B.C. woman with muscular dystrophy stuck in a care home due to government red tape

A Metro Vancouver area woman says she is being forced into a care home all due to government bureaucracy.

43-year-old Richelle Bellis has muscular dystrophy and has been confined to a wheelchair for years, but feels she could be living comfortably on her own with some help and save the health care system a lot of money.

When she needed a little more help, she reluctantly moved into a long-term care facility until she could line up new funding and a new home, which she found on the North Shore.

But little did Richelle know that after doing all Vancouver Coastal Health Authority asked, her funding would be denied and she would be told she must stay in Care Life Fleetwood in Surrey indefinitely.

Richelle says she feels like she is in prison surrounded by mostly elderly and unresponsive patients.

Staff can’t even take her to visit the park or library across the street.

Already eight people have died since she’s been there, and it’s not where she wants to spend her young life.

“She will not thrive in the facility and she wants to work and have her life again with freedom and dignity, and it is not going to happen in the facility,” says Independent Community Navigator Jeanette Poulsen.

Poulsen tried to get Richelle funding through the Choices for Independent Living program.

She has no doubt Richelle is capable of living on her own.

To house Richelle in a facility costs more than $300,000 a year. If she lived alone, it would be closer to $100,000.

Global News was unable to get anyone from the health authorities to offer their side of the story.