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While sitting at his bedside, she watched in alarm as her father began crying out: “Please don’t hurt me. You’re torturing me.”
A staff psychiatrist at the Ottawa long-term care home where the 81-year-old war veteran lived suggested he might be reliving his wartime experiences.
His daughter later learned the truth.
The veteran was one of four men living on a locked Alzheimer’s ward at Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre who were assaulted and manhandled by Allan Foubert, a support worker in charge of their care. The abuse, in 2006 and 2007, was uncovered by Foubert’s co-workers, who became concerned about bruises on the men. The marks left on the woman’s father included a badly swollen hand and bruising.
The revelations devastated his daughter, who said the decision to place her father in long-term care had been one of the most difficult of her life.
A decade later, she is still spending time in a long-term care home in Ottawa, one of a small army of people across the province supporting their loved ones and frequently fighting for better care. Now it’s her husband who requires full-time care after a debilitating stroke. She asked that her name not be used because of concern it might affect his care.
“It’s a hard way to live,” she says.
Related
Justice Colin McKinnon shone a spotlight on families of long-term care residents when he sentenced Foubert to eight months in jail in 2009. The Ontario Superior Court ruling was quoted again in an Ottawa courtroom this September — for the sentencing of support worker Jie Xaio, who struck an elderly man in his care at an Ottawa long-term care home.
Video evidence showed a personal-service worker punching Georges Karam 11 times in the face.
“Families who entrust their aged parents to institutions often do so with a sense of overwhelming guilt and desperate resignation,” said McKinnon. “They have the absolute right to expect that those entrusted with the care of their aged parents will at all times act professionally, and within the bounds of the law.”
That trust has been tested in recent months with high-profile cases of abuse in long-term care homes in Ottawa and mounting frustration about a system of care for seniors that is stretched to its limits.
Images of support worker Jie Xiao striking 89-year-old Georges Karam as he lay in his bed at Ottawa’s Garry J. Armstrong long-term care home in March, made headlines around the world and shocked Ottawa residents. It was among incidents that led to investigations into city-run long-term care in Ottawa. This paper has reported about other cases of abuse, neglect and substandard care in Ottawa long-term care homes and continues to hear from families with stories. These come as the province has launched an inquiry into the killings of eight seniors by a former nurse at long-term care homes in London and Woodstock.
Family members of long-term care residents have been reading those headlines with alarm, said Grace Welch, chair of the advocacy committee with the Champlain Region Family Council Network, which oversees family councils at long-term care homes.
“It is making people even more fearful. But it is bringing to light the crisis that we have.”
The crisis has been building for years.
While cases of abuse are relatively rare in Ontario’s long-term care homes, they are a product of a system that is straining to meet the demand.
Residents of long-term care homes in Ontario are older and sicker than even 10 years ago. The majority are older than 85, almost three-quarters have some form of dementia, and most have mobility issues. Many need help with tasks such as eating, dressing and bathing.
Staffing has not kept up with the level of care required, leaving support workers and nurses rushed and residents and their families frustrated. Many praise what support workers and nurses do in long-term care homes, but say they are working within a system that is broken.
Fed up family members, many of whom spend hours supplementing their loved-ones’ care or who pay for additional care, are demanding better, and their voices are starting to be heard.
“Long-term care is not sexy. It doesn’t grab the headlines,” said France Gelinas, the Ontario NDP long-term care critic who has worked for more than a decade to improve care inside long-term care homes. That, she says, is beginning to change, in part, because politicians are hearing from constituents who are outraged by funding gaps in the system and from workers who say they are so rushed they are unable to provide the quality of care that is needed.
Premier Kathleen Wynne
Even so, Gelinas says, damage has been done because of the failure to keep up with growing demand at long-term care homes during recent years.
The province has pledged $115 million for 5,000 long-term care beds and increased staffing in coming years, something critics say is a welcome step, but unlikely to fix all the funding and care shortfalls.
