Long-term care was a crisis waiting to happen. We must fix it now
Families, health care workers, support staff and anyone who cares enough needs to speak up, write letters and rally.
Crisis brings out many interesting behaviours. Whether it is my son-in-law driving around on Easter Sunday afternoon dressed as the Easter Bunny or retired health care workers volunteering their time to supplement the health care workforce. We band together in many ways; politicians put aside party politics, transportation services are offered free of charge, EI rules are modified to make sure as many people as possible have some income.
However, harmony is not universal. There are people who ask the questions, some of them pertinent and others simply for the privilege of being heard. Every crisis produces its share of errors especially when there is little data to work with. This pandemic is definitely a learning curve, even for experts and we owe it to ourselves to learn as much as we can to make informed decisions.
Pandemics also reveal issues that have been swept under the rug, mostly because there are not sufficient funds, information or attention. In the U.S., it was the observation that Black people and Latinos were dying at a higher rate than white people. In Canada, the death rate is surging in long-term care homes. Both these situations existed long before the pandemic. This crisis is highlighting these inequalities, exposing our society’s dark side
Over the years, standards in long-term care homes have been eroded, with families paying big bucks in some cases and getting very little back. In many cases these facilities are not sufficiently staffed and staff are poorly paid, forced to do procedures beyond their work description and it appears there is no emergency plan to provide enough gloves, masks or other PPE equipment, let alone training. Inspections are few or non-existent. For the record, CBC reported recently the chair of the Chartwell chain of homes is former Ontario premier Mike Harris.
We are familiar with doing more with less, made necessary in most workplaces of the ’90s, especially in health care and education. The result has been not been favourable in either sector. Shortage of materials, programs and staff have contributed to neglect, less hygienic workplaces and an unfair perception of knowledge in some cases.
It is time to step up to the plate. We have talked the talk to distraction. High death rates in long-term care facilities are not a new problem. They were and are a bomb just waiting to explode. Well, the bomb has exploded. Inspections have been hastily ordered and then what? Sweep it under the rug again? Deflect it once the shouting has died down? Someone or a lot of “someones” need to be held accountable and legislated into providing better care and staffing for our seniors. These are the people born or who came of age during the Second World War. They went to work in munitions factories and kept the country going and afterwards, worked to ensure the next generations could enjoy a good standard of life. And now they will end their lives lying alone and untended while the owners of these institutions huddle down in the comparative safety of their self- isolation.
Perhaps this time, our empathy and sense of duty will get as many people involved to improve conditions in our long-term homes, so those who have perished will not have died in vain. Families, health care workers, support staff and anyone who cares enough needs to speak up, write letters and rally. Make a noise our leaders cannot ignore. Please.