy is implemented by each of the province’s health authorities. The residential care experts on the working group will include representatives from the Ministry of Health, health authorities, and residential care facilities. The intent of the policy review is to understand access from a comprehensive perspective and identify possible opportunities for improvements.

Health Care Partner Contact Information

Leah Smith
Engagement Leader, Patient and Public Engagement | Southern Vancouver Island
778.678.3977
lsmith@bcpsqc.ca