Care homes need more autonomy
McDougall is a retired administrator of Bethany Pioneer Village.
Opposition leader Cam Broten has ventured into an area he seems to know little about by suggesting that minimum standards be set for the time spent on providing care for residents in special-care homes.
Health Minister Dustin Duncan at least gets it right when he notes that residents are unique, and a one-size-fits-all approach won’t work. The care needs of residents are constantly changing.
Unfortunately, Duncan does not follow his own wisdom. Special-care homes certainly need more funding, but not to be used as some bureaucrat would dictate. Homes need to be able to allocate resources as they determine.
News reports refer to poor quality care for seniors. One of the complaints is that seniors often are left to soil themselves, as staffing is supposedly insufficient to look after them. Perhaps in some instances staffing is insufficient, but a large part of the problem likely has to do with priorities.
Actually, the problem seems to stem from government. A lot of staff time is devoted to filling out information for the government, which allows it to spin statistics. I don’t recall this information really serving to help provide better care, at least in relation to the staff time it takes.
One nurse commented that she would rather give a resident a hug than spend the time to document that the resident needs a hug. While this information-gathering hasn’t been used directly to calculate funding, it likely influences it.
If time were taken to develop a toileting routine with residents, they could be assisted in going to the bathroom when they need to go. They would soil themselves less frequently, thereby taking up less staff time. It’s sort of a catch-22. If staff have time that can be properly used, they could save time.
Where is the incentive? In reports to the government, points are awarded according to the number of times residents soil themselves, which is taken as an indicator that a home has high care levels. If the home spent the time to set up proper toileting routines to decrease the frequency of residents soiling themselves, the home is considered to have light care needs and likely less funding for staffing.
Broten complained a while back that one care home pureed a hotdog for a resident. This sounds gross, but some residents are incapable of eating solid food. Homes experiment with a variety of ideas in finding something a resident may enjoy while providing needed nutrition. The most nutritious and balanced meal is useless if the resident won’t eat it.
Staff need to be commended for their patience and resourcefulness, not criticized in the media.
It would be wonderful if the care of our seniors could be kept out of the political arena, with homes given proper funding and the autonomy to provide the required care.
They are special-care homes, not special care homes or nursing homes. Yes, they are special and yes, they provide nursing care. But the emphasis should be on homes providing special care.