N.B. government to provide rehab for seniors outside of hospitals
The Gallant government is setting up a pilot project as part of its plan to make it easier for seniors to live at home longer.
The program will allow seniors who've been in a hospital for treatment to get 21 days of rehabilitation at a special care home, with weeks of follow-up care at home, rather than staying in hospital for rehab.
In other cases, seniors might not need to enter the hospital at all.
The hope is there will be fewer seniors in hospitals, where many of them are taking up acute-care beds that are therefore unavailable for patients who need them.
It should also lower the cost of caring for seniors, says Social Development Minister Cathy Rogers.
"It's the most expensive place to be, in the hospital," Rogers said at the announcement Wednesday. "It's also very expensive to have 24-7 nursing care.
"For quality of care, seniors would rather not be recovering and learning reablement in a closed-in environment. They would rather be at home. We know that it's more cost-effective to deliver the services to the senior's homes."
Reablement refers to follow-up care at home that helps seniors re-learn basic living skills, such as cooking and laundry. Seniors will receive three to six weeks of this care once their time in the special care home is up.
Six-month pilot project
For six months, the Department of Social Development will fund five beds in three special-care homes to test how the program would work.
After the six-month pilot, the program will be rolled out provincially.
The care will be delivered by occupational therapists, physical therapists, respiratory therapists, rehabilitation assistants and home-support workers, including some new hires.
The minister says it'll be funded from the $10 million set aside this year under the province's Home First program, with other initiatives still to come.
Seniors will get up to 21 days of intense rehabilitation in the special care homes, either after hospital treatment or instead of it.
"We are hoping that it will help with unnecessary hospital admissions," said Nadine Peters, the operations manager at Paradise Villa, one of the three special care homes that will have one of the beds.
"We are hoping it will assist with getting some seniors from the hospital here to the rehab bed. Let's practice some healthy aging and get the senior back home, where they prefer to be."
