Melissa Therrien, RN (00:01)
Hello and welcome back to Caring Conversations. This is episode two. Here with Melissa Therrien with Ohana Care and I have my co-host here, Liz Lewington. Hey Liz, how are you doing today?
Liz Lewington, LPN (00:15)
Hello, I’m doing well. How are you doing?
Melissa Therrien, RN (00:17)
Great, thank you. So today we are talking about navigating home care funding, understanding both Alberta and BC’s support programs, all of the funding resources available to support people looking into home care supports. Shall we get started?
Liz Lewington, LPN (00:19)
Yeah.
Yeah, there’s, yeah, I think, mean, they’re considering are both in Canada, the two provinces themselves have such different ways of accessing resources and different resources in general. So I am interested to hear what you have to say about Alberta, and then I’ll throw in my two cents and we’ll see who’s going to win. Do we want to try a little, little game here and see who’s got the better funding or?
Melissa Therrien, RN (00:58)
Sure. Nothing like some friendly competition.
Liz Lewington, LPN (01:03)
Exactly. I feel like BC might not come out on top here, but I mentioned the same thing that Alberta home care funding options are. Did you want to dive right in?
Melissa Therrien, RN (01:07)
Ha ha!
Sure, yeah, I’d love to introduce the newest home care funding option that’s called the Client-Directed Home Care Invoicing Program. Though the title isn’t phenomenal, the program itself is. It’s a hybrid program where Alberta Health Services works with Alberta Blue Cross to support people who have been assessed and approved for the program to get some partial funding for their home care supports.
So a really nice option for people looking for individualized care with flexibility of schedule and still getting that funding resource that every Albertan is entitled to.
Liz Lewington, LPN (01:53)
When you say that it’s partial funding, what does that look like?
Melissa Therrien, RN (01:57)
For sure. So in Alberta right now, the funding is $33.61 per hour. So I say partial funding because every home care provider has the ability to set their hourly rates as whatever they would like it to be. So when you are looking at exploring home care supports and how to get the most bang for your buck, you’d probably want to look at resources that are in and around that price point.
Liz Lewington, LPN (02:14)
Okay.
Melissa Therrien, RN (02:27)
or consider the budget when you are looking at what that hourly rate is and what the out-of-pocket expense would be.
Liz Lewington, LPN (02:35)
Yeah, yeah. So then how do people access it? What’s the process of getting CDHCI?
Melissa Therrien, RN (02:43)
Yeah, and great that you use that CDHCI acronym, because that’s what we use, because the title is so long. So it’s all administered through Alberta Health Services. So you would want to reach out to the community home care intake line. That can be reached through 811, anywhere in the province. And through there, you would have a home care nurse come out and do an assessment to determine how many hours you qualify for, and then through a convoluted algorithm.
Liz Lewington, LPN (02:46)
Thank
Yeah, yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (03:13)
They would decide how many hours of funding you would be able to carry with you to a vendor of your choice.
Liz Lewington, LPN (03:20)
Yeah, yeah. Are there a lot of vendors out there that are accepting that that client directed home care invoicing program?
Melissa Therrien, RN (03:27)
Yeah, thankfully there are a ton of them, which leaves lots of options for Albertans to choose what suits them best. You know, choosing a caregiver or choosing a home care provider that aligns with what you’re looking for. That’s the intention of the program is to give Albertans the choice to find caregivers and a company or an agency that best suits their needs with the flexibility and the budget meets their budget.
Liz Lewington, LPN (03:56)
Yeah, I mean it sounds beautiful on paper. Does it work that way in real life?
Melissa Therrien, RN (04:01)
Yeah, I mean, there’s red tape. It’s funding from the government, right? So there is a waiting period. There are limitations to the program, of course. But the great thing is, is that it does provide the flexibility and the options for loved ones who are still at home and need some support in caring for their client, essentially, or their loved one who is a home care client, right? So it does cover things like respite.
Liz Lewington, LPN (04:05)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (04:31)
there are some hours dedicated to homemaking, which Alberta Health Services and their funded option doesn’t offer.
Liz Lewington, LPN (04:40)
Wow. so this is like a, when did this come out? This is a huge, huge improvement to the whole model, in my opinion.
Melissa Therrien, RN (04:48)
Yeah, so not without hiccups, honestly. We went through a period where the program was put on hold for auditing purposes to understand whether it was a fruitful program and could be sustained by the government. That just happened last year, or this year, I suppose. But the program has been around, I think, for about two years now. I believe it started in Edmonton and moved into Calgary early last year. So, you know, we have quite a few clients that are making use of the program.
and really enjoying the flexibility that comes with it.
