The cost of caring

Local businesses challenged by lack of funding for dementia care

By Lindsay Advocate

Kelly Murphy, owner of Purple House Services, with her father, Bob Dechert. Bob's Place is a Purple House Services initiative and will be open soon, named after her dad.

By Lisa Hart and Ian McKechnie

Kelly Murphy knows from personal experience the challenges of caring for a loved one with complex needs. After struggling to find care for her own father and finding inconsistencies in the standards between different care providers, Murphy opened Purple House Services in 2022. The name, she says, is derived from the colour universally associated with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. “We want to support our clients so they can age in place with dignity, respect, and independence,” Murphy told the Advocate in 2023.

It is challenging work. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, “providing care for someone living with dementia takes a tremendous toll on the physical and emotional health of the primary caregiver, yet many caregivers often don’t recognize the warning signs, or deny its effect on their health.”

Here in Kawartha Lakes, this sector includes private providers such as Murphy’s business and Silver Lights Senior Services, which began operations in 2018. Within two years, Silver Lights was providing personal support workers to fill gaps in certain health care services – particularly when families were relocating loved ones out of pandemic-ravaged long-term care homes.

But what about support for those services that are dedicated to supporting patients and those entrusted to their care? A recent letter to the Advocate penned by Tammy Adams and Susan Fisher, owner and managing director, respectively, of Silver Lights Senior Services, raised concerns about what they felt was an ongoing lack of support and follow-through from governments at the federal, provincial, and municipal levels.

Challenges and hurdles

The challenges being placed on families and the health care system by dementia are complex, expensive and – according to the Alzheimer Society – growing. Their researchers project that nearly one million people in Canada will be living with dementia by 2030.

Laurie Scott, MPP for Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Brock echoes the sentiments of Silver Lights’ Adams and Fisher when she says that the importance of supporting seniors in our community cannot be understated. “They have dedicated their lives to raising families, building businesses, volunteering, and contributing in countless ways to make our community what it is today.”

Despite comments by Scott that the Ontario government is committed to ensuring small businesses and seniors alike receive the funding and support they need, local businesses providing support services to our vulnerable seniors and their care givers continue to struggle.

At Silver Lights, Adams and Fisher say they “keep pushing forward because we have a lot of care givers and clients counting on us.”

When asked about the disappointment expressed in the recent letter to the editor, Haliburton, Kawartha Lakes, Brock MP Jamie Schmale followed his acknowledgment of the various gaps in our healthcare system with a reminder that the problem is not isolated to the local region. Schmale points to the massive shortage of nurses, doctors and other healthcare professionals as a contributing factor. He also noted that if his party is invited to form a government, they will initiate “a national testing standard to ensure that foreign-trained professionals who meet Canadian standards will be allowed to practice anywhere in the country.”

After a recent presentation to council by Silver Lights Senior Services, Mayor Doug Elmslie explained that there are few funding avenues available for privately-owned companies to receive financial support through the municipality. Elmslie continued by saying that, “Unfortunately, in my experience, a lot of the provincial and federal grants that are out there are for capital money and not operating money.”

Lack of financial support is not the only burden local businesses dedicated to caring for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s face. Murphy explains that navigating regulatory hurdles such as zoning and permit regulations can be demanding. In spite of these obstacles, Purple House is dedicated to working collaboratively with local authorities to find solutions and are focusing on sustainable business practices to ensure their stability and success in providing the highest level of care.

DementiAbility

When debating level of care for those suffering from dementia the term “DementiAbility” will frequently come up. The DementiAbility Method is gaining global recognition as a way of taking care of people by learning about their lives, both from the past and now. Not surprisingly, society has developed negative associations with Alzheimer’s but DementiAbility seeks to change the face of dementia. While the training can be costly, it helps caregivers to better care for their clients by giving their lives meaning and purpose, despite the disease.

To date, Silver Lights Senior Services oversees the only DementiAbility-certified adult day program in Kawartha Lakes – and is one of only six facilities in the province so certified. And Murphy’s business is not far behind, especially as the opening of Bob’s Place – an all-inclusive, fully-secured home for up to 10 people living with dementia – draws near.

“We are deeply committed to providing exceptional care at Purple House Services and are working towards achieving DementiAbility certification for our facility when it opens,” says Murphy. “This commitment reflects my dedication, driven by the experiences of caring for my parents, Bob and Laurie Dechert, who both have dementia. We strive to make a meaningful difference by equipping our staff with the skills they need to provide the highest level of care.”

Janice Loeb with her mother, Rosaleen, who receives care from Silver Lights. Tammy Adams, left, is the owner of Silver Lights.

Sustaining success stories

Janice Loeb is a longtime Lindsay resident who has seen these skills in action through the work of Silver Lights Senior Services.

Loeb’s mother, Rosaleen, was a skilled athlete who had played competitive badminton, golf, and tennis. An avid gardener, talented baker, and wonderful knitter, Rosaleen was diagnosed with dementia some years ago, and after she moved into a nursing home, the programming offered by Silver Lights became invaluable – for both Loeb and her mother. Staff were able to tailor the programming to Rosaleen’s skills and interests, and Loeb herself has been able to take advantage of an encouraging and informative caregiver support group that meets monthly.

“I truly feel that Silver Lights fills a much-needed void in Kawartha Lakes,” says Loeb. “The waiting lists for nursing homes are years long unless you are on a list for crisis placement, and even then, they are months long. Silver Lights offers all sorts of support to keep the client safe and support the caregiver while waiting for placement.”

Yet despite these success stories, the funding challenges are not going away. Silver Lights was successful in receiving the federally-funded New Horizons for Seniors grant in 2022, but has not heard anything since about future funding.

Loeb feels that families who benefit from the sort of services offered by Purple House and Silver Lights would happily support concerted fundraising efforts – but also points out that there are not a lot of families involved with the day program her mother attends, so the pool of donors would be limited. She does wonder, though, if bequests can be made to these businesses following a family member’s death.

Until such time as more predictable sources of funding can be found, however, Murphy, Adams, Fisher – and their teams of professionals – will continue to support those who need it most.

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