Providence’s Elder Care Program is known for the wide spectrum of services offered to elderly British Columbians at all of its sites, as well as for its progressive research, advocacy efforts and student clinical placements. Services range from residential care, acute geriatric medicine care, acute geriatric psychiatry care, elder care ambulatory services, physical rehabilitation, to at home Lifeline support.

Providence Health Care provides a continuum of geriatric services delivered from three hospital sites. For each of the services, our teams are comprised of a range of providers with expertise in caring for elders. Depending upon the service, the interdisciplinary teams may include physicians (i.e. geriatricians, family physicians, physiatrists, psychiatrists), nurses (i.e. staff nurses, clinical nurse specialists, nurse educators), therapists, psychologists, dieticians, pharmacists, social workers, care attendants, pastoral care workers, and volunteers.

They are passionate about supporting the health of elders. The teams share a common care philosophy, whereby emphasis is on maximizing and supporting quality of life for the elders they serve. They also appreciate that good care requires emphasis on early discussion and effective communication of goals and involves elder and significant others in evaluating all options to determine a plan. To effectively support elders, community collaboration and engagement are essential.

Residential Services

Providence Health Care provides residential care and assisted living in six locations to approximately 750 elders who require a broad range of medical and personal assistance to cope with the activities of daily living.

Our residential care and assisted living facilities include:

• Holy Family – residential care (142 residents)
• St. Vincent's: Langara – residential care (221 residents)
• Mount Saint Joseph – residential care (100 residents), favoured by the Chinese community
• St. Vincent's: Brock Fahrni Pavilion – residential care (148 residents), providing priority access to Veterans
• St. Vincent's: Honoria Conway-Heather  - assisted living (60 residents)
• Youville – multi-level residential care (84 residents)

Acute Care

Each year, a quarter of all clients admitted to St. Paul’s and half to Mount Saint Joseph, respectively, are over the age of 70. Of these, the Elder Care Program’s multidisciplinary teams’ expertise assists elders with acute health care needs. Typically, we provide care to elders who are 75 and older, are experiencing significant functional decline within the last two to four weeks; and are experiencing multiple complex medical and/or psychiatric problems that need to be addressed. In some situations, these elders may require rehabilitation/reactivation to return home.

Early access to geriatric expertise is fundamental to avoiding or minimizing loss of functional abilities in frail elders and therefore better care, shorter recovery, and lengths of hospital stay.

Rehabilitation Services

Providence Health Care’s Holy Family Hospital is one of the largest provincial referral centres providing both inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation care for older adults. Located in South Vancouver, the facility has a 76-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit, and extensive treatment areas that facilitate more than 15,000 outpatient rehabilitation visits annually.

Lifeline
Providence Lifeline offers a range of personal monitoring and response programs that significantly reduce the risk of living alone, allowing individuals to continue living safely and independently in their own homes. Using the latest technology, Lifeline provides seniors, the medically at-risk, or those who simply want a “sense of security”, the comfort of knowing that professional help is always available at the press of a button 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Click here for more info on Providence Lifeline.

Info for Health Professionals

For the Elder Care Program, the guide attached below details how referral sources and triage/intake workers can determine where a patient might best be served.

PHC's Geriatric Services Guide (pdf)

Elder Care Ambulatory Services Referral Form (pdf)

Looking for an outpatient service? Click here.