Liz Lewington, LPN (05:19)
Yeah, I mean, it sounds beautiful, but I’m not a realist. I like to try and paint that picture and hope that it comes true for sure. Yeah, and are there other options so that we’re calling it the CDHCI because it’s mouthful, but CDHCI, are there other options? I know you said that Alberta Health still manages the home support separate from the CDHCI program.
Melissa Therrien, RN (05:30)
Yeah, I mean, it’s another option, sorry.
Yeah, so there is the fully funded option, which comes through Alberta Health Services. Every Albertan is entitled to do it, to utilize it based on need. Again, that assessment is completed through Alberta Health Services Community Home Care. And then Alberta Health Services takes on the administration and the staffing for that. It’s a great program for those that don’t have, you know, the need for the flexibility can appreciate that it’s a
Liz Lewington, LPN (06:08)
Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (06:16)
quick 15 minute visit for medication administration or showering, those things without the constraints that maybe an agency would have where there’s a minimum number of hours that would be required.
Liz Lewington, LPN (06:30)
So you think that would be what splits the difference. Like if you need shorter visits, you go with the AHS, and if you need these longer blocks of time, then CDHCI fits you better. Does that seem to be the way it goes?
Melissa Therrien, RN (06:43)
Yeah, I think, you know, there’s benefits to both programs and there’s drawbacks to both. I think if you are looking for those very short task oriented visits, the funded option is a phenomenal option. And the staff that you get through the AHS funded program are probably the staff that also work for us. You know, they’re caregivers. And there’s, you know, the difference being how the program is administered and not necessarily the caregivers.
Liz Lewington, LPN (06:52)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, wow. I mean, it’s beautiful.
Melissa Therrien, RN (07:15)
Yeah. Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (07:17)
really I had a meeting last week where we had the ex-minister of health involved and we were talking about different programs that existed and I brought up the CDHCI program and they had no idea what it was. So it’s just so funny how province to province it’s completely different and then you have to have a specialty in finance and nursing and case management to really figure out where you fit in and what resources are out there. So I think that’s why
this conversation is important and hopefully it can help people to receive the funding that they need to be able to stay at home because I mean God knows most of us don’t want to go to a facility if we’re lucky enough to reach old age so knowing what’s out there is so important.
Melissa Therrien, RN (08:01)
Yeah.
Yeah, and I think it’s great that Alberta has recognized that there are clients in their homes that want the flexibility and have the capacity to be able to choose and hire an agency and want more from their home care provider.
Liz Lewington, LPN (08:21)
It’s a really nice mix of it being, I know no Canadian wants to have, you know, God forbid, private pay, healthcare, But it’s such a great way to sort of integrate the two together because that private pay can give you more of a holistic client-centered care model where the public is so focused on that, you know, like you say, task-oriented because it has to be that way because it’s a one-size-fits-all.
Melissa Therrien, RN (08:30)
Mm-hmm.
Liz Lewington, LPN (08:51)
So it’s nice to see that sort of marriage of the two ideals in that process I mean I again if I could have created a program I think CDHC I would be the way that I would go not the BC version which we’ll get into in a second Yeah, I know yeah, yeah if I Yeah
Melissa Therrien, RN (09:05)
If only we had thought of this, right? Yeah, like I said, yeah, like I said, I don’t think there’s concessions when it comes to caregivers, you know, whether it’s funded or private or a hybrid model, like the Client-Directed Home Care Invoicing Program, the caregivers are likely the same. They’re kind, compassionate caregivers that are there to support the family, the senior, the client, the loved ones, all of the above.
to stay safe and comfortable at home.
Liz Lewington, LPN (09:37)
Yeah, the goal is the same. Yeah, and the outcome is usually the same. Yeah. Yeah. Did you want to dig into the BC home support? Yeah. Okay. Let’s not get too into that. Yeah. I don’t want to. I don’t want to. It’s terrible. But yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (09:39)
Yes, absolutely.
Yeah. Yeah, let’s hear about it because talking about convoluted healthcare systems, nothing like the Alberta or the BC one. Yeah, so tell us about BC’s home care support options. What do they look like?
Do we have time?
