Elizabeth Payne’s series of articles on long term care has struck a chord with The Citizen readers as evidenced by the many letters to the editor.
“Focusing attention on long term care issues like increasing the number of available beds and the discussion about more or less oversight by the province is important. However, it is even more essential to emphasize a complete culture change, transforming long term care homes to provide loving, home-like environments for their residents.
There are a number of models for long term care that would accomplish this transformation which have been developed in the UK (Butterfly Model), Holland (Hogewey Village) and the USA (The Eden Alternative & the Green House Project). Some of these are currently being piloted in Peel County, Hamilton and are under consideration in the City of Toronto.
Newly elected City of Ottawa counsellors must review the benefits of these models and include a pilot project at one of Ottawa’s four city-run long term care homes in their next budget…….”
Excerpt submitted by James Sonley whose wife, Linda, had frontotemporal dementia for 16 years and passed away in May 2018. Linda lived in a long-term care home for 20 months. Consequently, Jay experienced firsthand the uncertainties of providing appropriate care for a loved one at home and in long term care.
Many newly elected City Councils in Ontario will likely be determining their 4 year priorities over the next few months. PLEASE take a few minutes to send messages to your local councillors urging them to put transformation of our long-term care home system on their priority agenda. Residents and staff cannot wait another 4 years!
The suggestion of J. Sonley to investigate the models in UK, Holland & USA is a very good start to bringing compassionate & appropriate care to vulnerable members of our society. It could be our own loved one or indeed ourselves who need this care next.
Karen – thank you so much for your comment on our last blog post. You are quite right and I would encourage you to contact your city councillor or MPP to urge them to do an investigation of these other models. The more the politicians hear from us, the more likely they will be to take action.