Meanwhile, more than 32,000 people are on waiting lists for beds in one of the 625 licensed homes in the province. In the Champlain region, including Ottawa, more than 3,600 people are waiting for one of the 7,600 beds in private, non-profit and municipally run homes. That list grows monthly, and those numbers are destined to explode, given the province’s rapidly aging population.
Long-term care, the provincially funded residential care system for seniors who need 24/7 care, is the system that few want, but many desperately need.
“If I stood up and said ‘Who wants to live out their life in a long-term care facility?’ no hands go up,” said Robert Morton, interim head of AdvantAge Ontario, which represents non-profit long-term care homes in Ontario. Still, he said, there is a subset of the population who will always require the level of care offered in long-term care and it is growing.
Long-term care is having its moment in the spotlight. And the exposure has not been flattering.
“Long-term care is a nightmare in the country right now, because they don’t have enough staff,” says the Ottawa woman whose father was abused while in long-term care. “They knew the baby boomers were getting older and they haven’t prepared for them.”
There are no minimum standards for hours of care in Ontario long-term care homes. The only requirements are that residents are given at least two baths a week and there must be a nurse on site 24 hours a day.
The province is pledging to change that, saying it will introduce a minimum requirement of four hours of paid care per resident a day, something that Morton estimates will cost close to half a billion dollars.
Currently, residents of city-run long-term care homes in Ottawa receive just 2.6 hours of direct care every day. The provincial average is 3.5 hours of paid care per resident a day, according to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
The union representing long-term care workers says the province’s promise falls short of what is needed since it is counting paid hours, including vacation and sick leave, and not hours of hands-on care.
Morton calls the announcement good news and a recognition from the province that staffing and funding for long-term care has not kept up with demand.
How the investment changes long-term care in Ontario has yet to be seen, but there is abundant evidence that seniors in long-term care homes are not getting the attention they need.
At current staffing levels, residents are sometimes forced into incontinence because no one can get them to the bathroom on time, says Gelinas; they are left alone for long periods, sometimes in soiled diapers; and they are rushed through their routines. One Ottawa family says their mother developed severe diaper rash after being left sitting so long in a wet, leaking diaper. At times, according to provincial investigations, staff take shortcuts or fail to follow proper procedures — sometimes with dangerous results for seniors in their care.
Many workers describe the frustration of rushing through their work and struggle with their inability to spend enough time with residents. Many also suffer from burnout.
This is how personal support worker Andrea Legault describes her mornings in long-term care: “Right now, we have five to 10 minutes to help a resident with their morning routine. That includes waking, washing, dressing and the use of the commode. Imagine if you only had 10 minutes for all those activities in the morning. Then imagine you are 82 years old with mobility issue.”
Residents, their families and staff are increasingly frustrated. Some families are paying for private care services to fill gaps in care.
One Ottawa woman says her family is spending as much as $60,000 a year on private caregivers to supplement care for family members at three different long-term care homes.
Another woman who lives at Ottawa’s Extendicare Laurier Manor, alleged cockroaches and bedbugs are common at the home. A spokesperson said the home acts quickly when there are such reports.
“We are not treating people in long-term care with respect,” says the NDP’s Gelinas. “We are meeting their minimum needs. They are fed, they are clothed, they go to the bathroom. But we have lost sight of the fact that people in long-term care deserve respect.”
Tony Caldwell photo.
Welch, head of the Champlain Region Family Council Network, has seen the changes in long-term care up close.
Her mother entered an Ottawa long-term care home a decade ago and remained there until her death four years ago.
Welch visited her mother almost daily. She eventually became head of the family council at Grace Manor, where her mother lived. Councils are made up of family and friends and aim to improve the quality of life in long-term care.
When her mother died, Welch continued to volunteer at the home weekly, because she knew the need for an extra set of hands during mealtime was so great.