Liz Lewington, LPN (10:02)
We’ve got time. So let’s dig in. There are options and I’ll go through them at the end, but let’s jump right into the CISL program. CSIL, it’s called the Choice in Supports for Independent Living. If you’re Googling it and all you get from this is an acronym, CSIL is the one you’re going to look up. It’s information is all over our BC website, so you can access the information there easily. Now, actually getting onto the program is nowhere near as smooth
Melissa Therrien, RN (10:11)
Yeah.
Liz Lewington, LPN (10:32)
sailing as I want to pretend that Alberta is because it’s always nice to look over the fence and say hey they have a really nice place I want that. So CSIL, it is isn’t that grass lovely let’s go there. So the CSIL program it is again it’s operated very much in a similar fashion as the CDHCI beast but it is a lot slower and it is a lot more paperwork intensive and it isn’t a quick
Melissa Therrien, RN (10:40)
Grass is greener. No.
Liz Lewington, LPN (11:01)
quick setup. Out here, I’m on Vancouver Island in an area where there is a high need for senior services and we have not a lot of case managers and they’re the ones that are the gatekeepers to the CISL program.
So the CISL program is approved by the case managers. They would come out, do an assessment, and again, it’s based on need like you had mentioned, and then they give you a pot of money. That money is to go directly to your care. Now, it’s not that easy. The binder they give you is about an inch thick, and you have to fill it out and create a business plan related to staffing. You have to understand what it means to run a work safe.
like EI and WorkSafe and all of those extra bits and pieces that go with running a business. So you have to have a business model, you have to have funding from the government, you have to be able to run a schedule. So you have to have quite a high capacity or have access to people that have a high capacity to function looking after your care needs, which really puts a lot of people out of play. You know, they can’t access it because they don’t have capacity to go through this rigmarole.
in the process. There are really successful examples all across the province of people that use the CECIL program, but the biggest barrier is really getting it up and running. There is, I’m just talking away, sorry, I’ll try and slow down.
Melissa Therrien, RN (12:31)
No, that’s great. That’s good information.
Liz Lewington, LPN (12:34)
Yeah, there’s and there are people to help. So social workers are out there to help. The case managers are out there to help. And then there is a nonprofit out of Vancouver called IFRC. I could individualize funding something or other resource. We can put a link in the show notes at the end just to make sure that everyone can access it if they do feel the need to to investigate the CSIL program, which I would encourage everybody to do, because really, if you do
qualify for this, you have so much more control and you’re not in that sort of one-size-fits-all model of care. It gives you the opportunity to schedule and have the care that you need in the home when you need it and hire your own caregivers so you can rely on those people. And that really is the only option for funding other than private resources. So things like insurance, some people do pay into an insurance policy that helps with
Offsetting the cost of care in their later years I’ve only come across in my 18 years of service two people that have had that and even then it was not a very Comprehensive coverage. It was very limited. So knowing if you do have insurance taking a look at the at the document see what they need on their Invoices to make sure that yeah, because there’s a lot of fine print, you know You need a doctor’s note You need to have a nurse with a registration number attached to the invoice and and of course
Melissa Therrien, RN (13:37)
I
print.
Liz Lewington, LPN (14:03)
you know, companies, we want to be able to provide that. So if it is something that you’re looking for to have coverage through an insurance company, you would want to talk to the provider that you’re using and make sure that they can provide what is actually a necessity for those invoices, because otherwise you’re not going to be getting paid back, you’re going to be out the cash in the end. So Lord knows we don’t want that to come in the way of anybody’s living expenses, of course. Yeah, that’s
Melissa Therrien, RN (14:25)
Yeah.
For sure. So just a question about the CSIL Choice Supports for Independent Living. Is this the option only for people who can remain independent in the home? You know, when you use that independent term versus assisted living, what are the limitations to the program then?
Liz Lewington, LPN (14:51)
So the sort of built in limitations are that you have to be able to start the program and continue staffing the program. The independent.
Melissa Therrien, RN (15:00)
maintaining the administration of the business, essentially.
Liz Lewington, LPN (15:03)
Exactly. And that is often the concern, this IFRC company that we’ll link. It’s a nonprofit and they can help with the setting up of it and bringing on the staff as well. So they can help with hiring too. So yeah, I mean, you need to be able to manage your own care. Most folks that end up qualifying and moving forward in CSIL have physical condition like MS or something along those lines that
your physical, you know, your body is deteriorating and not capable, but your mind is often very much intact. and previously, the CISL program wasn’t even available for anybody over 60. Going back seven years ago, it wasn’t, and we saw such a need for the CISL program to move into seniors care. And when it did, we thought it was going to be this huge, wow, you know, look at what we did. But the barriers are still there. And unfortunately,
it is really hard to navigate it to start with. So if you can live independently with these supports and unfortunately that’s the wording on it is that you need to have either a board, which is three people minimum to help run it or you have to be able to run it. having backup. Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (16:23)
So what there, sorry, would there be an advantage? Like what are the advantages to hiring an agency then, a home care agency versus a caregiver off the street? Is there an advantage to doing that under the CSIL program?
