Support for seniors in the North is at all time low according to a recent report from the office of Seniors Advocate British Columbia.
There are drops in the number of people receiving at home care and accessing day programs despite an increase in the population over the age of 65 and 85.
According to the report 4.2 per cent, fewer seniors received at home support compared to last year.
Senior Advocate, Isobel Mackenzie said the decline could be due to two facts.
“Number one is the budget decisions in Northern Health, and two is even if you had the money you can’t find the staff to deliver the program because some of your communities are so remote,” said Mackenzie.
Mackenzie said there is a big problem with staff recruitment because a large percentage of the workforce does not go beyond the Lower Mainland.
One solution, Mackenzie said is creating incentives to persuade people immigrating to Canada to move to the North.
She said although people still need hands-on experience they could entice more people to become support workers if there was more online training.
“Move training to online to limit the amount of time they would need to spend away from home to get training to become a care aid,” said Mackenzie.