A decade ago, just one or two residents on her mother’s floor were unable to feed themselves and needed help because of advanced dementia and other disabilities, she said. Now, close to 10 of the 25 residents on the floor need some extra help being fed.
“I choose to help because it frees up the personal support worker to serve others.”
Welch and others say the lack of time staff have to interact with residents is one of the biggest failings of the long-term care system.
Despite concerns about the system, thousands are waiting to get in, a sign that it is the only viable option for many who require intensive, 24-hour care.
Growing waiting lists bump against the province’s home-first philosophy of aging, which says helping the elderly stay in their homes for as long as possible is the best option for them.
The province has long emphasized home care over institutional care, but critics say neither system is receiving enough financial support to keep up with rapidly growing needs, leaving gaps that must be filled by seniors and their families.
Champlain LHIN has recently reduced waiting lists for home care in the region. But compared to countries, such as Denmark, seen as a model for home care, help provided to allow people to stay in their homes as they age is limited in Ontario and there are funding gaps. The elderly and their families often end up paying for additional help and sometimes continue to hire extra help once they are in long-term care.
Aging at home is an ideal that few argue with. But for many, home is not an option.
For those who can afford it, there are other options — from retirement homes and assisted living to Alzheimer’s- and dementia-care communities — but long-term care is often the only reasonable option once people need more intensive care.
Long-term care homes are dealing with increasingly sick residents. Decades ago, people who were on oxygen, had a catheter or an IV couldn’t get into long-term care. Now, the majority of residents have some complex health needs.
Chantale LeClerc.
Chantale Leclerc, CEO of the Champlain LHIN said there have to be more investments in services to help people remain at home, or in group settings in the community.
“There does need to be continued investment in home and community care if we are going to have alternatives to long term care and decreased pressure on hospitals.”
The Ottawa Hospital and Perley and Rideau Veterans recently announced a pilot project that officials say they hope will take pressure off hospitals and help seniors recover so they can return home, rather than going into long-term care. The so-called ALC (alternate level of care) patients, sometimes seniors recovering from surgery or an extended illness, contribute to overcrowded hospitals. They often deteriorate physically during extended hospital stays and end up moving directly from hospital bed to long-term care.
The 20-bed pilot project is among efforts to keep people in their homes longer. Others include the addition of nurses and support workers at apartments where seniors live, home care and respite care.
There is little doubt demand for all forms of help for seniors will continue to grow.
Seniors now outnumber children for the first time in Canada. By 2031, Statistics Canada predicts, nearly one in four Canadians will be over 65.
The population over 85 years old, meanwhile, has exploded in recent years, growing by 405 per cent between 1971 and 2013, according to research. As people live longer and healthier, the Oldest Olds, as those older than 85 are known, are the most likely to end up in long-term care. And their numbers just keep growing, which is reflected in waiting lists for long-term care and growing demand for home care.
The association that represents the province’s for-profit long-term care homes disagrees with critics.
Ontario has the most stringent compliance system in North America for long-term care homes, notes CEO Candace Chartier, of the Ontario Long Term Care Association. The vast majority of homes meet those standards and offer a high level of care to residents, she says.
Ontario closely monitors and inspects long-term care homes. Four per cent of homes in the province are rated “high risk,” Chartier says. As many as 12 per cent fall into the medium and high-risk category — which means they are more thoroughly inspected, although a list of repeat non-compliances at some homes — including those in Ottawa — suggest the system of inspections doesn’t necessarily mean all homes are running well. The majority of homes, though, meet standards.
“I don’t believe the sector is in trouble. Unfortunately, the good news stories don’t hit the papers,” Chartier says.
Even so, the association, citing long and growing waiting lists and an aging population, is calling for a major investment in the sector, including 10,000 new beds, substantially more staff, more supports for dementia care and money to upgrade and rebuild outdated homes, some of which have been committed to by the province.
