Long-term care in Bermuda is still in a “crisis” situation, according to Age Concern director Claudette Fleming.

Speaking at the annual Summer Leadership Conference at The Fairmont Southampton yesterday, Dr Fleming said that while progress had been made since the Sixties, more co-ordination was needed.

“Since 1978, we still haven’t sufficiently resolved this issue of long-term care,” she said after giving healthcare leaders an overview of its history on the island. “I don’t think we need to add anything else. What we need to do is stop, look at what we have and co-ordinate.

“We’ve made all this progress, had all these studies, looked at things over and over again but we’re not working. You have to question whether or not we’ve actually improved the lives of seniors, which is what we are attempting to do in the first place.”

Noting our ageing population, Dr Fleming spoke about the different approaches that had been taken, from rehabilitation, institutionalisation and decentralisation to integration, and highlighted recommendations made in many studies concerning the elderly since the Sixties.

She also provided a snapshot of the situation now, highlighting some of the progress made.

She pointed to the more than 20 care homes and nursing homes, 19 daycare programmes, ten registered home care agencies and about 100 home-care professionals and two assisted-living programmes, as well as community nursing, social clubs, volunteer services and housing units for the elderly.

But she also highlighted the high demand for places in care homes, the elderly taking up hospital beds for long durations, and a lack of respite beds.

Of the latter, Dr Fleming said she could not believe there were only three. “We had many more but, as you can see, we lack capacity and unity,” she added.

“So those who went to homes for respite stayed there and they’ve taken up the beds. We are in a crisis situation.”

However, she said a lesson had been learnt: “We can do the best, we can study something, we can understand it, we can create programmes and systems, but if we don’t take time to stop and look at what we’ve achieved and how we can marry all of those things together, we’re still going to find ourselves where we find ourselves in Bermuda, in a crisis situation because we are really not working effectively together.”

Dr Fleming stressed that the way the elderly population was perceived was key in moving forward.

“Our perspective on ageing shapes the policy that we create and we saw that in the history of Bermuda, when the elderly were considered to be sick and that they needed to be healed, she said. “When we saw a move towards it being a more formal reaction to what was happening in the community, we then moved them into institutions.

“When we felt as though there wasn’t enough money to maintain the institutions, then we looked at communities.

“As providers, we have to remember that the policy we put in place is actually going to influence the outcome and the practices of what we do.”

She urged healthcare leaders to see the glass half-full instead of getting frustrated by recommendations and reports coming and going.

“We may not see the completion of the entire system or the perfection that someone has desired but we can successfully pass the baton so that the work continues,” she said.

The Summer Leadership Conference runs until Friday and is co-ordinated by the New York chapter of the American College of Health Care Administrators and the New York State Health Facilities Organisation/New York State Centre for Assisted Living.

Two Bermudian speakers have been invited to present, with health economist Ricky Brathwaite set to speak today.