Fixing long-term care must start now

Let's turn it into an election issue, write Grace Welch and Brian Graham.

As the provincial election approaches, Ontarians must not forget all that we learned during COVID -19 about the lives of residents in the province's long-term care homes. While conditions in the homes were already wellknown, COVID highlighted them for all to see.

A tragedy took place in our long-term care system during the first and second waves of COVID. More than 4,000 residents lost their lives to the pandemic. In many cases, they, as well as the residents who survived COVID, experienced isolation, neglect and fear as a result of staff shortages and policies that prevented families from being able to support their loved ones.

Insufficient staff meant many residents were not given the basic necessities of life at a critical time. They were prevented from having the love and support of their families who were shut out of the homes for extended periods.

The Canadian Armed Forces were dispatched to many homes in Ontario and Quebec and their reports document conditions that can only be described as abusive. The report of Ontario's Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission further chronicled problems that had long plagued the province's long-term care homes and were exacerbated during the pandemic.

Trust in Ontario's longterm care system, already fragile, was badly damaged during the pandemic and needs to be rebuilt.

We should begin by affirming long-term care as an integral component of our public health-care system. There is no place for profit in the provision of this care. The commission's report strongly agreed, recommending that the private sector be restricted to participating in the construction of long-term care homes, leaving resident care and the management of homes to the not-for-profit and municipal sectors.

Further, and as an important commitment to vastly improving long-term care in Ontario, we ask the provincial government to prioritize the following:

■ Adopt person-centred care as the model for service delivery across the sector, putting the needs and wishes of residents at the centre of their lives and their care. Person-centred care achieves the goal of transforming the existing institutional, task-oriented model to one that is truly focused on the needs and wishes of the residents. It comforts and reassures families. And it empowers staff and offers job satisfaction.

■ Develop and implement a provincewide long-term care human health-resource plan with the strategy of attracting and retaining all levels of staff to deliver care at home and in long-term care residences. Stable staffing enhances the experience of life in care, for residents and their families. It reduces onboarding and training costs and enhances job satisfaction and staff retention. Chronic understaffing is the No. 1 concern of residents and families, and puts residents and staff at risk.

■ Revise long-term care building standards to create smaller, homelike environments with an emphasis on private accommodation.

This model supports the principles of person-centred care and promotes improved comfort, privacy, ventilation, temperature levels and infection control. All of these could have prevented the worst outcomes during COVID-19.

■ Institute long-term care standards that reward quality and innovation while closely linking non-compliance with appropriate penalties. Spurred by the impact of COVID-19 on long-term care homes across the country, but particularly in Ontario and Quebec, the federal government has signalled its interest in working with provinces to establish standards coupled with increased funding for health care.

We know what needs to be done to provide quality care for long-term care residents. The steps have been identified in many reports.

What is needed now is the political and humanitarian will to transform an outmoded system in the interests of today's residents and their families and, in future, ourselves. Please think about this as you enter the voting booth.

Grace Welch and Brian Graham are co-chairs of the Champlain Region Family Council Network, a volunteer group that supports the Family Councils in the 60 long-term care homes in the Champlain Region to help improve the quality of life and quality of care for residents. champlainfamilycouncils.ca. Twitter: @CRFCN_Champlain