If action isn’t taken, the association warns, waiting lists for seniors to get access to long-term care could grow to 84,000 in the next decade.
Morton, whose association represents not-for-profit homes, warns, though, that regulations and inspections do not make for better long-term care.
“We are working in an environment where there are so many controls. We know if you control and constrain a system, you drive out innovation and creativity and you don’t end up with quality.” The inspection system, he said, has become a “blame and shame” system that doesn’t help homes improve.
“I am not aware of any data that says doing it this way is better or that it is the best use of resources.”
A group of Canadian academics and others, led by York University’s Pat Armstrong have spent years studying long-term care around the world as part of a Re-Imagining Long Term Residential Care project that looks for examples of creative, high quality long-term care.
“Long-term residential care is often considered a failure, failure of the individual to maintain themselves, failure of their family to care and failure of the medical system to cure,” write the studies authors. “But some people will always need residential care, and this should be a place where residents and workers who provide care experience a healthy, safe and joyful environment.”
Hugh Armstrong, professor emeritus of social work and political economy at Carleton University, said in an interview that Nordic countries, many of which are known for world-leading seniors home care, also point the way to better long-term residential care.
In Sweden, and other Nordic countries, researchers saw examples of long-term care homes where staff had enough time to interact with residents and residents were engaged in daily tasks, including helping with meals. One key, he said, is that the facilities felt more like homes, in part, because staff had the flexibility to perform many tasks, from administering medicine to making toast. Armstrong said residents in one German home spontaneously began singing while visited by researchers.
“You see more happy faces,” he said. “You see fewer people slumping in wheelchairs in front a TV they are not watching.”
Will some of those changes come to Ontario?
MPP France Gelinas believes so. All options for the elderly will improve in coming years, she says.
“The baby boomers changed everything. When they were ready for school, we built schools. When they were ready to work, they changed the work place. The baby boomers will do the same to our long-term care system.”
epayne@postmedia.com
查看原文...
A staff psychiatrist at the Ottawa long-term care home where the 81-year-old war veteran lived suggested he might be reliving his wartime experiences.
His daughter later learned the truth.
The veteran was one of four men living on a locked Alzheimer’s ward at Perley and Rideau Veterans’ Health Centre who were assaulted and manhandled by Allan Foubert, a support worker in charge of their care. The abuse, in 2006 and 2007, was uncovered by Foubert’s co-workers, who became concerned about bruises on the men. The marks left on the woman’s father included a badly swollen hand and bruising.
The revelations devastated his daughter, who said the decision to place her father in long-term care had been one of the most difficult of her life.
A decade later, she is still spending time in a long-term care home in Ottawa, one of a small army of people across the province supporting their loved ones and frequently fighting for better care. Now it’s her husband who requires full-time care after a debilitating stroke. She asked that her name not be used because of concern it might affect his care.
“It’s a hard way to live,” she says.
Related
- Drugging the elderly: Nursing homes moving from one drug to others
- Hagar: In defence of personal support workers
- Ottawa care home where woman injured had history of breaking rules
Justice Colin McKinnon shone a spotlight on families of long-term care residents when he sentenced Foubert to eight months in jail in 2009. The Ontario Superior Court ruling was quoted again in an Ottawa courtroom this September — for the sentencing of support worker Jie Xaio, who struck an elderly man in his care at an Ottawa long-term care home.
Video evidence showed a personal-service worker punching Georges Karam 11 times in the face.
“Families who entrust their aged parents to institutions often do so with a sense of overwhelming guilt and desperate resignation,” said McKinnon. “They have the absolute right to expect that those entrusted with the care of their aged parents will at all times act professionally, and within the bounds of the law.”
That trust has been tested in recent months with high-profile cases of abuse in long-term care homes in Ottawa and mounting frustration about a system of care for seniors that is stretched to its limits.
