Canadian friends: How does assisted living work?

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My MIL married a Canadian about 15 years ago and is a legal permanent resident of British Columbia. It has become apparent in the last few months that she and her husband can no longer care for themselves and they are going to need to move into some type of assisted living place in the next few weeks. We are just starting to figure out a plan of action. My DH and sister in law are going to visit them in three weeks and try to gently get MIL and her husband to come to terms with their options…none of which they will think are great.

I know we can google details but I am interested to hear experience, wisdom, and/or advice from Canadians or from US citizens who have a Canadian parent(s).

We are especially curious about finances. We think neither of them has much left in the way of savings, but they do own a couple of acres of riverfront property (no house). Do low income Canadian citizens have some kind of assisted living expense benefit? Are there any potential complications because she is an American citizen? She does have a Power of Attorney and a Healthcare Power of Attorney…both drawn up in the US after they were married and immediately prior to her moving to BC permanently. We assume those will be recognized/honored in BC. Anyone have a different experience?

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Assisted living, like other social services, are run by the provincial governments. I would start here - Assisted Living - Province of British Columbia

It can take several months to get a placement into one’s preferred facility. When we were looking for places for my mother, over 10 years ago, she ended up getting an emergency placement because she couldn’t walk. The emergency placement was on a locked dementia ward although she didn’t have dementia. She was moved to another location in less than 2 weeks. The nicer location that we wanted had a waiting list of about 9 months. It’s probably longer now. She ended up dying about a week after her second placement.

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