Seniors under pressure amid B.C. wildfires

With mass evacuations underway and the province under a state of emergency due to hundreds of wildfires, concerns are growing for one of the most vulnerable segments of B.C.’s population: Seniors.

Daniel Fontaine, CEO of the BC Care Providers Association said seniors in care homes are among the 14,000 people who have been forced to move.

He said care homes across the province have emergency protocols in place for situations like fires and earthquakes, which have been activated in order to ensure seniors are taken to safety.

But he admits even with plans in place, there are challenges.

“Many of them are frail, elderly, have dementia. This is a very traumatic experience to be moved from a care setting even to another care setting,” Fontaine said.

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He said there are other reports of care homes in some areas where staff themselves are unable to get to work because they have been evacuated from their own homes or the routes are closed.

He said with the situation changing hour by hour, it’s difficult to put a number on how many seniors in care have been impacted.

But it’s not just seniors in evacuation areas who are being affected, now that an air quality advisory has been expanded to cover the entire southern interior of the province.

“There’s a lot of smoke in the air and a lot of times people receiving home care do have respiratory issues, and as a result that can exacerbate their health situation,” Fontaine said.

“When you’re able bodied and healthy it’s an inconvenience. When you have your immune system compromised it can become a very bad health hazard.”

Home care concerns

Fontaine said while staff in care homes are monitoring the welfare of seniors, those who are living on their own may require extra attention.

“Officials on the ground locally in the community who are dealing with a state of emergency, as I understand it, are going door-to-door and are trying to reach out to everybody in the community to have those individuals evacuated,” he said.

But even so, he said people with elderly relatives receiving home care or simply living on their own should check in.

“They should be trying to reach out to their loved ones.”

-With files from Jeremy Lye