Images of support worker Jie Xiao striking 89-year-old Georges Karam as he lay in his bed at Ottawa’s Garry J. Armstrong long-term care home in March, made headlines around the world and shocked Ottawa residents. It was among incidents that led to investigations into city-run long-term care in Ottawa. This paper has reported about other cases of abuse, neglect and substandard care in Ottawa long-term care homes and continues to hear from families with stories. These come as the province has launched an inquiry into the killings of eight seniors by a former nurse at long-term care homes in London and Woodstock.
Family members of long-term care residents have been reading those headlines with alarm, said Grace Welch, chair of the advocacy committee with the Champlain Region Family Council Network, which oversees family councils at long-term care homes.
“It is making people even more fearful. But it is bringing to light the crisis that we have.”
The crisis has been building for years.
•
While cases of abuse are relatively rare in Ontario’s long-term care homes, they are a product of a system that is straining to meet the demand.
Residents of long-term care homes in Ontario are older and sicker than even 10 years ago. The majority are older than 85, almost three-quarters have some form of dementia, and most have mobility issues. Many need help with tasks such as eating, dressing and bathing.
Staffing has not kept up with the level of care required, leaving support workers and nurses rushed and residents and their families frustrated. Many praise what support workers and nurses do in long-term care homes, but say they are working within a system that is broken.
Fed up family members, many of whom spend hours supplementing their loved-ones’ care or who pay for additional care, are demanding better, and their voices are starting to be heard.
“Long-term care is not sexy. It doesn’t grab the headlines,” said France Gelinas, the Ontario NDP long-term care critic who has worked for more than a decade to improve care inside long-term care homes. That, she says, is beginning to change, in part, because politicians are hearing from constituents who are outraged by funding gaps in the system and from workers who say they are so rushed they are unable to provide the quality of care that is needed.
Premier Kathleen Wynne
Even so, Gelinas says, damage has been done because of the failure to keep up with growing demand at long-term care homes during recent years.
The province has pledged $115 million for 5,000 long-term care beds and increased staffing in coming years, something critics say is a welcome step, but unlikely to fix all the funding and care shortfalls.
Meanwhile, more than 32,000 people are on waiting lists for beds in one of the 625 licensed homes in the province. In the Champlain region, including Ottawa, more than 3,600 people are waiting for one of the 7,600 beds in private, non-profit and municipally run homes. That list grows monthly, and those numbers are destined to explode, given the province’s rapidly aging population.
Long-term care, the provincially funded residential care system for seniors who need 24/7 care, is the system that few want, but many desperately need.
“If I stood up and said ‘Who wants to live out their life in a long-term care facility?’ no hands go up,” said Robert Morton, interim head of AdvantAge Ontario, which represents non-profit long-term care homes in Ontario. Still, he said, there is a subset of the population who will always require the level of care offered in long-term care and it is growing.
Long-term care is having its moment in the spotlight. And the exposure has not been flattering.
“Long-term care is a nightmare in the country right now, because they don’t have enough staff,” says the Ottawa woman whose father was abused while in long-term care. “They knew the baby boomers were getting older and they haven’t prepared for them.”
•
There are no minimum standards for hours of care in Ontario long-term care homes. The only requirements are that residents are given at least two baths a week and there must be a nurse on site 24 hours a day.
The province is pledging to change that, saying it will introduce a minimum requirement of four hours of paid care per resident a day, something that Morton estimates will cost close to half a billion dollars.
Currently, residents of city-run long-term care homes in Ottawa receive just 2.6 hours of direct care every day. The provincial average is 3.5 hours of paid care per resident a day, according to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.
The union representing long-term care workers says the province’s promise falls short of what is needed since it is counting paid hours, including vacation and sick leave, and not hours of hands-on care.
Morton calls the announcement good news and a recognition from the province that staffing and funding for long-term care has not kept up with demand.
How the investment changes long-term care in Ontario has yet to be seen, but there is abundant evidence that seniors in long-term care homes are not getting the attention they need.