Liz Lewington, LPN (16:37)
absolutely. mean, of course, of course. So, a SESOL program, yes, you have to carry all of your EI and all of those sorts of things. So you would be double paying if you’re with an agency. So that’s a drawback. knowing that what we normally do as an agency, we stand in the background as sort of a safety net, because if you’re hiring off the street, you don’t have backup.
So you have somebody that does 40 hours of work a week and then when they’re sick or on vacation or they quit or just don’t show up that day, you don’t have a backup. So that’s sort of where we come in. And then if you’re in it with an agency, you know that you’re always going to have that shift covered. may maybe somebody else rather than your usual staff member. you know, emergencies happen. And unfortunately, if you’re running your own ship, you have no backup plan or it’s very difficult to have somebody waiting in the wings if they don’t
have a regular income attached to that. that’s sort of, that’s the concerning part of it is making sure that you have that backup plan. And I mean, we say it all the time, have it, have your safety net, have your backup plan, and always plan for these unfortunate incidences that do happen, you know, as often unfortunately that they do. So that’s the difference there. yeah, yeah, so that’s the CSIL program.
Melissa Therrien, RN (17:55)
Yeah, it sounds a lot like Alberta’s self-managed care program, where you’re essentially opening a business and the government gives you a lump sum of money to manage all aspects of your care then. Yeah. Yeah. And I think in Alberta, the benefits to hiring an agency is minimizing that administration of that program.
Liz Lewington, LPN (18:10)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (18:22)
You get additional liability insurance associated with it, WCB, vetting of staff members. And like you said, the staffing pool, I think is huge as well. Yeah, so definitely benefits, benefits and drawbacks to all of these programs. But I think the best case scenario is that the government is supporting people to stay at home, whether you’re in Alberta or in BC, there’s always red tape.
Liz Lewington, LPN (18:35)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely.
Melissa Therrien, RN (18:51)
hoops to jump through, but it’s great that there’s options out there.
Liz Lewington, LPN (18:54)
And that stops people from abusing the program as well so that there are resources for people who really need it. So keeping that in mind, mean, I’ll jump through as many hoops as needed to get the funding for my loved one.
Yeah, and there are options out there to help you get that funding too. So just knowing that if you have questions, you can always ask and like, I know we’re from Ohana Care and we know how to access these resources. So if you do have questions, you can always reach out to a professional or someone who’s been dragged through the mud along the way to try and get funding for people. So finding an expert in the area is really important when you’re getting moving on that. Yeah. Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (19:32)
Yeah, for sure. And you know, it is a convoluted program, whether you’re in Alberta, BC, or in BC in one of the multiple health regions that they have, and everything is run a little bit differently. The nuances of each of them are a little bit different, but there are definitely experts out there that, you know, know the ins and outs of the programs and likely have had clients successful and unsuccessful on the programs.
Liz Lewington, LPN (19:43)
Yeah, let’s not talk about that. Yeah, yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (20:00)
that would be able to support and help you understand.
Liz Lewington, LPN (20:00)
Yeah, yeah, and there I mean there’s other government subsidies and grants so if you’re trying to stay in your home I don’t know about Alberta of course, but there’s like the if you’re a renter, there’s the safer program
the shelter aid for elderly renters. So that is based out of BC Housing. They can help with housing costs. Home owner grants, if you rent, you get safer. If you’re a homeowner, you can have a homeowner grant reduction. There’s renovation tax credits through the Canadian government. So if you want to age in place and a requirement is to, it’s usually widen doors, put in a stair lift.
my gosh, the cost of renovating your bathroom to be more accessible is unbelievable. So there are tax credits that you can have for that and not just for the senior, but if you’re a loved one caring for a senior, you can use those tax credits against paying for like a granny suite or something to be put in the house to house your loved ones as well. yeah, it exists. Again, red tape, but knowing that it exists and being able to look into
to see if you qualify and then investigate it even further is really, it’s really important. Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (21:18)
And I think that the tax, the income tax, the tax write-offs at the end of the year, you know, make sure you keep those receipts and utilize them and, you know, doesn’t hurt to try, right?
