Family Council Network 4 Advocacy
Committed to Improving the lives of Ontario residents in
Long Term Care
Breaking News:
Connecting Ontarians to The Tools They Need to Stay Healthy This Respiratory Illness Season: Flu, RSV and new COVID-19 XBB vaccines will be available FREE to LTC residents. Family members and visitors should get vaccinated also.
Forcing senior couples apart in long-term care must stop:
’Til Death Do Us Part Act (Bill 21)
*https://globalnews.ca/news/9944761/ontario-ombudsman-urges-strong-enforcement-long-term-care-rules/
​
Read how Carol Dueck, Chair of FCN4 is championing the fight for better care in LTC facilities:
​
* Ontario Expanding PSW Training Program in Long-Term Care
* Ontario Updating COVID-19 Measures in Long-Term Care Homes Ontario Government News Release – March 22,2023
​
* GOOD NEWS1 Ontario announces $1.25B for LTC staffing for next year
https://globalnews.ca/news/9560126/ontario-ltc-funding-next-fiscal-year/
​
* Our own Carol Dueck hits the newspapers once again. Read what she has to say on the issue of Bill 7 - click the link below:
​
* Click here to listen to our Chair Carol in a podcast with the LTC Chronicles.
​
* Read the latest balanced article about private and public LTC homes https://thespec.pressreader.com/the-hamilton-spectator/20210206.
​
* Click the .pdf icon to read Janet Volkes and her sister's story in
the Spectator about the problems in their LTC home when trying to visit their dying father. ​
* Our Chair, Carol also made the news: click on the .pdf icon to read the article in the Standard Review dated October 26th re her appearance at a demonstration to support changes in Long Term Care.
Your voice needs to be heard!
The following is taken from Concerned Friends:
​
Government of Canada Announces Public Consultation on
Safe Long-Term Care Act
​
The Federal government has launched a consultation in advance of new Long-Term Care (LTC) legislation. This is an important opportunity for all Canadians to advocate for change in the system that can impact current and future LTC residents. Here is the survey link: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/programs/consultation-safe-long-term-care.html
​
Deadline: September 21, 2023
Find out what is happening on developing a new
National Long-Term Care Services Standard
Want to Know How to Conduct A Family Council Zoom Meeting?
Check out the following websites for more information.
​
-
HOW TO CREATE A ZOOM ACCOUNT
https://fco.ngo/files/Zoom-Create-Account-TC-Toolbox.pdf
-
HOW TO SCHEDULE A ZOOM MEETING
https://fco.ngo/files/Zoom-Schedule-Meeting-TC-Toolbox.pdf
-
HOW TO HOST A SCHEDULED ZOOM MEETING
https://fco.ngo/files/Zoom-Host-a-Scheduled-Meeting-TC-Toolbox.pdf
-
ZOOM HOST MEETING CONTROLS
https://fco.ngo/files/Zoom-Host-Meeting-Control-TC-Toolbox.pdf
Here are two more texts that you can download and read related to issues in Long Term Care:
​
1. Care Homes in a Turbulent Era: Do They have a Future?
By Armstrong and Braedley
It offers ways forward and key challenges for long-term care homes. Here is the link to the free open access text:
https://www.elgaronline.com/view/book/9781803925820/9781803925820.xml
​
2. Unpaid Work in Nursing Homes. Flexible Boundaries.
Edited by Pat Armstrong
The COVID-19 pandemic has made unpaid care more visible through its absence, while also increasing the need for it.
https://bristoluniversitypressdigital.com/display/book/9781447366188/9781447366188.xml
​
Interested in Palliative Care?
Check out this Government of Canada site.
https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/services/health-services-benefits/palliative-care.html
C.A.R.P. asking for public support!
Here is your opportunity to join others in having your voice heard.
​
Click on the title above to find out how!
​
​
A Time To Act!!!
A New Minister of LTC: Time For Him To Hear Our Cry!
​
Now is the time to write a letter to the new Minister of Long Term Care, Paul Calandra , so he can hear your cry for the importance of acting now to begin to remedy the drastic needs in our Long Term Care homes. We have waited too long to have some of these changes implemented.
