Friends of Medicare renew call to Alberta government to improve home care system

A group of Albertans delivered a petition with 40,000 signatures to the legislature calling for improved home care. CTV News Edmonton's Nicole Weisberg reports.

Friends of Medicare and a group of disability activists are calling on the UCP government to improve the home care system.

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Their petition to the province was brought to the legislature in March 2024 - they’re now renewing their message saying the government has “ignored” them. The petition has 40,000 signatures.

Earlier this year, with the dismantling of Alberta Health Services, the province announced home care would be taken over by a new provincial agency for continuing care, Assisted Living Alberta.

The new system has done “nothing but amplify confusion and uncertainty” for health care workers and Alberta, Friends of Medicare said in a Thursday statement.

The non-profit says there are 127,000 Albertans who depend on temporary or permanent home care each year. It says the home care funding is underfunded and has left people with unmet care needs, out-of-pocket costs and more reliance on unpaid family members.

Daniel Ennett is a quadruple amputee and says he only qualifies for 6.6 hours of government-funded care a day. His mother has been his full-time care worker most of his adult life but the work has taken a toll.

“I’m 30-years-old now. My mother is pushing 67-years-old and has chronic arthritis, but the government still thinks that she should be the primary source of care in my life, and it’s just not feasible,” Ennett told CTV News Edmonton Thursday.

He says after going through multiple appeals, political advocacy is his last option.

“All of us are under-resourced and we need more care hours to alleviate the burden on our family, to pay care workers more, to incentivize people into this profession in the first place,” he said.

Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon says the province has increased funding in this budget by five per cent and is ensuring homecare is being used to its full potential.

“(We are) really making sure that as we see savings, that we hope we see by alleviating pressure in acute care, by doing continuing care properly, that we are able to apply that directly to front-line services like homecare to continue to see results,” Nixon said.

With files from CTV Edmonton’s Nicole Weisberg