Liz Lewington, LPN (21:32)
and
So well, as long as you don’t get audited, you’re good. Yeah, mean, always talk to always talk to your financial rep, whoever it is that manages your taxes, make sure that it is all above board because the last thing you want is the government looking into it. That would be a headache no one needs. But there’s also like if we want to talk about other subsidized options for support to keep staying in your home, there is respite beds as well in our multiple health authorities as we talked
Melissa Therrien, RN (21:36)
True.
Liz Lewington, LPN (22:03)
There’s so many of them here in BC, but respite beds exist. They’re difficult, but difficult to find, but they’re subsidized as well. So you can have a certain amount of time. know, usually folks get two weeks a year of time that they can have their loved one go into a facility where they’re cared for 24 hours a day so that their caregiver can have some downtime, whether it’s, you know, lot of folks book it around surgeries or they book it around a vacation or weddings, that sort of thing, so that they can go and be with their
other loved ones and have a well-needed breather. So that’s an option out there too. And the adult day program, it’s $10 a day, maximum $10 a day. Again, depends on where you are in the health authority in BC, but the adult day programs are also a place where folks with dementia, primarily dementia, as a diagnosis can go for once or twice a week depending on the need and the availability to get support outside of the home. So that’s going out to facilities.
where you have recreation and they have a little it’s lovely they have a group of folks that come in all together and they get to know each other and it’s it’s a lot of fun I’ve gone to a few of them and it looks like I can’t wait to get that old so I can have so maybe I’ll be good at bowling one day but I am not good now yeah so that I mean there are options out there but it’s it’s being able to find them when you need them and not waiting
Melissa Therrien, RN (23:17)
Hahaha!
Yeah, navigating.
Liz Lewington, LPN (23:32)
Like, folks don’t look ahead when you’re drowning. know, if you’re drowning, you don’t look further than your hand, like your fingertips. knowing that they’re just like getting that education when you have the bandwidth to absorb and move forward with it. That’s the biggest thing that I can really encourage people is if you know that your mom or dad or husband or wife is moving in this direction of maybe needing some more support coming up.
look now, you know, in the evening when everyone’s asleep and you’re laying there thinking, look at it, look and see what’s there.
Melissa Therrien, RN (24:08)
Yeah. And you know, like we talk about all the time, it’s all about pooling your resources, right? So sometimes it’s a phone call, sometimes it’s an email, but getting different perspectives. know, everyone has a different opinion, what works, what doesn’t work. It has to be the best choice for you and your loved ones. So yeah, I mean, getting to know all the information you possibly can, I think is really important.
Liz Lewington, LPN (24:32)
Yeah, yeah. Well, I have talked your ear off. Do you have any questions about the whole BC side and what we can do?
Melissa Therrien, RN (24:41)
Yeah, I mean, guess it’s great to know about the CSIL. What about funded? Is there a completely funded option through BC? What does that look
Liz Lewington, LPN (24:50)
It’s magical because it doesn’t exist. is, I mean if you’re on like the guaranteed income supplement, old age pension, low income seniors, they qualify for free in-home care.
Melissa Therrien, RN (24:53)
Okay.
Liz Lewington, LPN (25:04)
and that is it’s only run through the health authority and it’s fully subsidized. So you can even have, and then of course palliative care is another place where it’s fully subsidized, but you can have the coverage in your home to stay in your home for as long as the health authority can sustain you. then they investigate additional options for care if the finances are not allowing the person to stay at home effectively. And then again, you move into, if you’re in a facility, you can have a rate reduction.
If your loved one, let’s say you’ve got two folks living at home, one goes into a facility where they’re charged 80 % of their after-tax income, and if they were the primary breadwinner, and that’s the majority of the income that that couple had, then the person left out in the community to live doesn’t have enough. So you’re never going to be stuck. The goal of the health authority, the government, the whole community as a whole is not to leave anybody behind.
Melissa Therrien, RN (25:50)
you
Liz Lewington, LPN (26:04)
or destitute, it’s to support it. So just knowing the resources like the social worker that can help with these rate reductions. And then there’s the financial, gosh, the separation. What’s it called, Melissa? Help me out. You the financial separation. It sounds like a divorce. It’s anyways, it sounds awful and a lot of seniors won’t do it because the wording makes it sound like you’re…
financially and physically being separated. But it’s a way to split the income so that one person will have their care and the other person can have the majority of the income to stay at home. So again, we’ll have to put that in the footnotes of the podcast because the old brain’s got some holes in it clearly.