We all need to act; as a Family Council, as an individual with a loved one in a LTC residence, as a community member concerned with what is happening in LTC. Begin by downloading the this letter - click on the Word icon.
Personalize it to give your name and address, the name of your Family Council and your contact information - let Rod Phillips, Minister of Long Term Care and your MPP hear your voice. Don't wait, do it now.
​
The Zoomer on the Realities of Fixing Long Term Care
Check out this wonderful summary of the problems in Long Term Care, what is being done to remedy them
and what is not being done.
Ontario Launches Long-Term Care Homefinder
New website provides easier, more convenient way for prospective residents and their families to search and compare long-term care homes. Click on the link below to get all the details.
https://www.ontario.ca/page/long-term-care-ontario?utm_campaign=%2Fen%2Frelease%2F1001518%2Fontario-launches-long-term-care-homefinder&utm_term=public&utm_source=newsroom&utm_medium=email
Time
to
Take a Stand
For
Universal Health Care!
​
​
​
​
​
​
Click here to read more:
​
Check out this Webinar
​
The Powers of a Family Council
under the Fixing Long Term Care Act
https://www.facebook.com/photofbid=663949475767864&set=a.454796330016514
Want To Learn More About Understanding LTC and Working in it?
Family Councils Ontario is offering a series of Curriculum Café designed specifically for family council members and long-term care home staff who want to deepen their understanding of, and work within their long-term care community. Each month a new theme will be explored and registrants will be provided with resources to review, live training and active engagement opportunities, as well as the opportunity to network with other council members across the province.
​
The initial series of Café sessions will start in October and run monthly through June 2023 (with a break in December). Click on the link below for more details and how to register.
Ford's Plan to Defund & Privatize
Our Public Health Care System
Click on the link below to view the video
​
Help Support Improvement to Long Term Care!
Buy Your Copy of A Slice of Life.
A Slice of Life, by Nikkie Rottenberg, is a collection of short stories of twenty-six older adults living in Burlington, Ontario. They are stories of overcoming hardships, refusing to give up, finding romance and realizing dreams. All of them full of hope.
All proceeds from the sale of this book will go to Family Council Network 4 Advocacy Committee to help them continue to push for policies that ensure dignity and high quality care for those living in long-term-care homes.
To purchase a copy of A Slice of Life, email:
Tom Carrothers at carphaltonchapter@gmail.com
Click here to read more about the book.
The Green House Model
You may be aware that there are newer care models that are being used in some Long Term Care facilities in Ontario that are designed to improve the quality of life for the residents. The Green House Model is one of these. It is based on spending money on new builds to construct smaller and more home-like facilities. It gets away from the 32 bed institutional floors in large buildings. Some of the new licenses now being awarded may have to revert to the older model as the size of the land will force them to build up and not out.
​
Watch Green House Model: A Blueprint for Change. Click the link below. The presentation is 40 minutes followed by Q & A:
​
To: Family Council Network Four (FCN-4) – Family Members and Staff
I know many of you are worried about the health and care of your family member in a Long-Term Care home. The media is full of frightening tales. Some homes are coping, others are struggling. You are frustrated at the no visiting rule – a harsh, but necessary limitation in this war on COVID-19. No doubt, you are also concerned about the LTC staff.
I am one of the family voices on a Provincial Advisory Committee for CLRI – Ontario’s Centre for Learning, Research & Innovation in Long-Term Care. This team – with talented leaders in LTC from Baycrest in Toronto, Bruyere in Ottawa and RIA (Research Institute for Aging) in Waterloo – provides a wealth of resources to all LTC homes.
They have partnered with a number of groups to quickly pull together and provide top-notch support, education and resources for all the LTC homes in the province. Please know that the Administrators and staff at your LTC home have many tools to tap into. The tools are ones that they can readily use or are short webinars for staff education, portals for staff to access the help that they need in finding education, training material, mental health or financial support.
