Caregivers are overwhelmed with guilt. It is often the wife who doesn't want her husband to go into a facility because she can remember how he was. She said the proposal also fails to prove need. Trimmer Bahnsen noted Oliver and Osoyoos residents have access to services not only at Sunnybank but also in Penticton and Kelowna. Sage Brush Lodge is also available, as is the privately run Country Squire facility.
Institutional care is horrendously expensive.
This is very much a Cadillac program. Assessing patients in a hospital setting is also costly, she said. Assessment should be done in the community. You put the person into a unit and you get false pictures. Assessing is extremely difficult in this situation.