Question Period Note: LONG TERM CARE

• We place the highest priority on making sure Veterans have the support they need, when they need it - and that includes access to long-term care.

• We support Veterans and their long term care needs in over 1,200 provincially and privately owned and operated facilities across the country.

• Veterans Affairs Canada works closely with provinces, health authorities and facilities to find solutions that ensure the well-being of Veterans.

• Our Government is and continues to be committed to supporting Canada's Veterans and their families and to ensuring that Veterans receive the respect, support, and care they deserve.

BACKGROUND – LONG-TERM CARE

The support that Veterans Affairs provides for Veterans who need long-term care is governed by the Veterans Health Care Regulations. Veteran eligibility for long-term care support, as well as the type of long-term care setting, depends on the type and location of military service, income, health care need, and whether the need for long-term care is related to a disability from military service.

Support is provided in provincially licensed, regulated or operated health care facilities, most of which provide care to other provincial residents as well as Veterans, including:
- facilities such as nursing homes and other long-term care facilities with beds that are open to Veterans as well as other provincial residents (community beds); and
- facilities with beds designated through contractual arrangements with the province, health authority and/or facility for priority access for Second World War and Korean War Veterans (contract beds).

Generally speaking, Second World War or Korean War Veterans can access a contract bed if they have served overseas, or are income qualified, or have a disability related to their wartime military service.

Veterans who served with Allied armed forces, War Veterans who served in Canada only for a minimum of 365 days, and have a low income, and Canadian Armed Forces Veterans who need care due to service-related disability can receive long-term care in a community bed.

Veterans Affairs Canada supports Veterans in long-term care in a number of ways. First, the Department subsidizes the accommodation and meal costs of eligible Veterans such that the maximum amount any Veteran needs to contribute towards their monthly resident fees if $1,058. Second, funding is provided to a number of facilities on an annual basis to support an enhanced level of services and specialized programs for Veterans.

As of March 31, 2019, of the 4,521 Veterans supported by Veterans Affairs Canada:
• 2,989 are in community beds, in 1,226 facilities; and
• 1,532 are in contract beds, in 91 facilities.

Expenditures in 2018-19 totaled $222.5 M, with community beds and contract beds accounting for $53.5 M and $169.0 M respectively.

In June 2016, Veterans Affairs Canada launched a preferred admission initiative. Since then, the Department has reached new partnership agreements with ten former Veterans hospitals to expedite and expand access to a new group of Veterans who are eligible for care in a community facility other than a contract bed. The goal is to negotiate agreements with the 18 former Veterans hospitals that have been transferred since the mid-1960s. Through these new agreements, Veterans may be able to access a bed at one of these facilities and when a bed becomes available, a Veteran will receive preferred admission to that bed. As of October 2019, there are 247 beds available in ten former Veterans’ hospitals under the preferred admission initiative.

Veterans Affairs Canada will continue to offer quality long-term care financial support to eligible Veterans for as long as it is needed. In addition to long-term care benefits, eligible Veterans may receive a range of services and benefits, including the Veterans Independence Program, which provides home care support that can help Veterans stay in their own home as long as possible.

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