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NV seniors turfed from home
Assisted living room closure forces 13 to find new space Tessa Holloway tholloway@nsnews.com
MORE than a dozen seniors are about to lose their homes with the closure of 14 subsidized assisted living rooms in North Vancouver. North Shore Private Hospital, owners of the Lynn Valley Assisted Living centre at Lynn Valley Road and Fromme Avenue, are terminating their lease with Vancouver Coastal Health after just four years in order to convert the space to unsubsidized complex care beds. The news was a “bombshell” for Daniel Thompson, whose 85-year-old mother has been a resident for three years. He’s worried about what impact the move and stress will have on her health, and how long she’s going to have to wait to find a new home. His mother, June, calls him regularly, he said, and has been consistently worried about where she will go. “She’s anxious, I mean this is her home,” he said. “I don’t know what to do.” June suffers from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. All the other residents are older than she is, said Thompson. He feels the owners were putting the residents at risk for a little extra cash, and worries other privately run facilities might follow suit. Non-subsidized units can cost several thousands per month, and aside from Lynn Valley Assisted Living, there are only 111 publicly funded beds available on the North Shore, split between Cedar Garden and Churchill House in North Vancouver and Kiwanis Manor in West Vancouver. “(Vancouver Coastal Health) is trying to help everybody find a place and of course there isn’t a place to be found,” he said. “There’s a serious lack of subsidized assisted living on the North Shore.” Facility manager Mehdi Sherkat agreed the problem is money, but insisted they aren’t trying to be greedy. He said funding levels provided by Vancouver Coastal Health aren’t enough to cover increasing costs of assisted living care, in particular when paying for a new building. “Unfortunately, this leaves very few options for us,” he said in an email. “We can reduce staffing and sacrifice care standards, but those options are not acceptable to us.” Sherkat said the company has made a commitment to assist family members with costs of the move — something they’re not required to do — and won’t ask anyone to leave their home until they’ve found a new spot in their chosen building. “This is an issue care providers across B.C. . . . are facing,” he said. See Residents page 3
Iodide sells out on plant fears Manisha Krishnan
mkrishnan@nsnews.com
NORTH Shore pharmacies are being bombarded with requests for potassium iodide, fuelled by public fear over leaking radiation at the damaged Fukushima power plant in Japan.
NEWS photo Mike Wakefield
DANIEL Thompson and his mother June are not sure what to do after June and 12 other residents of the Lynn Valley Assisted Living centre were told to find a new home.
Several explosions and fires that have broken out at the plant’s six nuclear reactors have resulted in dangerously high levels of radiation in the quaketorn nation. But British Columbians have no real cause for concern, as the radioactive material is not likely to make its way over here, according to Dr. Perry Kendall, the provincial health officer. “There’s currently no increased radiation in B.C. and the modeling that’s been done on a variety of scenarios doesn’t suggest that there would be any radiation of any concern to human health effects,” said Kendall. Potassium iodide, a compound known as K1, is used to protect the thyroid gland from radioactive iodine and is generally available in communities located near nuclear power plants in the event of a meltdown, he said. “It’s not generally stockpiled for broader nuclear responses.” But that hasn’t stopped customers from asking. West Vancouver’s Hollyburn Medical Centre ran out of both liquid and pill forms of potassium iodide earlier this week and it won’t be restocking any time soon. “It may do more harm than See Iodide page 5
THE 2011 LEXUS RX 350: THE TOP OF THE CLASS IT INVENTED. 3.5 L 275 hp V6 engine, 6-speed automatic transmission, Dual Variable Timing with intelligence (VVT-i)
RX 2011 RX 350
LEASE FOR
488 498
$
MSRP
* MTH
DOWN PAYMENT $8,050* $7,850*
SECURITY DEPOSIT WAIVED
LEASE ORFINANCE FORUPTO48MONTHS
2.8 2.5
% ***
OR
CASH PURCHASE INCENTIVE CASH PURCHASE PRICE
49,000 49,100 $ 2,000 3,000 $ 47,000 46,100
†
$
‡
INCLUDES FREIGHT/PDI
¥The Lexus RX 350 was the number one selling Luxury SUV in Canada in 2010. †MSRP is $49,100 for a new Lexus 2011 RX 350 Sfx ‘A’. MSRP include freight and PDI ($1,950). License, insurance, registration (if applicable) and taxes are extra. ‡$3,000 Cash Purchase Incentive may not be combined with special lease and finance rates offered through Lexus Financial Services as part of a low rate interest program. All advertised lease and finance rates are special rates. Cash Purchase Incentive offer takes place at the time of delivery. See your Lexus dealer for whether tax applies before or after the application of Cash Purchase Incentives in your jurisdiction.*Lease and finance offers provided through Lexus Financial Services, on approved credit on new Lexus 2011 RX 350 Sfx ‘A’ models. Lease example based on a 48 month term at an annual rate of 2.5% and MSRP of $49,100 and includes freight/PDI. Monthly payment is $488 with $8,050 down payment or equivalent trade in, $0 security deposit and first monthly payment due at lease inception. Total lease obligation is $31,475. 96,000 kilometre allowance; charge of $0.20/km for excess kilometres. ** Finance example includes taxes and is based on 48 month term at annual rate of 2.5% and MSRP of $49,100 (excludes taxes and includes freight/PDI). Monthly payment is $1,076. Cost of borrowing is $2,547 for a total obligation of $51,647. License, registration (if applicable) and insurance are extra. Lexus Dealers are free to set their own prices. Offers are subject to change without notice. Offers expire at month’s end unless extended or revised. See your Lexus dealer for complete details.
YOUR NORTHSHORE LUXURY STORE
Northshore Auto Mall 845 Automall Drive • North Vancouver, BC
604-982-0033
www.jplexus.com
D01130