Alberta’s new continuing care agency will officially be established on April 1 and is expected to be up and running by fall 2025, Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jason Nixon announced Thursday.
The new agency will be named Assisted Living Alberta (ALA), and Nixon said a transition committee is currently working to move existing continuing care operations from Alberta Health and transform the province’s assisted living system.
“Assisted Living Alberta will be taking on the leadership of 19 per cent of the current health care system,” Nixon said, which is significant in terms of both budget and service provision.
ALA is one of four new health agencies created to replace Alberta Health Services. Primary Care Alberta and Acute Care Alberta are set to become legal entities on Feb. 1, and Recovery Alberta has been in operation since last fall.
“Going forward, assisted living Alberta will offer Albertans access to a full range of wraparound services, from medical and non-medical supports, to home care and community supports, to housing and social services and other supports,” Nixon said.
Dr. Zielke, cardiologist and medical director of Chinook Cardiology and chair of the ALA transition committee, said in the breakup of AHS and restructuring of continuing care there is an opportunity to “transform, integrate and elevate the care” provided in the sector.
“This is our chance to design a system that truly puts the patients first and provides world class care to our community,” she said.
Nixon said the agency has plans to make the system less complicated for patients moving into assisted living and will be focusing on using technology to coordinate better between organizations, to care for people within the system, and make sure “people are in the right spot.”
“If a family is interacting with the system right now, they can't actually see what's available. I can't see, currently, as a minister, what's available. That's an extraordinary challenge,” Nixon said.
In rural Alberta, Nixon said small-home and group home models are the “only way forward for some of the challenges that we see in those communities.”
Chris Gallaway, executive director of Friends of Medicare, said the creation of ALA doesn’t address major issues in seniors care like worsening care standards and working conditions.
“We’ve seen nothing from this government to suggest that the creation of an entirely new agency, siloed from the other pillars of health care, will in any way improve continuing care in our province,” Gallaway said.
“Instead, we’re seeing this government stoke even more chaos at a moment when so many Albertans are already struggling to navigate our increasingly complex health care system and access the care they need and deserve.”
