- Aug 6, 2012
- 28,034
- 24,840
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In Canada they abuse you when you are young and abuse you when you are old. They sell you out like a tramp in your prime. We have lost thousands in these homes, some of the "residents" there, have been lying in their own waste for days. Par for the course in creepy, covert Canada.
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The tragedy playing out in Ontario’s long-term-care facilities has thrust problems plaguing the system for decades, into the spotlight, experts say.
In November, the Ontario government promised it would bring a “gold standard” to the province’s long-term care homes by hiring thousands more staff and giving residents four hours each of direct care daily. Yet governments of various political stripes have promised to address the issue for decades. And dire conditions persist.
What political obstacles stand in the way of progress — and what would it take finally to act? The Star asked several experts, who offered a clear but daunting prescription: We need to confront deep-seated cultural and societal issues.
Former Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said a “cultural shift” in attitudes toward the elderly and those who care for them is needed to bring about changes to the troubled sector, which has plagued successive provincial governments.
“I just don’t think we’ve shown the love for those we’ve expected to bring the love,” Smitherman said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic nearly 2,800 residents and eight staff members in Ontario’s long-term-care homes have died of COVID-19. Stories have trickled out of squalid conditions and elderly residents being left alone, banging on walls for help, as understaffed homes struggle to meet their needs and have led to legal cases and protests by family members.
Smitherman said there have been improvements to the sector since he was charged with reform two decades ago. “I inherited a model where people were being tethered to their beds and there wasn’t even a nurse on site by law,” he said. Still, he added, “The change has proven to be incremental, not transformative.”
He said the slow pace of change is partly because the care home sector doesn’t get the respect from society enjoyed by hospitals, which are frequented by a larger proportion of the population and employ people with higher levels of training. The result? Many promises have been made in years past to improve pay for support workers, yet governments haven’t delivered. Indeed, they haven’t even been able to complete a long-promised registry for support workers, he added.
Some blame a system that allows homes to be run for profit. A study in August published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found for-profit homes are more likely to experience more severe COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths, though the chances of having an outbreak were the same as non-profit homes. The study found the death rate was 29 per cent higher at for-profit homes than non-profit homes at 23.4 per thousand.
Many, including federal new Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh, have slammed the for-profit centres for their handling of the outbreaks. Singh called on the federal government to turn Revera, a retirement and long-term-care home company owned by a crown corporation managing public service pensions, into a publicly managed entity.
But many issues in care homes don’t arise simply because of the for-profit model, said Raisa Deber a professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
“It’s not nearly as simple as we like to pretend it is,” Deber said.
She said long-term care is complex due to the varying needs of residents, stressing many of the duties of long-term care homes are not health related.
Such responsibilities include residents exercising, bathing and the kind of meals they’re served. There isn’t even a clear line marking the difference between a long-term-care home and a retirement home, she said, making it often difficult to decide who will end up in what type of home.
“One of the problems you run into with long-term care is a whole bunch of it is just the activities and daily living,” she said. “That’s never been anything that under our medicare system is considered to be needing to be publicly funded.”
Calling it a “social-care issue,” she said the province must for the first time clearly define what is a public role and what is a private role before it can make meaningful improvements to long-term care.
THIS is Canada. Your ally. The nation some of you admire and want to become more like.
If you follow us, you will indeed, follow us...
‘I’m not sure we care enough:’ Cultural shift needed to stop tragedy in care homes, experts say
For years Ontario has grappled with care home controversies, but there isn’t a simple fix.
www.thestar.com
The tragedy playing out in Ontario’s long-term-care facilities has thrust problems plaguing the system for decades, into the spotlight, experts say.
In November, the Ontario government promised it would bring a “gold standard” to the province’s long-term care homes by hiring thousands more staff and giving residents four hours each of direct care daily. Yet governments of various political stripes have promised to address the issue for decades. And dire conditions persist.
What political obstacles stand in the way of progress — and what would it take finally to act? The Star asked several experts, who offered a clear but daunting prescription: We need to confront deep-seated cultural and societal issues.
Former Ontario Health Minister George Smitherman said a “cultural shift” in attitudes toward the elderly and those who care for them is needed to bring about changes to the troubled sector, which has plagued successive provincial governments.
“I just don’t think we’ve shown the love for those we’ve expected to bring the love,” Smitherman said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic nearly 2,800 residents and eight staff members in Ontario’s long-term-care homes have died of COVID-19. Stories have trickled out of squalid conditions and elderly residents being left alone, banging on walls for help, as understaffed homes struggle to meet their needs and have led to legal cases and protests by family members.
Smitherman said there have been improvements to the sector since he was charged with reform two decades ago. “I inherited a model where people were being tethered to their beds and there wasn’t even a nurse on site by law,” he said. Still, he added, “The change has proven to be incremental, not transformative.”
He said the slow pace of change is partly because the care home sector doesn’t get the respect from society enjoyed by hospitals, which are frequented by a larger proportion of the population and employ people with higher levels of training. The result? Many promises have been made in years past to improve pay for support workers, yet governments haven’t delivered. Indeed, they haven’t even been able to complete a long-promised registry for support workers, he added.
Some blame a system that allows homes to be run for profit. A study in August published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal found for-profit homes are more likely to experience more severe COVID-19 outbreaks and deaths, though the chances of having an outbreak were the same as non-profit homes. The study found the death rate was 29 per cent higher at for-profit homes than non-profit homes at 23.4 per thousand.
Many, including federal new Democrat leader Jagmeet Singh, have slammed the for-profit centres for their handling of the outbreaks. Singh called on the federal government to turn Revera, a retirement and long-term-care home company owned by a crown corporation managing public service pensions, into a publicly managed entity.
But many issues in care homes don’t arise simply because of the for-profit model, said Raisa Deber a professor at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto.
“It’s not nearly as simple as we like to pretend it is,” Deber said.
She said long-term care is complex due to the varying needs of residents, stressing many of the duties of long-term care homes are not health related.
Such responsibilities include residents exercising, bathing and the kind of meals they’re served. There isn’t even a clear line marking the difference between a long-term-care home and a retirement home, she said, making it often difficult to decide who will end up in what type of home.
“One of the problems you run into with long-term care is a whole bunch of it is just the activities and daily living,” she said. “That’s never been anything that under our medicare system is considered to be needing to be publicly funded.”
Calling it a “social-care issue,” she said the province must for the first time clearly define what is a public role and what is a private role before it can make meaningful improvements to long-term care.