Difference between revisions of "Overview of Legal Issues in Residential Care"

:''“Residential Care is for adults with complex health care needs requiring 24-hour professional care due to physical disability or mental or behavioral conditions, including brain injuries or dementia.”''

The term “residential care” refers to places where a person can receive health care services, accommodation and support on a regular basis.  Residential care is typically viewed as providing a higher level of care and support than other types of facilities in the community such as assisted living. Since 2002 under provincial health care policy, publicly funded (subsidized) residential care facilities are available only to people who need “complex care”.

While acute care hospitals are places of temporary stay for health care, residential care facilities are very importantly the person’s home in which health care, assistance and other support will be provided on a regular, ongoing basis. It is where the people live their lives and continue to have relationships.  Residential care facilities are also collective settings, meaning that the rights of residents must sometimes be balanced against the individual and collective rights of other residents to safety, privacy, etc.

Residential care facilities are required to provide a number of core services. These include:

Practically speaking, what makes residential care facilities in British Columbia distinctive are the characteristics of the people who live there.  In contrast to assisted living facilities where residents must be able to make decisions on their own in order to live there,  a sizeable proportion of people who live in British Columbia’s residential care facilities today may have difficulty making some types of decisions without support.

The term “complex care” as used by the Ministry of Health refers to care and support for people who:

'''NOTE:''' Information on a particular residential care facility’s company website will not always be up to date or accurate. In some case, it may represent the law or process of another jurisdiction.

The public is often  very confused  about care facilities, who runs  it ,  who is  responsible, and  who  pays.  There is good reason for that confusion:

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:''“Residential Care facilities provide 24-hour professional care and supervision to adults in a supportive, secure environment.”''