Group raises concerns over treatment of Indigenous seniors
EDMONTON The death of a Cree man at a Slave Lake seniors centre has prompted a human rights group to release a report condemning conditions for Indigenous seniors at the facility.
The Coalition for Justice and Human Rights (CJHR) released the report late Tuesday night after Joseph Auger died inside the Points West Care Centre on June 7. They claim Auger had previously been left on the floor in his own waste for hours.
Renee Vaugeois, an executive member with CJHR, said they had been reviewing the care of seniors at Points West after they received a complaint from a community member in July 2019.
“Enough is enough, like, let’s get this out there. And let’s see where the cards lie,” said Vaugeois.
The report was written by Darlene Auger of Pītāpan Consulting after CJHR asked her to go into the facility earlier this year to report on the treatment of Indigenous seniors living in the facility.
“I walked by one room and it just smelt like urine,” said Darlene Auger, who is not related to Joseph Auger. “I went in there to visit with the elder and I sat very close to him. He was laying down in his bed and his walker was in another corner. He couldn’t reach his walker. Even if he wanted to get up and go to the bathroom, he wouldn’t have been able to.”
She said the man’s bed rails were sticky, her sock feet stuck to the floor and the room was generally unclean. Auger said many of the elders spoke little to no English and, while she was there, none of the staff members could speak Cree. She also said she reviewed a menu that provided seniors with no traditional food options.
“There were a few elders that were there that had been in residential schools, which as you know, was a residential institution.” said Auger. “So this one replicates that whole environment where they were neglected, abused in different ways.”
Auger’s report makes a number of recommendations for the facility, such as adding traditional Cree foods to the menu and for staff that speak Cree to be hired to prevent a language barrier. The report also calls on the provincial government to fund a program that would allow for seniors to stay in their home communities rather than in long-term care centres. It also recommends increasing staffing levels. When Auger was there, she said there was one caretaker for roughly every 10 residents, or one unit. One of the recommendations in her report is to increase that to three staff members on every unit.
Barb Courtorielle, the executive director of the Slave Lake Native Friendship Centre and a community member who voiced concerns about the facility last year, said she felt relief that the report was able to verify her concerns.
She said that in 2017, when she helped a family member move their loved one into the facility, she saw many of the same things Darlene Auger did, including insufficient staffing, a lack of employees being able to communicate in Cree and little to no traditional food being served. She also said she saw some residents getting violent with others and staff being too busy to intervene.
When Postmedia asked Points West for comment, spokesman Mark Dixon said the company would refer to statements made by Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro in the legislature Wednesday. Shandro said AHS staff were at the facility Wednesday and they will be reviewing the concerns. He noted AHS had a regular audit scheduled for later this month but it was moved up a week to be conducted now.