As a Family Council – you can share this with your families and know that there are a variety of supports available to the Administrators for their LTC staff.
As LTC staff – you are balancing many balls in the air to meet the ever-changing guidelines and new “rules” – this link offers a “one stop shopping” for resources at your fingertips.
All the links can be found on the CLRI web page https://clri-ltc.ca/
Here is just a sampling:
-
Links to Family Councils of Ontario – FCO https://www.fco.ngo/ – with webinars specific to the COVID-19 pandemic and geared to families. The one "Coping with Pandemic" (April 15th) had 200 participants on the call with a waiting list. This webinar will be repeated April 28th at 2 pm. They also have unique tools to help create communication between residents and families. They also produce a daily news update.
-
Ontario Association of Residents’ Councils – ORAC – will be sharing a tip sheet in response to yesterday’s mandate that homes must update residents and family as to how things are. Residents in isolation are moved from their rooms and cohorted with others and are without their TVs, iPADS, etc. and do not know even how things are in the place they live. They eat alone, see staff in gowns and masks, have limited contact outside or in.
-
Physicians can reach out for consults with 2 day turn around to specialists via eConsult
-
Orientation guides for staff seconded to work in LTC in support roles to understand the culture of LTC, understand what the new “universal worker” is
-
Links to match Nursing Students with placement to work as PSWs in homes
-
Self Help Portals for staff via https://homeweb.ca/
​
An Important Resource in Long Term Care
If you haven't been to the site for the CLRI (Centre for Learning, Research & Innovation in Long Term Care then you are missing a wonderful resource. One example is their new Family Values Game Tool Kit that deals with ways to increase family engagement in resident care panning. Worth a look along with many other interesting articles.
Click here to take a peek at their site:
https://clri-ltc.ca/resource/familyvalues/ and to view the game mentioned above.
​
Want to learn more about Long Term Care in Ontario?
Click on the link to find out how! https://teaandtoast.mykajabi.com/roadmap-to-long-term-care-in-ontario
​
Click on the item below for details on other issues:​
-
Presentation of Our Petition in Legislative Assembly
-
Bill 13 - Time To Care Act
-
Seniors Health Deteriorating in LTC
-
Use Of Antipsychotic Drugs in LTC
-
Families Demand More Care For Loved Ones in LTC
-
Unifor calls for minimum staffing ratios at long-term care facilities
-
Expand the long-term care inquiry
Long Term Care
The Goal: Maintaining dignity and respect as we age
In general, Long-Term Care Homes offer higher levels of personal care and support than those typically offered by either retirement homes or supportive housing. They are licensed or approved by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and are governed by the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007 (LTCHA). The requirements in the LTCHA ensure that residents of these homes receive safe, consistent and high-quality resident-centred care in settings where residents feel at home, are treated with respectand have the supports and services they need for their health and well-being.
The Ontario Ministry of Health publication related to Programs and Services for Seniors in Ontario states "Long-Term Care Homes are designed for people who need help with daily activities, supervision in a secure setting and/or access to 24-hour nursing care." Furthermore, the publication, Every Resident, outlines the Bill of Rights for people who live in Ontario Long-Term care homes.
The first two items in the Bill of Rights state:
-
"Every resident has the right to be treated with courtesy and respect and in a way that fully recognizes the resident's individualtiy and respects the resident's dignity.
-
Every resident has the right to be protected from abuse."
The purpose our committee is to ensure that these mandates are met along with the 25 other items in the Bill of Rights. To see the entire document check out this website:
http://www.acelaw.ca/appimages/file/Residents_Rights_Insert.pdf
Carol Dueck, Chair Advocacy Committee met with Teresa Armstrong in August, 2018 at Queens Park and with Teresa’s office staff again in February, 2020.
Teresa Armstrong NDP MMP London / Fanshaw, is the champion for The Time to Care Act (now labeled as Bill 13). Since 2012, this bill (with various numbers attached as the parliament changed) has been presented and debated 63 times in the legislature! It has reached second reading twice before with all three parties supporting it. When a parliament is dissolved, all bills die; as happened when the election was called in 2018.
