Why Long-Term Care Homes and the Government Are Failing Our Seniors

I debated how I was going to write this post, but I decided to write in a blog post instead of on Facebook.

Yesterday, a friend of mine shared an article done by CBC’s Marketplace on long-term care homes in Ontario. At first I was surprised but then I watched the 22 minute long video that Marketplace released. You can watch it here.

This video is extremely eye opening for people who don’t understand long term care home’s staffing. In Ontario, the Early Childhood Educators Act has a staffing ratio for children to educators; yet, the Long Term Care Act does not. I had a conversation with a friend’s mom a few months about this very issue. As she is a retired ECE who was researching to put her mom in an LTC home, she was absolutely appalled when I told her this.

I’ve personally seen units working short staffed where there’s two PSWs for 39 residents. That’s not fair for the residents or the staff. In the video by Marketplace, they talk about the increase of resident to resident abuse and staff to resident abuse. If the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care created ratios, this would most likely significantly decrease the number of abuse complaints. In my personal experience, the majority of falls, resident to resident abuse and signs of neglect happen the most when the home is short staffed. 

In the video, the Health and Long-Term Care Minister mentions they are increasing 15 million hours for PSW staffing in long-term care to help decrease the problem. However, these homes are for profit and the amount that they are profiting instead of investing it into our seniors. For example, Chartwell’s revenue in 2016 was over 9.5 million dollars. With a $9.5 million profit, do we truly know what the companies are going to do with the increase in staffing?

In Ontario, there were 888 reports to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care in 2011. In 2016, there were 2 198 reports. That is a major increase. In six years, we’ve gone from 4 reports a day to 9 a day.

Our seniors have been failed. We need to write to our MPPs and tell them that we are not content with the way our seniors are treated in Ontario. It is not the staff’s fault. They’re simply doing their jobs, but it is hard when they’re so understaffed. We need to advocate for our seniors.

Important Articles About This Topic: Tips on Choosing a Long Term Care Home // 40 Ontario Nursing Homes with the Highest Rates of Reported Abuse // The Ontario Long-Term Care Inspection Program // Reports on Long-Term Care