During the B.C.'s Seniors Advocate comprehensive survey delving into residential care facilities there will be 27,000 seniors in 303 facilities interviewed across the province.
The facilities surveyed are those owned and operated by the five provincial health authorities, including Northern Health that will see 21 sites surveyed.
Those Prince George facilities to be included in the survey are Gateway Lodge that has 109 long term care beds, Jubilee Lodge with 66 long term care beds, Parkside Care Home with 58 long term care beds, Simon Fraser Lodge with 130 long term care beds, and Rainbow Lodge that has 19 long term care beds. Within the Northern Health Authority there are a total of 1,117 long term care beds.
The survey has not begun in the north and no volunteers have been recruited locally so far. Volunteer recruitment and screening in the north will begin early September and surveying will start mid to late September.
Every resident will be approached to take the survey and the seniors advocate is going for a 50 per cent response rate for residents and 70 per cent for visitors of the residents.
Residents will be asked 100 questions over a 60 to 90 minute period and depending on the needs of the resident the survey could be divided into two sessions.
The Seniors Advocate is asking for volunteers to take one-day training and commit at least 30 hours to the project. There are almost 300 volunteers already signed up across the province but many hands make light work so there's a request for more volunteers to step forward.
"This is the first time in this province that we have had volunteers sit face to face with some of our most vulnerable seniors on such a large scale and the feedback we're receiving from both volunteers and seniors themselves is very positive," said Isobel Mackenzie, seniors advocate in a recent press release.
Residents will be asked many questions including quality of food, how the care from staff rates, safety and security, comfort, respect given, medications and activities, which will gauge the seniors' satisfaction that will offer a guide on how to improve their care.
"Absolutely we'll take a look at any information that the Seniors Advocate can provide for us as we do with most of the reports that they provide," said Steve Raper, chief communications and external relations for Northern Health.
"We take a look at the reports and then we work that into our planning where appropriate."
Personal information of the residents and their families and visitors is protected and only used as authorized under the BC Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
It took 14 months to create the survey in a team effort that brought together facilities, health authorities, family members, union representatives, community groups and academic experts from across Canada.
The survey will be completed over the next four months across the province and then results will be published in early 2017 on the advocate's website at www.seniorsadvocatebc.ca under updates/events.
To volunteer for the residential care survey visit www.surveybcseniors.org or call 1-877-952-3181.
