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‘There’s No Place Like Home’

A Green House Dining Room (copied with permission)

The National Institute on Aging released its recent report, “There’s No Place Like Home: Why Canada Must Prioritize Small Care Home Models in its Provision of Long-Term Care”.

“This report, There’s No Place Like Home, emphasizes the need for a transformative shift away from delivering care in large institutional care settings to smaller, more personalized, home-like environments that align with public preferences and improve care outcomes for residents and working conditions for staff. ”

Please join us in our advocacy efforts to transform Ontario’s long-term care homes from ‘institutions to homes’ by contacting your MPP and/or city councillor, writing a letter to the editor, etc to make this transformation happen.

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Ontario gives green light to training staff in emotion-based care models

Photo courtesy of Jarlette Health Services

Dear Minister Kusendova,

On behalf of CARP’s Advocacy Working Group on Long Term Care, we are writing to you today to express our congratulations on the work you are doing to improve the care for residents in Ontario’s Long Term Care Homes (LTCH). Your recent announcement of investing $9 million over three years to train staff in emotion-based care models is groundbreaking and demonstrates the commitment of the government to improve the quality of life for those both living and working in long-term care!

We know how critical well planned and successfully executed training has been in the implementation of innovative models of care such as the Eden Alternative, the Green House Project and the Butterfly Approach. We believe that this funding, focusing on emotion-based training, will help to create and enhance the culture of care in all long-term care homes. Drawing on existing expertise from leaders in this field who have already developed training programs for innovative models of care in Ontario will ensure a framework that incorporates sustainability measures providing positive outcomes for years to come.

Again, our congratulations and best wishes as you continue the work to improve the care of residents and their families in Ontario’s LTCHs as well as the working life of those who provide care and support to them.

Yours sincerely,
Kathy Wright
Chair, CARP Advocacy Working Group on Long-term Care   www.changeltcnow.ca

Margaret Geare, Social Action Committee, Chair RWTO (Retired Women’s Teachers Ontario)
Gwen Kavanagh, Chair, CARP Barrie and Surrounding Area
Murray Etherington, Chair, CARP Mississauga
Gay Viecelli, Chair, Long-term Care Transformation Committee, CARP Windsor Essex
Tom Carrothers, Chair, CARP Halton
Louise Warr, Chair, CARP Greater Bay of Quinte Area
Gloria McKibbin, Chair, CARP London-St. Thomas

 

 

 

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Recording: Creating Joyful LTC Homes: The Ireland Experience

On November 13th, 100 persons registered for the webinar, “Creating Joyful LTC Homes: The Ireland Experience”, and they learned about  the transformation which is taking place within Ireland LTC Homes. After researching innovative models of care around the world, they have transformed three LTC Homes where residents are living in “homes”. Currently the Irish Government are developing a Design Guide for LTC Residential Care Settings where small household settings will be the norm.

The full webinar can be viewed here.

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Former Minister gives nod to innovative homes

In her recent book, A Physician in the Political Arena, Dr. Merrilee Fullerton

lays out her vision of what she had hoped for in reforming the long-term care home system in Ontario. Read more: 

In Chapter 3 she writes, in part:

“Residents would have a dignified environment to live in.  Physical, emotional and medical needs should be met…”

…”This underlines the importance of programs such as the Butterfly Model and the Eden Alternative Model that provide a more home-like setting with greater emphasis on emotional needs.”

Dr. Fullerton clearly saw the benefit of these innovative models of care that transformed their ‘institutions to homes’.   Although at a snail’s pace, the numbers of these ‘homes’, in both the public and private sector in Ontario, continue to grow each year.    We need to do more.

Click here  to get involved.  A draft letter is there for you to edit or send to your  MPP or your local media.  If we don’t begin to fix the long-term care system now, the residents will be forgotten yet again until another pandemic hits.

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Recording: Social Connection and Quality of Life

On September 18th, nearly 100 persons registered for the webinar, “Social connection and quality of life: The Sonnet Study”. The participants learned about a research project that is investigating how to measure social connectedness of residents. The importance of social connection was discussed as well as ways to encourage this within a ltc home.

The full webinar can be viewed here.

