Residential Care Admission Process for Special Individuals or Circumstances

1. Admission of Veterans

If a veteran is eligible for residential care services, the local health authority is required to contact Veterans Affairs Canada to assess if the veteran is eligible for federal benefits that may help defray costs. Veterans Affair Canada will also arrange placement on the veterans’ priority access bed waitlist in facilities with veterans’ priority access beds.

2. Admission of Aboriginal Residents

Home and Community Care Policy states:

“Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada is financially responsible for status or non-status Aboriginal clients who were residing on a reserve prior to entering an assisted living residence or residential care facility, provided the client is admitted to a residence or facility where Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada is authorized to pay for the care.”

3. Admission of Spouses with Different Care Needs

Health authorities are not required to admit individuals into publicly subsidized residential care facilities who do not meet the criteria for residential care services. In the past this lack of flexibility created significant distress for couples who have been together for a half century or longer, and who have been forced to live apart because of different care needs. Home and Community Care Policy has recognized this and now tries to address the problem.

Health authorities are required to explore reasonable arrangements with the couple and their family “in a collaborative approach” to that would enable spouses to maintain and support their relationship. There are a number of possibilities, including arranging transportation for non driving spouse and, on rare occasions, co-locating the spouse in the facility.

4. Admission of Sponsored Immigrants Needing Care

Sponsorship is a legal agreement between a sponsor, a sponsored family member (typically a parent or grandparent) and the Government of Canada that allows the family member to permanently reside in Canada and receive needed financial support from the sponsor.

The sponsor has signed an undertaking and committed to provide the sponsored person with the basic requirements for daily living for ten years (this has recently increased to twenty years for new sponsorships). During that period, the sponsored person cannot apply for government benefits such as Old Age Security, Guaranteed Income, or social assistance.

The sponsor is responsible for meeting the person’s basic requirements which includes: food, clothing, a place to live, fuel, utilities, household supplies, personal requirements, and health care not provided by public health. The sponsor is also responsible for costs such as the co-payment fees for a residential care facility as well as all medical expenses not covered by the provincial health plan.

Chapter Resources

Health Authorities’ Guidebooks for Residential Care

Fraser Health

Residential Care in Fraser Health. www.fraserhealth.ca/media/Residential_Care_in_FraserHealthweb.pdf

Vancouver Island Health

www.viha.ca/NR/rdonlyres/4CFF2480-72D7-4B1A-B489-D0A68B4BBC4F/0/viha_residential_care_guide.pdf

BC Care Provider Association

Residential Care Health and Safety Guidelines: A guidebook.

Online: www.bccare.ca/wp-content/uploads/bccare_safety_grid_v11.pdf

This information applies to British Columbia, Canada. Last reviewed for legal accuracy by BC Centre for Elder Advocacy and Support, June 2014.

Under the Family Law Act, a term that describes the time a person who is not a guardian of a child, including a parent who is not a guardian, has with that child. Under the Divorce Act, a term that describes the time a person who is not a married spouse has with a child. See "guardian" and "parental responsibilities."

To determine the proper value or worth of something. A lawyer's bill may be assessed by a registrar to determine the actual amount the client should pay. See "appraisal."

In law, a calculation of the allowable legal expenses of a party to a court proceeding, as determined by the Supreme Court Family Rules. The party who is most successful in a court proceeding is usually awarded their "costs" of the proceeding. See "account," "bill of costs," "Certificate of Costs or Expenses" and "lawyer's fees."

Under the old Divorce Act, the schedule of a parent's time with their children under an order or agreement, replaced with "parenting time" and "contact" in the new Divorce Act. Access usually referred to the schedule of the parent with the least amount of time with the child. See "contact," "custody" and "parenting time."

The geographic place where a person permanently lives. This is different from a person's "domicile" in that a person's residence is more fixed and less changeable in nature. A person's residence can also have an impact on a court's authority to hear and decide a legal action. See "domicile" and "jurisdiction."

Under the Divorce Act, either of two people who are married to one another, whether of the same or opposite genders. Under the Family Law Act, spouse includes married spouses, unmarried parties who have lived together in a marriage-like relationship for at least two years, and, for all purposes of the act other than the division of property or debt, unmarried parties who have lived together for less than two years and have had a child together. See "marriage" and "marriage-like relationship."

In family law, the natural or adoptive father or mother of a child; may also include stepparents, depending on the circumstances and the applicable legislation; may include the donors of eggs or sperm and surrogate mothers, depending on the circumstances and the terms of any assisted reproduction agreement. See "adoptive parent," "assisted reproduction," "natural parent" and "stepparent."

Short for the Child Support Guidelines, a regulation to the federal Divorce Act, adopted by each province and territory except Quebec, that sets the amount of child support a parent or guardian must pay, usually based on the person's income and the number of children involved.