Yellowknife elder left isolated after seniors' day program suspended, family says
A Yellowknife seniors' home has suspended a day program for seniors living outside the centre, and their families say that's left them alone at home.
Avens seniors' community suspended its day program last December. It gave elders the chance to socialize and take part in the centre's activities, and also gave their families and caretakers a break. The program was supposed to be back by March, but that didn't happen and there is no timeline for when it will return.
At 97, Prakash Chugh does not have much opportunity to leave her home in Yellowknife. Her son Pawan Chugh says she feels isolated and alone.
Chugh is one of eight Yellowknife seniors who attended the day program at the Avens seniors' centre. She'd been going for years but was removed last summer since she required too much assistance.
The other seniors had to leave the program in December.
"It was like a family and a second home for her," Pawan Chugh said. "I had to tell her she couldn't go back. She was really heartbroken."
In the time since she stopped going, Prakash Chugh feels isolated and misses the friends she'd met at Avens, her son said.
"It meant a lot to my mom, she used to go there almost daily," Pawan said. "She enjoyed the company of people. She made friends there and they would spend time together."
Program not meeting standards of care
The Elders Circle day program let seniors from outside Avens come by for social activities and have lunch with the residents.
But some had mobility issues or dementia and the program was unable to care for them, explained Morgan Gebauer, the interim CEO and finance director for Avens.
"The program was not meeting any of the standards of care or quality that we provide here at Avens," Gebauer said.
"We had to suspend the program to do a re-evaluation to ensure we were meeting the needs of the participants."
When the program closed in December, the Yellowknife Association for Community Living stepped up and offered a temporary seniors program, but wrapped it up in March, said Lynn Elkin, the executive director of the association.
"We never intended it to be full time," Elkin said. "Avens had said they would be back up and operating in February. We were counting on that and just filling a gap."
"[Seniors] seemed to really enjoy it, but it just went beyond what we could continue to do," Elkin said.
'Redesign' needed
Gebauer said Aven's programming needs a redesign, to cater to seniors with different needs, such as a program for people with dementia and another focused on active living.
She said she's researching programs in Calgary to see what works there.
"We needed to re-evaluate and redesign and research other options that are available," she said.