At current staffing levels, residents are sometimes forced into incontinence because no one can get them to the bathroom on time, says Gelinas; they are left alone for long periods, sometimes in soiled diapers; and they are rushed through their routines. One Ottawa family says their mother developed severe diaper rash after being left sitting so long in a wet, leaking diaper. At times, according to provincial investigations, staff take shortcuts or fail to follow proper procedures — sometimes with dangerous results for seniors in their care.
Many workers describe the frustration of rushing through their work and struggle with their inability to spend enough time with residents. Many also suffer from burnout.
This is how personal support worker Andrea Legault describes her mornings in long-term care: “Right now, we have five to 10 minutes to help a resident with their morning routine. That includes waking, washing, dressing and the use of the commode. Imagine if you only had 10 minutes for all those activities in the morning. Then imagine you are 82 years old with mobility issue.”
Residents, their families and staff are increasingly frustrated. Some families are paying for private care services to fill gaps in care.
One Ottawa woman says her family is spending as much as $60,000 a year on private caregivers to supplement care for family members at three different long-term care homes.
Another woman who lives at Ottawa’s Extendicare Laurier Manor, alleged cockroaches and bedbugs are common at the home. A spokesperson said the home acts quickly when there are such reports.
“We are not treating people in long-term care with respect,” says the NDP’s Gelinas. “We are meeting their minimum needs. They are fed, they are clothed, they go to the bathroom. But we have lost sight of the fact that people in long-term care deserve respect.”
•
Tony Caldwell photo.
Welch, head of the Champlain Region Family Council Network, has seen the changes in long-term care up close.
Her mother entered an Ottawa long-term care home a decade ago and remained there until her death four years ago.
Welch visited her mother almost daily. She eventually became head of the family council at Grace Manor, where her mother lived. Councils are made up of family and friends and aim to improve the quality of life in long-term care.
When her mother died, Welch continued to volunteer at the home weekly, because she knew the need for an extra set of hands during mealtime was so great.
A decade ago, just one or two residents on her mother’s floor were unable to feed themselves and needed help because of advanced dementia and other disabilities, she said. Now, close to 10 of the 25 residents on the floor need some extra help being fed.
“I choose to help because it frees up the personal support worker to serve others.”
Welch and others say the lack of time staff have to interact with residents is one of the biggest failings of the long-term care system.
•
Despite concerns about the system, thousands are waiting to get in, a sign that it is the only viable option for many who require intensive, 24-hour care.
Growing waiting lists bump against the province’s home-first philosophy of aging, which says helping the elderly stay in their homes for as long as possible is the best option for them.
The province has long emphasized home care over institutional care, but critics say neither system is receiving enough financial support to keep up with rapidly growing needs, leaving gaps that must be filled by seniors and their families.
Champlain LHIN has recently reduced waiting lists for home care in the region. But compared to countries, such as Denmark, seen as a model for home care, help provided to allow people to stay in their homes as they age is limited in Ontario and there are funding gaps. The elderly and their families often end up paying for additional help and sometimes continue to hire extra help once they are in long-term care.
Aging at home is an ideal that few argue with. But for many, home is not an option.
For those who can afford it, there are other options — from retirement homes and assisted living to Alzheimer’s- and dementia-care communities — but long-term care is often the only reasonable option once people need more intensive care.
Long-term care homes are dealing with increasingly sick residents. Decades ago, people who were on oxygen, had a catheter or an IV couldn’t get into long-term care. Now, the majority of residents have some complex health needs.
Chantale LeClerc.
Chantale Leclerc, CEO of the Champlain LHIN said there have to be more investments in services to help people remain at home, or in group settings in the community.
“There does need to be continued investment in home and community care if we are going to have alternatives to long term care and decreased pressure on hospitals.”
