Creating culturally sensitive care homes

By now you've heard the news, Canada's population is aging.

Recent numbers from Statistics Canada show that for the first time seniors outnumber children under the age of 14.

And as Canada's population growth is increasingly driven by immigration, delivering care to seniors that is culturally sensitive is an emerging issue.

Daniel Fontaine, the CEO of the BC Care Providers Association, says his industry group has decided it wants to take on a research project on the issue of culturally sensitive care.

"We're looking out at the number of seniors who are coming into care settings, and are receiving care in the province of B.C., and it's changing in terms of the diversity of different cultures that are going to be coming in or receiving home care services. And, as a result of that, it provides us with great opportunities but also some challenges."

The project is in the very early stages, Fontaine says.

But he adds that the BCCPA felt it is an important issue to tackle, since they are the industry association for the majority of non-government providers of community care for seniors in the province. 

Fontaine also says he's hoping the association can consult with providers who have been working on the ground on this issue for years now.

He says established non-profit groups like PICS and SUCCESS have been working on the front-lines of culturally sensitive care for seniors for years.

Culturally sensitive care

At the Guru Nanak Niwas Assisted Living facility in Surrey, residents Mohammad Faquih and Saroj Sood eat their meals of rice, curried tofu, chapathi and salad served with an option of chicken curry or moong dal.

Sood, 86, says she considered living in several different assisted living facilities, but felt most comfortable at Guru Nanak Niwas.

"Here, we all speak Punjabi, Hindi or Urdu — they are similar languages. At the same time, food is also very important for any person, so here we get what we used to eat at home. It's a feeling ... that I'm at home. So the environment has a great role to play."

90-year old Faquih enjoys those elements as well, but he's not quite as convinced as Sood about the benefits of being only with people who have similar ethnic backgrounds.

"I am happy here and I see that people here are happy too, but it's the way you look at it. Are people more happy by themselves or more integrated? Do you want ghettos and groups or do you want a general Canadian culture?"

To Fontaine, Faquih and Sood's opinions highlight the challenge in providing care on a large scale and it's why he's keeping his eye on a recent partnership between Korean-Canadian Eunice Oh and the New Vista Society — a non profit organization that provides seniors' care.

"Well there's two different models. One is you cater to the majority of one particular group, regardless of what that is, and that facilitates staffing, meal prep and recreational therapy because essentially you don't have to provide multiple types of services," Fontaine says.

"What New Vista is doing is they're trying to diversify and provide services and programming to a different cultural group within the mainstream setting. That's a different model, and it'll be interesting to see that move forward because we're going to have to deal with that in a number of care homes across the province."

Eunice Oh and New Vista Society

Oh recently partnered with New Vista Society as it goes forward to build a new 240-bed, seven-storey building to replace one of its existing care homes.

Slated to open in 2020, the facility will feature one floor dedicated to providing culturally sensitive care for Korean-Canadians — a result of a $1.5-million donation from Oh.

"Especially when it comes to living in a nursing home, Korean seniors don't want to live in a care home for two main reasons," Oh says.

"First there is a language barrier. Because they cannot speak in English they cannot communicate with other staff members and other residents, doctors and other medical service providers. As a result they become isolated and very lonely. Secondly, Korean seniors have eaten Korean food for their whole lives and living on anything else is practically impossible."

Oh says in the mid-1990s, a friend of her father's took his own life when faced with moving into a nursing home. Since then, she has felt it her duty to try and find a solution for aging seniors in her community.

For a health authority like Fraser Health, seeing a mainstream organization like New Vista Society respond to increased needs in the local community, and provide culturally sensitive care, is a new step in the continuum of seniors' care.

New Vista Society CEO Darin Froese says he's glad to take this step.

"It's just a respectful way to care for seniors in the last few years of their life."