Seniors’ program closures serve no one

It sounds like just the kind of respite struggling families dealing with seniors and their often complicated needs would cling to like a life preserver.

“Our adult day program consists of planned activities designed to promote well-being through social, mental and recreational services. The day program will focus on enriching the participants’ lives and building their skills, knowledge, and unique abilities and strengths, all in a fun, enjoyable way!”

That’s the web description of the Lions Adult Day Program, one piece of which includes the Charleswood Adult Day Program on Roblin Boulevard.

Or, at least, it used to be the web description of the program in Charleswood.

The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority funds the program. It, along with the operator, Lions Housing Centres, notified Charleswood day club members and their families by mail on Sept. 16 of the closure of the program, without providing a reason. It’s an ambiguous end to something that has been providing services to seniors in the area for 30 years.

What’s happening there is a bit muddy right now — the provincial government says it wants to keep services in Charleswood, but also says it’s expanding offerings in other locations. Other observers suggest the Charleswood program was running at a financial deficit, and the Lions were unwilling to extend a lease to continue the program without a commitment that the program could cover its bills.

Progressive Conservative MLA Kathleen Cook put the issue succinctly in the legislature: “There is a quality program serving more than 100 clients in west Winnipeg, helping keep people independent in their homes and providing respite for caregivers … Most of these clients are elderly. Many live with dementia. Losing their place in this day program, having to travel long distances and enrolling in different day programs will be deeply disruptive.”

As letter-to-the-editor writer Patricia Paddey said in the Free Press on Sept. 22: “As my husband’s primary caregiver, I have found our journey easier because I have been able to count on one day of weekly respite, thanks to the Charleswood Adult Day Program. This excellent program, staffed by caring, committed workers, is a place my husband can go to socialize with peers, while I have peace of mind knowing he is being active and cared for … This loss represents one more devastation in the battle of living with an already devastating neurodegenerative disease.”

No matter what the actual cause of the loss of the program is, the end result is the same — seniors and their families who were receiving much-needed services won’t be receiving them anymore. Staff are reportedly being moved or laid off, and a regular program costing families anywhere from $9.81 to $18.88 a day won’t be serving seniors in need any longer.

It is, in its own way, a microcosm of what can go wrong in the slip betwixt cup and lip — or, at least, the slip between bureaucracy and practicality.

If help for seniors can be woven into their neighbourhoods and into their lives, those same seniors and families stand a better chance of staying as active members of their communities for longer — and, in a pragmatic sense, be better equipped to avoid more intense (and more expensive) kinds of support.

At the Charleswood program, Friday, Oct. 30 includes ghost hunting and the spider web toss in the morning, and the Halloween Howl in the afternoon. Coffee and muffins at 10 a.m., exercise at noon, hot lunch from 1 p.m. until 1:45.

Departure at 3 p.m. — apparently, for the last time.

There’s an old saying: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” Maybe it’s more apt in this instance to say: “If it is broke, fix it.”

“Penny wise, pound foolish.” That’s an old saying, too.