Lou Patterson packed up her things 3 years ago and moved from Diamond City to the village of Carmangay to be closer to her father.
Lou’s father suffers from dementia and calls the long term care facility home.
“This is the worst case scenario and we are his only family so it’s terrible. The rest of our family is in Denmark. It’s unfair that the Alberta government want to lower the standards of Health care,” says Patterson.
The facility was the first fully locked down and a secure environment for patients with dementia in Alberta.
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It started as a pilot project 20 years ago. But earlier this week Alberta Health Services gave the village of Carmangay devastating news.
The mayor of Carmangay, Kym Nichols, says it’s a 20 bed facility it employs 40 people.
“We have people move into Carmangay just so they could be close to their family member. It’s huge to take 20 people out of our community,” says Nichol.
In a statement provided by Alberta Health Services it says: “The Little Bow continuing care centre was built in 1958 and doesn’t meet current building standards. We want to provide the most appropriate care for all patients and have several brand new facilities opening providing 349 new beds in the next fiscal year.”
Alberta Health Services says residents will be transitioned into different facilities suited to their care needs and they will work with families to find the best location.
But Patterson says this move could have life threatening results for patients.
“It’s a disgrace and the government should be ashamed of itself to try and sweep this under the carpet. I think if they are going to do it here people need to ask themselves where else are they going to do it. Are we going to accept this low standard care that the government lays out for people ? These are the people that built this country and we need to look after our seniors.”
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