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New model of care coming to long-term care home in Thunder Bay

 

Judy Walters, behavioural support and butterfly lead at Pioneer Ridge Long-Term Care and Senior Services, says it’s important to keep in mind that long-term care homes are where residents live, not just where people work, when looking at how to make the space a more familiar environment. 
(Sarah Law/CBC)

The Butterfly approach which has already been adopted in long-term care homes elsewhere in Ontario is now coming to Pioneer Ridge where it will be the first in northwestern Ontario to adopt this model.

“Pioneer Ridge Long-Term Care and Senior Services, which houses 150 residents across four home areas on Tungsten St., will be integrating the new care model into its memory and dementia care section over the next 12 to 18 months”.  Click here to read more 

We need to see more long-term care homes in Ontario move in this direction to change long-term care homes from ‘institutions to homes’.   Please consider contacting your MPP or municipal councillor to advocate for this long overdue and much needed transformation in Ontario’s long-term care home system.

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For-profit and not-for-profit long term care homes

A Green House dining room (copied with permission)

As noted in our previous blog post, the debate about having for-profit and not-for-profit long term care homes continues.  The issue is that quality of life for those living in LTC homes has more to do with care delivery than the type of ownership.

In an article that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on July 24th, 2024, James Schlegel provides an opinion piece in defense of mission-driven, for-profit long-term care in Ontario.  Click here to read more .

Many proven innovative models in long-term care have been successfully implemented in some homes (albeit too few) in both for-profit and not-for profit homes in Ontario.  These include municipal homes in the Peel Region (the first in the province to implement the Butterfly Approach), Jarlette homes (family-run for-profit), the Glebe Centre in Ottawa, and Osgoode Care Centre in Osgoode.

Get involved and advocate to change long-term care homes in Ontario from ‘institutions to homes’ by writing to MPP or city councillor.

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Privatization of long-term care homes

 

A Green House dining room (copied with permission)

In June, CARP Ottawa submitted a letter to the editor, the Ottawa Citizen (unpublished) on the controversial topic of privatization of long-term care homes.

Politicians need prodding on care for our seniors – Mohammed Adam – June 21st.  

Mohammed Adam does an excellent job of capturing the salient points of the event last Saturday – the screening of the poignant NFB film, Stolen Time.   Click here to read the article

The privatization of long-term care homes has been a hot topic for years, escalating dramatically during the pandemic. Although there have been countless debates and published articles by researchers and experts in the field, we have yet to hear from either the large private chains operating so many of Ontario’s homes or the Ontario Government, not even to the Government’s own Commission’s report re a potential solution.

The Ontario government’s Independent Long-Term Care COVID-19 Commission addressed the for-profit home issue in its carefully thought-out Report tabled on April 30, 2021.

It recommended that “The government should separate the construction of long-term care facilities from the care provided in those facilities……. Such a model is already employed in hospitals in Ontario.  For example, construction of long-term care homes would continue to be open to the private sector so that the capital required to construct the facilities could still be accessed. The province would pay to use the facility as a long-term care home, thereby providing a return to the investors who put up the capital to build. The province would license not-for-profit operators or for-profit operators who are mission-driven rather than dividend-driven to manage the long-term care home.”

Surely there is a way for the Ontario Government and the Private Investors to look at a potential solution.  If it is not perfect, it is at least a start.   The residents, staff and families all deserve a better quality of life and working conditions.  We need to change their institutions to homes.

As one reader rightly comments on Adam’s article, “here we are again, lamenting the same issues and not learning”.

 

 

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Public Dementia Village opens in Comox, B.C.

 


Canada’s first privately operated community designed specifically for people with dementia, Langley Village

The Views, Canada’s first public, non-profit long-term care home modelled after a dementia village is opening in July, 2024.

The village has been designed for 156 residents and is divided into 13 households.  Each mini-neighbourhood has 12 residential suites and a common living area with a kitchen, laundry room, dining area and living space.

“These villages are safe, community-focused and allow residents to feel a sense of belonging while getting the care and support they need,” says B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix.

Providence Living created this site for seniors living with or without dementia and for younger adults in need of long-term care.

This is another example of transformative change taking place in our long-term care home system – from Institutions to Homes.

To read more, click here

 

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