Councillors failing us on long-term care
The silence is staggering. Too busy on the barbecue circuit?
OK, it’s finally summer, but that doesn’t excuse Ottawa City Hall’s lame response to the shocking video of a city long-term-care worker punching a helpless 89-year-old resident.
One would have hoped that that incident alone would have galvanized councillors to say or do something, but the silence has been nearly complete. If not the video, how about city staff ’s petty and vindictive decision to limit access given to the daughters of two residents in another long-term-care facility, caregivers who have committed the sin of complaining about the quality of service?
In fact, councillors could have got on top of the problems in the city’s four long-termcare homes any time in the last few years. The shortfalls are not new. Provincial inspectors have found instances of physical, emotional and sexual abuse of residents, unsafely stored medications, meals that don’t meet standards, furniture and facilities that were worn out or in poor repair, poor sanitation, failure to report complaints to senior managers and a too-frequent inattentiveness to the many rules and regulations intended to protect residents.
Mayor Jim Watson, always the first to appear when there is good news, has made no public statement about the long-term-care mess. The only councillor talking about it is Diane Deans, who chairs the committee that is supposed to oversee the public long-term-care homes.
Deans called the incidents described in the media “troubling and very concerning.” No argument there. City staff are meeting with families and the Health Ministry to create a plan for improvement. Deans was on holidays this week and unavailable to comment on why her committee has ignored the mess for so long.
As for the rest of city council, silence. Councillors were informed of the assault on the elderly man in a staff memo on June 29, several days before the story broke in the media. And yet, we didn’t hear anything about it from any of them. Too many barbecues to attend?
Councillors were only told of the attack on the resident nearly four months after it occurred, even though at that point the city worker had been fired and pleaded guilty to assault, the city had been served with notice of a lawsuit and the law firm behind it had warned the city it was releasing video of the incident to the media.
When it comes to the city’s long-term-care homes, councillors are living in a happy state of ignorance. They don’t demand performance reports or explanations for the problems uncovered by provincial inspectors, all of which are available online.
Admitting that there are problems with city operations is not the modus operandi of the Watson regime, but putting the facts in front of the public and their elected officials is the first step toward better results.
The proper role of a city council is to set goals and monitor results. It’s not up to councillors to micromanage city staff, but a little macromanagement would be welcome.
Councillors should demand performance updates from long-term-care managers quarterly, at a public committee meeting. For senior long-term-home care staff, having to publicly account for performance is a strong incentive to do better.
Ottawa’s long-term-care homes are not the worst in the city, but they certainly aren’t the best. Provincial law says the city must run one long-term-care home. Ottawa has chosen to do far more. Presumably the point of being in this business is to set a high standard and encourage the rest of the industry to follow.
The city’s expectations for its homes are commendably high, on paper, but they aren’t being met in real life.
Long-term-care residents are some of the most vulnerable people in Ottawa, and there is no way to justify how the city is letting these seniors down.
The city can do better, but fixing the problem isn’t up to the Health Ministry or the city bureaucrats who oversee the current mediocrity.
Councillors, it’s up to you.