Substandard long-term care shouldn’t be tolerated: author
But while complaints can get action, she says, ‘backlash may follow’
Complaining about abuse and neglect of loved ones in long-term care is “the most caring thing” a family can do, says author Lise Cloutier-Steele. But people who make complaints should be prepared for retaliation.
It happened to the Ottawa author when her father was in an Ottawa long-term-care home and she wrote about it to help other families.
“The reality is that even though caregivers are well within their rights to report systemic abuse and neglect at a (long-term) facility, backlash may follow,” wrote Cloutier-Steele. “This, in spite of the fact that there are Ministry of Health and Long Term Care notices posted throughout care institutions urging caregivers to report their concerns.”
Cloutier-Steele’s book, There’s No Place Like Home, was first published in 2010 as a guide for caregivers with family members in long-term care and nursing homes. It included tips on what to look for in a nursing home as well as on the “art of complaining.”
This year, she updated it with an extensive blog post called Backlash: What can happen to relatives who complain about substandard care in long-term-care institutions and what to do about it.
Recent cases involving family members given no-trespass orders restricting their visits should highlight that retribution and retaliation are not isolated, she said.
The Citizen has reported that two retired nurses with mothers in city-run long-term-care facilities each received no-trespass orders restricting where and when they could visit their mothers.
One woman, who was told she could only visit her mother in the lobby and other public spaces, was unable to go to her room to help her get dressed on the day of the her only son’s funeral.
Cloutier-Steele said that although the Ministry of Health says it welcomes complaints, and there is whistleblower protection in the Long Term Care Act, “the ministry does little to protect a caregiver against reprisal and intimidation from a care home.”
Cloutier-Steele said she began getting the “cold shoulder” from staff at her father’s long-term-care home after she complained that, among other things, he was being left in pain because his catheter was not changed as frequently as it should have been.
She took her complaint to the Ministry of Health, which launched an investigation, but CloutierSteele says she “felt like I had committed a crime” for complaining.
“When a nursing inspector from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care offered to intervene on my father’s behalf, I shared with her my fear of retaliation from the facility if I proceeded with an official complaint about neglect. She assured me that my fears were completely unfounded because, according to her, reprisal of any kind was not allowed in long-term-care facilities. Based on my experience, and that of other families in Ottawa, she was definitely wrong about that.”
Cloutier-Steele continued to visit friends of her father’s at the home after he died and says she was eventually banned from visiting them, including those with few other visitors, which she believes was reprisal for her complaint.
She has been contacted by people who are having difficulty with long-term care, but are afraid to speak out about it.
Cloutier-Steele encourages caregivers to file complaints when warranted. “Retaliation tactics shouldn’t stop anyone from trying to improve living conditions for society’s most vulnerable.”
Meanwhile, she said, more attention should be paid to reprisals against people who speak up about substandard care. “Reprisal is something that no one seems willing to take on and yet it is happening. There is no reason to retaliate against someone who is only asking as an advocate.” epayne@postmedia.com