New report highlights growing gap in seniors’ care

The OSA report highlights ongoing and growing pressures across the system, including long-term care, home support and community-based services. These pressures have significant implications for people affected by dementia.

Some key findings include:

• As of March 31, 2025, 7,029 people were waiting to be admitted to long-term care – more than double the amount in 2019/20.
• The average wait time for people on the waitlist (as of March 31, 2025) was 287 days (10 months) – a 19 per cent increase over the previous year and almost doubled compared to 2019/20.
• First Link^® dementia support remains a critical, high-demand support system for people living with dementia and their caregivers, with rising client contact volumes indicating increased complexity of need.
• 84 per cent of ALC (alternate level of care) patients waiting in hospital for safe discharge are seniors.

The report also reinforces that while people living with cognitive impairment represent more than 60 per cent of people living in long-term care, the impacts of long wait times are disproportionately experienced by people affected by dementia.

With increasing wait times for long-term care, demand for dementia-related support services remains high. In 2024/25, the Alzheimer Society of BC and Yukon’s First Link^® dementia support served 13,512 clients across 421 communities. While the number of clients has remained relatively consistent, the number of contacts increased by 68 per cent over six years, indicating growing complexity of need.

The report also notes that community-based services such as First Link^® are essential to helping seniors live independently and reducing pressure on hospitals and long-term care. However, increasing demand, growing waitlists and resource constraints indicate that current services are not keeping pace with the needs of seniors in BC.  This leads to increasing pressure on families and acute care and public funding.

The Alzheimer Society of BC and Yukon supports the Office of the Seniors Advocate’s recommendations to address these challenges, including strengthening community-based supports and expanding access to long-term care. We remain committed to working with the Ministry of Health, health authorities and community partners to ensure people living with dementia receive person-centred care.

As the number of people affected by dementia continues to grow, the need for coordinated, long-term solutions remains a priority.