QUOTABLES:
Right now, a for-profit long-term-care home’s number one objective is to make a profit, and they are very good at it. They make hundreds of millions, sometimes billions of dollars, in profit. There’s nothing wrong with making money, but not on the backs of frail, elderly people in our long-term-care homes.
France Gélinas Nickel Belt MPP
Hot of the Press
We have at least 292 Long-Term Care + Retirement Homes
🏡w/ #COVID-19 Outbreaks across Canada.2 – New Brunswick
10 – Manitoba
17 – British Columbia
30 – Alberta
109 – Quebec!
124 – Ontario!Our latest counts are available at @RyersonNIA‘s https://t.co/WMaQP69kI1. pic.twitter.com/7Pg3s6JrkK
— Samir Sinha (@DrSamirSinha) October 23, 2020
We are on a dangerous path. My mom in long term care in the city has been shut down several times for positives. Seniors are anxious due to the uncontrolled risks in the general population. We are not looking after them by not looking after ourselves. Do something Dr & Premier
— Sparkola21 (@sparkola21) October 23, 2020
Premier Ford says long-term care is his government’s “number one priority”
Earlier today the independent commission into LTC said: “long-term care homes were forgotten in the initial provincial plans to control the spread of COVID-19 until residents started dying”#onpoli
— Colin D’Mello CTVNews (@ColinDMello) October 23, 2020
Deaths in long-term care homes are avoidable, says IHPME’s @DrSamirSinha, who points to the LTC system in British Columbia where there is extensive testing and ensuring staff work full-time at a single site.https://t.co/RK9npqlvxB pic.twitter.com/E56u09MpwV
— IHPME (@ihpmeuoft) October 23, 2020
ICYMI – OLTCA CEO @DLDun416 spoke to @AntonyRobart at @globalnewsto about the importance of preparating for the 2nd wave of #COVID19 in long-term care homes.https://t.co/qAqM9ZvuiK
— Ontario LTC Assoc. (@OLTCAnews) October 24, 2020
Canadian News:
85% of Ont. nursing homes break the law repeatedly with almost no consequences, data analysis shows
Hidden camera reveals staff hitting, yelling at resident in nursing home with repeat abuse offenses
When Von took his mother out of his home and placed her in Craiglee Nursing Home in Scarborough, Ont., he and his wife, Mary, thought they were doing what was best for her.
But instead of loving care, Von’s mother, Kostadinka, was met with physical and emotional abuse at the hands of at least four different care workers, caught on a camera they had hidden in her room.
“It was like a horror film,” said Mary. “I will never be able to unsee those things.”
What they didn’t know at the time was that the home had a long and repeated history of staff physically abusing the residents. They didn’t know — but the government did.
A data analysis of the most serious breaches of Ontario’s long-term care home safety legislation reveals that six in seven care homes are repeat offenders, and there are virtually no consequences for homes that break that law repeatedly.
CBC Marketplace reviewed 10,000 inspection reports and found over 30,000 “written notices,” or violations of the Long-Term Care Homes Act and Regulations (LTCHA), between 2015 and 2019 inclusive. The LTCHA sets out minimum safety standards that every care home in Ontario must meet.
World News
We’ve investigated aged care for the past three years. These are the stories that shocked us
It was billed as the “opportunity of a lifetime”.
And as senior counsel assisting said in the final hearings of the Aged Care Quality and Safety Royal Commission last week, it is “the most in-depth and thorough examination of Australia’s aged care systems that has ever been undertaken”.
The QCs have presented more than 120 recommendations detailing massive reform, including a new Aged Care Act; a star rating system allowing families to compare nursing homes for quality and safety that would also show any reports of abuse and neglect; and new staffing requirements with more nurses and specialist care for dementia and palliative patients.
Of course, none of these recommendations are guaranteed to be taken up by commissioners Tony Pagone and Lynelle Briggs for their final report.
But the reforms include many of the issues the ABC has also investigated over the past two-and-a-half years, from the time we launched our crowdsourced investigation in April 2018 asking families, staff and insiders to share their experiences with us.
The surprise announcement of the aged care royal commission was made by Prime Minister Scott Morrison the day before Four Corners aired the first of our two-part series using the collected stories.
Today, we take a look back at some of those disturbing stories and consider what could change if the reforms being proposed go ahead
CAREWATCH BACKGROUND
CAREWATCH is Inspired by Carol Wodak founding member of CITIZEN WATCH
BACKGROUNDER: CITIZEN WATCH was created as a public service for the people of Alberta. It was the work of an ever-widening network of individuals from across the province, including families and friends of long term care and assisted or supportive living residents and those requiring long term care supports in their own homes. CITIZEN WATCH WEBSITE
RECENT PRINTABLES
INDEX (CLICK on Carol’s contributed collated collections by date)
| Aug 24, 2020 | ||
| Aug 16, 2020 | Aug 12, 2020 | Aug 3, 2020 |
| JULY 27. 2020 | JULY 6,2020 | JUNE 30, 2020 |
| JUNE 29, 2020 | JUNE 18, 2020 | JUNE 17, 2020 |
| May 31, 2020 | May 29, 2020 | May 15, 2020 |
OTHER PUBLICATIONS
- Nursing Home Basic Care Guarantee RNAO Submission to the Long-Term Care Staffing Study Advisory Group
- 18 May 2020 Old money Tortoise Thousands of care home residents are dying from Covid-19, and staff are on minimum wage. But in the background, big profits are being made. Ian Birrell investigates a broken industry
CLICK for Carol’s complete collection of carefully crafted carewatch content