Long Term Care in Ontario is in Danger
Despite numerous reports and studies provided to the government, a significant gap between the care and service needs of residents in Long Term Care remains. Almost 15% of seniors depend on others to assist them with their activities of daily living and the number is expected to triple over the next 50 years.
Presently, there are more than 80,000 people who receive care in a long-term care home and there are more than 34,000 people on the waitlist. Studies suggest that this number go up to 48,000 over the next few years without a change in the current capacity.
More than half of the residents in long-term care homes today have dementia, a third show aggressive behaviours and one in ten is considered severly aggressive. Over 30,000 residents are in older and outdated facilities, many of which do not meet current design or safety standards.
​
Action is needed, now!
Long term care in Ontario no longer provides a minimum standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of residents who require hands-on care. The current situation is critical. Wait lists for long term care facilities have grown longer and demographics indicate that demand for beds and complex care will continue to increase. Staff who provide direct care are experiencing increased workloads and challenges as a result of these increased acuity needs without receiving any additional support.
The situation will not get better without strong intervention. The safety and well-being of the residents and staff in our long-term care homes needs to be a priority. Staff education and training needs to keep pace with the changing needs of the resident population. More direct care staff to meet the increasingly challenging resident population with a high level of dementia is a must. View for yourself why we feel there is a need for a Call for Action!
Teresa again lead the debate May 28th, 2020. The aim was for a successful debate and support by MPPs. The bill was then directed to a committee for research to explore the impact of accepting this standard of care - the biggest impact being funding. The committee then recommended whether to forward the bill for Third and Final debate in the legislature.
To address the chronic conditions experienced in all long term care homes, private or government run, the bill demands a legislated standard of care to provide an average of 4 hours per resident per day, adjusted for acuity level and case mix.
Residents and Families see the issues every day:
-
PSWs workload that is unmanageable as they try to assist residents with daily activities such as of hygiene, meals, mobilization. There is simply inadequate time to complete the necessary care, leaving residents waiting and waiting. Volunteers with minimal training are coaxed into helping with feeding to reduce the incidents of cold meals.
-
If a infectious outbreak occurs, the staff are further challenged to manage the increased activity within the regular expected care.
-
Quality scores are falling with increased reports of falls with harm, medication errors, skin breakdown
-
Symptoms of staff suffering burnout are demonstrated with increased injury and sick time.
-
High vacancy rates of PSWs is an urgent issue across the province
What can you do to help achieve an acceptable Standard of Care in Long Term Care?
Petitions and sharing stories of the care problems that families encounter with their loved ones in a LTC home are two effective tools that MPPs use to influence the vote for a cause. MPPS need to hear from their constituents!
-
Local Family Councils are urged to sign the petition for The Time to Care Act. Mail it to the MPPs office (address is on the form). before mid May so it will be tabled at the May 28th debate.
-
Pick up the phone or email YOUR MPP. to urge them to support the TIme to Care Act . The Advocacy Committee sent emails to all regional MPPS in the fall of 2019. They need to hear again that this is still an urgent matter and to prepare for the vote on May 28 The more calls / letters they get, the more they pay attention to what is important to the folks in their riding.
Write a letter, signed and dated, with your address. Share a story about the concern of care issues that you or your family member have encountered in a LTC home. REAL stories make an impression when discussed in Question Period in the House.
You Can Make a Difference
Here's how
-
Call and encourage your MPP to vote in support of Bill 13 - Time to Care Act. Click here to see who your new representative is and how to get in touch with him or her.
​
-
Get involved in our Letter Writing campaign - again go to our You can make a difference tab for information on the campaign and access to an example of a letter you can use to draft yours.
-
If you have a loved one or friend in a long-term care home, become a member of your local Family Council and encourage the group to become vocal on the issues. If there is no Family Council in the home, work to have one established. Learn how to get involved with a Family Council at a Long Term Care home.
-
Consider joining the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC), a non-partisan organization that works to maintain a strong Public Medicare system in Ontario. Check out their website: www.ontariohealthcoaltion.ca.