Tougher nursing home rules needed
Re Family seeks class-action suit over bedsores, Oct. 20 Ontario’s kids and seniors living in nursing homes are vulnerable. Child-to-staff ratios mandated by provincial law help protect the kids but there are no such regulations for these seniors. This is ageism — discrimination.
Recommendations have been made to reform Ontario’s LongTerm Care Homes Act (LTCHA) to include similar ratios the kids have — so far the LTCHA remains the same.
This article explains the events leading up to Arthur Jones’ tragic and needless death. Each day these same events occur separately but repeatedly across Ontario, and were discussed in a 2014 report by the union representing nursing home staff. It explained how these events are attributable to chronic short staffing and recommended mandatory and legislated staff-to-resident ratios.
Under Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, everyone living here has the right to security of the person. These seniors injured as a result of short staffing, including Mr. Jones who tragically and needlessly died, must have their constitutional rights protected by reforming the LTCHA to include mandatory ratios.
It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit against the Revera chain unfolds; however, Canada’s Supreme Court needs to ad- dress the lack of staff-to-resident ratios to begin the process of rectifying that statute’s unconstitutionality. Darryl Etcher, Oshawa
Moira Welsh’s article was heartbreaking to read, and ignited again the trauma our family is encountering while we also find ourselves in the midst of a lawsuit with a Durham region nursing home for negligence in the death of our mother.
A wonderful woman whose family, like that of Arthur Ross Jones, entrusted long-term care with their most precious loved one, only to be left the horrors of a senseless death. When will the government recognize this crisis rather than facilitating yet another hushed settlement where the dollar value of an elderly person’s life is minimized, and little changes as we await the next victim? Rosemary Forbes Dufresne, Toronto