Government of Alberta Announces Additional Supports for Continuing Care and Seniors
Feb 03, 2021The Government of Alberta today announced $68.5 million to protect vulnerable Albertans and staff in continuing care (CC), home care (HC) and residential addiction as well as mental health treatment facilities, from COVID-19.
This one-time funding will support operators of non-contracted licensed supportive living and both contracted and non-contracted home care, hospices and residential addiction and mental health treatment centres. It will help operators pay for increased staffing, additional cleaning supplies and personal protective equipment.
Today’s $68.5 million in support for CC homes is on top of $260 million that Alberta’s government has already provided to help caregivers support vulnerable residents in long-term care, designated supportive living facilities and seniors’ lodges. The previous $260 million support included more than $87.6 million provided to operators to top-up the wages of health-care aides and health care aide staffing levels and providing paid practicums for students to fast-track them through certification.
Funding to support operators providing essential services varies by sector and will be calculated based on the number of spaces in each facility, or on an hourly basis for home care:
- $48 million for non-contracted licensed supportive living, which includes over 20,000 spaces.
- $9.9 million for residential addiction and mental health treatment facilities, with $4.6 million of this amount to counter costs relating to unusable beds.
- $9.6 million for home care.
- $1 million for residential community hospice.
Organizations operating during the period of March 15, 2020 to March 31, 2021 will be eligible.
Information on how to apply for funding will be posted on alberta.ca in the coming weeks.
The Affordable Supportive Living Initiative (ASLI) has also been reintroduced to expand available CC spaces, and facilitate Albertans aging in their communities.