The Ottawa Hospital and Perley and Rideau Veterans recently announced a pilot project that officials say they hope will take pressure off hospitals and help seniors recover so they can return home, rather than going into long-term care. The so-called ALC (alternate level of care) patients, sometimes seniors recovering from surgery or an extended illness, contribute to overcrowded hospitals. They often deteriorate physically during extended hospital stays and end up moving directly from hospital bed to long-term care.
The 20-bed pilot project is among efforts to keep people in their homes longer. Others include the addition of nurses and support workers at apartments where seniors live, home care and respite care.
There is little doubt demand for all forms of help for seniors will continue to grow.
Seniors now outnumber children for the first time in Canada. By 2031, Statistics Canada predicts, nearly one in four Canadians will be over 65.
The population over 85 years old, meanwhile, has exploded in recent years, growing by 405 per cent between 1971 and 2013, according to research. As people live longer and healthier, the Oldest Olds, as those older than 85 are known, are the most likely to end up in long-term care. And their numbers just keep growing, which is reflected in waiting lists for long-term care and growing demand for home care.
•
The association that represents the province’s for-profit long-term care homes disagrees with critics.
Ontario has the most stringent compliance system in North America for long-term care homes, notes CEO Candace Chartier, of the Ontario Long Term Care Association. The vast majority of homes meet those standards and offer a high level of care to residents, she says.
Ontario closely monitors and inspects long-term care homes. Four per cent of homes in the province are rated “high risk,” Chartier says. As many as 12 per cent fall into the medium and high-risk category — which means they are more thoroughly inspected, although a list of repeat non-compliances at some homes — including those in Ottawa — suggest the system of inspections doesn’t necessarily mean all homes are running well. The majority of homes, though, meet standards.
“I don’t believe the sector is in trouble. Unfortunately, the good news stories don’t hit the papers,” Chartier says.
Even so, the association, citing long and growing waiting lists and an aging population, is calling for a major investment in the sector, including 10,000 new beds, substantially more staff, more supports for dementia care and money to upgrade and rebuild outdated homes, some of which have been committed to by the province.
If action isn’t taken, the association warns, waiting lists for seniors to get access to long-term care could grow to 84,000 in the next decade.
Morton, whose association represents not-for-profit homes, warns, though, that regulations and inspections do not make for better long-term care.
“We are working in an environment where there are so many controls. We know if you control and constrain a system, you drive out innovation and creativity and you don’t end up with quality.” The inspection system, he said, has become a “blame and shame” system that doesn’t help homes improve.
“I am not aware of any data that says doing it this way is better or that it is the best use of resources.”
•
A group of Canadian academics and others, led by York University’s Pat Armstrong have spent years studying long-term care around the world as part of a Re-Imagining Long Term Residential Care project that looks for examples of creative, high quality long-term care.
“Long-term residential care is often considered a failure, failure of the individual to maintain themselves, failure of their family to care and failure of the medical system to cure,” write the studies authors. “But some people will always need residential care, and this should be a place where residents and workers who provide care experience a healthy, safe and joyful environment.”
Hugh Armstrong, professor emeritus of social work and political economy at Carleton University, said in an interview that Nordic countries, many of which are known for world-leading seniors home care, also point the way to better long-term residential care.
In Sweden, and other Nordic countries, researchers saw examples of long-term care homes where staff had enough time to interact with residents and residents were engaged in daily tasks, including helping with meals. One key, he said, is that the facilities felt more like homes, in part, because staff had the flexibility to perform many tasks, from administering medicine to making toast. Armstrong said residents in one German home spontaneously began singing while visited by researchers.
“You see more happy faces,” he said. “You see fewer people slumping in wheelchairs in front a TV they are not watching.”
Will some of those changes come to Ontario?
MPP France Gelinas believes so. All options for the elderly will improve in coming years, she says.
“The baby boomers changed everything. When they were ready for school, we built schools. When they were ready to work, they changed the work place. The baby boomers will do the same to our long-term care system.”
epayne@postmedia.com
查看原文...