Melissa Therrien, RN (26:52)
Lots of resources out there. And if we can utilize this podcast to just gain accessibility to some of these resources, I think it serves this purpose. And honestly, like I think in Alberta, it sounds like we’re pretty lucky to have a fully funded home care support program. I think that’s pretty amazing. So here in Alberta, we’re very thankful to it for it, despite the red tape that may be involved.
Liz Lewington, LPN (27:03)
Yeah.
Melissa Therrien, RN (27:20)
You know, for home care in Alberta, we don’t even talk about income. It’s not based on your income, it’s purely based on need. So how lucky are we for that? And that’s definitely one of those misconceptions, right? Related to home care is it’s actually not based on income at all, but based on need. So given that, you know, because it’s strictly based on need, you know, that task oriented, very quick, kind of dirty,
Liz Lewington, LPN (27:30)
Are you?
Melissa Therrien, RN (27:49)
get in, get out service, is available to anybody, which is pretty phenomenal.
Liz Lewington, LPN (27:54)
Well, that is phenomenal. So I can give you the algorithm for our home support. It’s ridiculous. Yeah, okay. So you take your after tax income and you multiply it. wrote it down because I wouldn’t be able to remember the number. You multiply it by 0.00138889 and that gives you your daily week for care.
Melissa Therrien, RN (28:00)
That’s great.
Liz Lewington, LPN (28:18)
So that’s your daily rate. So if you want to write it down, it’s 0.00138889. yeah, exactly.
Melissa Therrien, RN (28:18)
That’s a crazy number.
Also known as pie, the number that never ends.
Liz Lewington, LPN (28:32)
my lord, I know, I know. I don’t stand a chance remembering that number. I did a quick run through what it would cost. It’s about $50 if you earn $50,000. So if you earn $100,000, which nobody does in retirement, but if you do, then it’s about $100 a day. And that’s the subsidy that the government will put you on based on that algorithm. So how difficult can it get? That’s the answer. 0.0033.
Melissa Therrien, RN (28:48)
Okay.
Well, I mean, it’s good to have a number associated with it, right? Even those hard numbers are hard to find, right? So it’s great that we were able to share that here. And thank you for the quick math. You’re so smart.
Liz Lewington, LPN (29:02)
Yeah
Yeah, terrible. no, it was predetermined. did. I was like, Lord, yeah, carry the line. Me and my advocates, that person.
Melissa Therrien, RN (29:14)
You
Yeah, well, I think this was a great conversation, Liz. I really appreciate your insight into how to navigate BC’s convoluted healthcare system. It’s really wonderful to know that there are resources out there and I’m really proud to be part of a podcast that’s gonna support people to have access to those resources and just to chat about it, right? It’s debunking those myths.
Liz Lewington, LPN (29:42)
Absolutely.
Melissa Therrien, RN (29:45)
and just chatting about it, right? I think people are reluctant to talk about finances and utilizing funded versus non-funded. So knowing that the options are out there, I think is very helpful. So thank you very much for sharing.
Liz Lewington, LPN (29:56)
Yeah.
Well, thank you. Yeah, I think it was a good conversation. I’m pretty sure Alberta won. So it’s Alberta won BC zip.
Melissa Therrien, RN (30:08)
You win some, you lose some. What can I say? Canadians as a whole, I think we’re pretty lucky. So let’s leave it at that. No winner, no loser.
Liz Lewington, LPN (30:11)
Yeah, have a feeling we’re gonna lose a lot here, but…
Yeah.
And it’s all about empowering each other to make the right decisions for ourselves and knowing what options exist. And if care is your major concern for the cost, can, you know, there’s other reductions that are out there to help seniors to stay at home, alter their home to make it safe as well as, unfortunately, there’s reverse mortgages that exist too. So I mean, I could go on and on, but I should cut it off. I know we’re trying to wrap it up here.
Melissa Therrien, RN (30:24)
Absolutely.
That’s all right. Well like and subscribe subscribe So you can hear next week’s podcast And yeah, if you have any questions, please leave them in the comments. We’d love to touch on Previous episode questions and get those questions answered for you. So thanks very much for joining us today. Thank you again Liz and Look forward to chatting with you guys again next week. Take care. Be safe
Liz Lewington, LPN (30:51)
Yeah.
Yeah, I
It’s a date. Bye.
Melissa Therrien, RN (31:14)
Bye.
