Join us on October 23rd from 12:00 to 1:00 to hear about the Eden Alternative cultural transformation at the Osgoode Care Centre in Metcalfe, Ontario.
To register click here
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.
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.
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.
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”.
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
Recording: Recognizing diversity in LTC homes: Serving the 2SLGBTQI community
On June 19th, 269 persons registered for the webinar, “Recognizing diversity in LTC homes”. The 185 participants learned how the Rekai Centre in Toronto is serving their 2SLGBTQI residents.
The full webinar can be viewed here.
French Government invests $22M for a Dementia Village
Canada’s first community designed specifically for people with dementia, Langley Village
Everyone living at Landais Alzheimer, in south-west France, has dementia. “Each of the single-storey chalets houses about eight residents, with a communal kitchen, sitting and dining room. While villagers pay a contribution, the running costs, similar to an average care home, are mainly covered by the regional French government. This project has a research component which means that outcomes will be tracked right from the beginning, providing meaningful date for future long-term care home ‘villages’ on whatever scale is possible.
Click here to learn more.
Doing more for persons with dementia in long-term care
A Green House dining room (copied with permission)
On January 22, 2024, the Ottawa Citizen published a letter to the editor submitted by CARP Ottawa in response to an article by Kate Heartfield on the need for better ways to improve care for dementia patients need for better ways to care for persons with dementia. Read letter here
Webinar: Differences between LTC Homes and Retirement Homes in Ontario
On March 27th over 175 persons registered for the webinar: The Differences between LTC Homes & Retirement Homes in Ontario. Lisa Levin, AdvantAge Ontario, and Lise Jolicoeur, ORCA, presented information on regulation, costs, funding, and eligibility.
The full webinar can be viewed here.
Osgoode Care Centre is now an Eden Alternative long-term care home
Photo credit Matthew Kupfer (CBC)
As captured in CBC reporter’s Matthew Kupfer’s recent article, the Osgoode Care Centre in south Ottawa is putting the ‘home’ in long term care. Starting several years ago, the Centre began to implement the Eden Alternative care model.
Like other innovative models such as the Green House and the Butterfly Approach, the Eden Alternative model focuses on changing the ‘institution’ to a ‘home’ and the focus is on the resident rather than ‘tasks’. Not without its challenges, this Centre along with several other long-term care homes in Ontario, have demonstrated that ‘where there is a will, there’s a way’ to make this kind of transformative change happen.
For the full article, click here
Please share this good news story with your city councillor, your MP, and friends and family, and encourage them to take whatever action they can so that ‘homey’ becomes the norm in Ontario’s long-term care homes and not the ‘exception’.
COVID in the HOUSE of OLD
COVID in the House of Old is a storytelling exhibit that tells nine stories as shared by residents, family members and staff pertaining to the horrific events that unfolded during COVID across Canada within long-term care homes. Who can ever forget the pictures of military personnel who were deployed to save seniors stranded in COVID-ridden long-term care homes where frail elderly residents appeared dehydrated, unfed, and covered in urine and feces. In fact, 82% of the first wave deaths due to COVID were residents of long-term care homes. Residents were locked away from the world and health care workers were left unsupported during the pandemic. Read more here.
COVID in the HOUSE of OLD calls on all Canadians to act and specifically calls on the provincial and federal government to transform long-term care homes into a caring, positive option for seniors and a rewarding place to work. A petition is part of the exhibit and within the petition are 7 recommendations for action. One of these recommendations calls on the government to fund a Canada-wide pilot project of 24 new model LTC facilities, consisting of small, home-like units, constructed to limit the spread of infectious disease!
Take a look at the report, sign the petition, and do your part to make sure this never happens again!