A look into Louis Brier's future

KATHARINE HAMER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH BULLETIN

It used to be that residents applying for a place at the Louis Brier Home and Hospital had to be assessed by the local health authority, which may or may not have been able to find them an immediate spot at the home of their choice. Since 70 per cent of Louis Brier's $13-million budget comes from the public purse, applicants – Jewish or not – have had to take the first available placement offered by the health ministry and wait at that facility until they could be transferred to the Louis Brier.

As a result, "Their social and cultural needs were not being met," said Dr. Nicholas Braithwaite, the Louis Brier's CEO for the past 18 months. "Obviously their physical needs were being met, but that's only part of the picture."

Now, with the opening of the new Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Residence on the Dr. Irving and Phyliss Snider Campus for Jewish Seniors, the situation is expected to change for the better. Braithwaite calls it a "campus of care" approach. Offering a tiered level of care options, from assisted living through to extended and multi-level care, it's the first project of its kind in the Greater Vancouver region.

"What we'll be able to do is move clients within the campus much more easily," said Braithwaite. "They can come to Louis Brier if they need to come to Louis Brier – if they meet the criteria. Before, if they had to come to Louis Brier and there weren't any spots, they were sent elsewhere, to another home, and they might eventually be transferred but it might take them six months to get here. Now, we can admit people to multi-level care at Weinberg and they can wait there."

As part of the Snider Campus, the Weinberg residence will become home to approximately 300 inhabitants, split between 40 assisted-living suites and 20 multi-level care rooms. The residence will provide kosher meals three times a day, religious services, social and recreational activities, as well as such perks as an on-site beauty salon and barbershop, an in-house library and laundry facilities. The assisted living suites include a kitchenette, weekly housekeeping service, cable television and outdoor patio.

It took eight years to plan the residence, which began construction a year ago at the corner of 41st and Oak. The Weinberg building, which is privately funded, has an operating budget of around $2.5 million a year, and its admissions list will be managed by the Louis Brier staff directly. Although Jewish seniors are technically prioritized by the health ministry for admission to the Louis Brier, there are a number of non-Jewish residents. But the Weinberg facility is intended exclusively for Jewish residents.

The cost of living at the Weinberg residence ranges from $3,700 a month for an assisted living suite to $5,000-plus for a multi-level care room. However, Braithwaite points out that the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and B.C. Housing have recently agreed to subsidize 15 placements. Subsidized residents will have to contribute 70 per cent of their income, so someone on a monthly pension of $1,000 will only have to pay $700.

Eventually, Braithwaite hopes to see a "virtual campus of care," whereby his staff can advise Jewish communities outside the Vancouver area – in Richmond or Surrey or on Vancouver Island, for instance – so that supported living and "a cultural continuum" can be established in those areas long before residents need to move to the Louis Brier (which is still the only Jewish care home west of Winnipeg).

All of these changes have been taking place in the face of significant financial constraints. Like many other facilities offering health care and social programs, the Louis Brier endured a provincial budget cut last year. At the same time, the health ministry changed its qualification criteria for seniors entering care facilities. Now only people with complex care needs, such as those with significant cognitive deficits, are eligible for residency.

"It's one thing to effect clinical administrative changes within our financial resources, it's another to make changes at a time when we've had to downsize staffing," said Braithwaite. "Basically overnight, our clinical demographic changed. Now we're becoming more like a hospital than a home. People who previously could be admitted to the home are no longer eligible because they're not impaired enough."

As a result, the Louis Brier has had to alter its programs and take on more staff specially trained in dealing with, for instance, Alzheimer's patients. The home currently has 175 full-time (equivalent) staff members.

Nonetheless the facility continues to grow in strength with the commitment and support of its staff and volunteers – and a cultural tradition, said Braithwaite, in which "we're honoring our mothers and our fathers. It's a very integral part of our psyche. As a group, we do not separate our elderly or our unwell from the community. We keep them integrated in the family structure as long as possible."

Since its inception in 1945, he said, "Louis Brier's strength has always been extended and intermediate care, the home and the hospital. Now we can complement that with a broader range of services."

Katharine Hamer is a freelance writer living in Vancouver.

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