Politicians should spend a night in LTC

Ruth lost her love of reading. Then she moved to a new retirement home that changed everything, March 31

This good news story highlights an abundance of implementable best practices for the provision of long-term care (LTC) in Ontario. We need our politicians to finally realize and immediately act to make our longterm-care services reflect the positive quality of life that our frail elderly deserve. The last vestige of institutional living, around since the 1920s, longterm-care homes remain focused on the medical health of residents and are mired in regulation. Like a low budget motel without amenities, in many homes, residents sit all day in their room, bland hallways, or near a noisy nursing station, occasionally spoken at by a passing staff member.

To stand up to promises they made, politicians need to learn about the efforts and successes of the early change innovators like Possibilities by Baycrest and LTC homes that adopted the Butterfly and Eden Alternatives models. It has passed the time to upgrade standards for new buildings (transforming from hospital-like to small homes), update government standards (moving from taskfocused care to building personal relationships) and implement research-based training to properly prepare all staff to work with residents living with brain change (e.g., dementia, stroke, or mental illness). It is time for each politician to visit and/or stay a night in their local LTC home then compare their experiences with that of their peers. Is LTC a place where they would want to live? If not, fix it!

My 98-year-old mother passed away in a class “C,” forprofit, long-term-care facility in York Region last July. The isolation and lack of stimulation she experienced in the home resulted in profound deterioration over her last two years of living with dementia.

Deb Thomas, Newmarket