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hospital boards are mostly made up of people who live in the community

public hospitals not only serve their communities, but they also operate beyond their walls in what most would consider as home care work

CEO of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, told us he was receiving no increase in funding for the ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) teams that visit client homes to provide mental health support. These workers rarely even see the inside of a hospital. Yet because of their connection to the hospital, they suffer under the same freeze to base budgets.

What do these campaigns accomplish? Undoubtedly, food drive campaigns get some much-needed food and money to local food banks. They provide great publicity for their corporate sponsors. They help companies appear to be good corporate citizens who care about local communities. They give those of us who participate a sense that we are "doing something" about a terrible problem in our midst. What they don't do is solve hunger.

Research shows that most hungry Canadians never even go to a food bank. And even those who do can never get enough food to keep them from being hungry. Food drives cannot solve hunger because they do not address the underlying problem of poverty. Across the country, political leaders, medical doctors, public health officials and ordinary community members are recognizing that the most effective and important thing we could do to end hunger is to provide everyone who needs it with a basic income guarantee or BIG. A BIG would ensure that everyone has enough money to buy the food they need

The list of BIG supporters is growing every week. It includes P.E.I.'s new premier, Wade MacLauchlin, Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi, Edmonton Mayor Don Iveson, former Kingston and the Islands senator Hugh Segal, former Toronto mayor and current Senator Art Eggleton, Medicare defender Danielle Martin, the Simcoe Muskoka Public Health Unit, the Ontario-based Association of Local Public Health Agencies (alPHa). And the list goes on. In Kingston, a group of local citizens, including this writer, has joined with the Basic Income Canada Network to build support for BIG. An effective basic income guarantee would enable all Canadians to meet basic needs and to live with dignity. It would solve the problem of hunger by ending its underlying cause, poverty. It would address the income insecurity that is affecting more and more Canadians as full-time, permanent jobs are becoming increasingly difficult to find. It would unleash our creativity and entrepreneurial spirits. And it would reward the countless hours of unpaid and volunteer work that so many of us do.

Over time, a basic income guarantee would more than pay for itself with savings in health care, education and the justice system. And once there were no more hungry Canadians, a basic income guarantee would mean that food banks could finally close. Elaine Power is an associate professor in the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies at Queen's University and co-founder of the Kingston Action Group for a basic income guarantee. © 2015 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Illustration: • JULIA MCKAY/THE WHIG-STANDARD • Volunteers David Norman, left, and Ralph and Kathee Hutcheon pack up one of the 30th Hotel Dieu Hospital's Food Blitz brown bags with nonperishable food items in the warehouse at the Partners in Mission Food Bank in Kingston in May.

Ms. Carter's efforts are just part of a broad effort of Canadians to welcome refugees from Syria. But her work also highlights the ad hoc preparation that is taking place while the federal government scrambles to meet its commitment to bring 25,000 refugees to Canada in the next three months. The Immigrant Services Society of B.C. expects about 400 refugees, half government assisted and half privately sponsored, to resettle in the province by the end of December. Governmentassisted refugees will be placed in the lower mainland, but privately sponsored refugees will head to the communities where their sponsors are based - Victoria, Kelowna, Duncan and Prince George are preparing to greet refugee families before the end of the year.

No more than 20 refugees will likely arrive in the region where Ms. Carter and her team of volunteer professionals are ready to help. Other communities may not be as well served - there is an element of good fortune that the Victoria region happens to have an experienced volunteer corp of therapists at the ready. Ms. Carter just spent four years with the Centre for Victims of Torture in Jordan, where she worked with hundreds of Syrian refugees. Before that, she specialized in trauma support with Medecins sans frontieres (Doctors Without Borders). From that experience, she knows the counsellors themselves will need ongoing support to deal with the topics they'll be processing. "Many of these refugees have gone through incredible trauma," she said. "The stories are very difficult to hear, even for experienced counsellors."

And, after 25 years working in child and mental-health services in Victoria, she knows the system is already strained and would not be able to cope with the urgent needs of the new arrivals. "Mental-health services for adults and children are very, very sparse. Often Canadian children have to wait for months to get into our mental-health system. I'm very concerned that the refugees, when they come to Canada, most of them of have a lot of PTSD symptoms and they are going to need assistance and there was really nothing set up."

Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps is coordinating efforts among immigration support groups, the region's school districts, postsecondary institutions and other levels of government to welcome an unknown number of refugees in the next three months to southern Vancouver Island. "We are rolling out the welcome wagon, recognizing that it looks different for refugees from a war zone," she said in an interview. The biggest challenge, she said, will be finding a place for the new families to live: Victoria has one of the lowest vacancy rates for rental housing in the province, and low-rent housing is particularly squeezed.

"We want to provide a welcoming new home. It will take a heroic effort." These stories are emerging across the country - Canadians pushing aside security fears and making the near-impossible happen.

After decorating Halloween cookies together, Han brings his own masterpiece, smothered in smarties and sprinkles, to Clark and encourages her to try it. Few words are exchanged, but smiles and giggles are constant at the intergenerational program at Youville Residence, a long-term care facility for seniors in Vancouver. Han Jr. is among a half dozen children visiting this day from the Montessori Children's Community - a daycare located on the same site as Youville, at 33rd and Heather.

Montessori Children's Community administrator Kristina Yang said it's a win-win situation. "Even if there is not a lot of communication with words you can see the beautiful smiles on everyone's face. Many of the children come to know a lot of the seniors and when they pass by our window they'll be excited waving and saying 'Hi ,'" Yang said.

Youville occupational therapist Sheralyn Manning said the children's visits are a big part of the seniors'day. Besides planned events, such as doing crafts together, every so often the children will visit when the weather is bad and they are not able to play outdoors. Manning pointed out the friendship between Clark and Han has been particularly touching to watch and Clark has a recent craft project Han gave her prominently displayed in her room. When most people think of nursing homes the image that comes to mind is a stand-alone building offering residential care only for the aged.

It's a place seldom visited unless you are a family member, friend or volunteer. But these days more homes are trying to build bridges to the wider community. Of B. C.'s 460 government and private nursing homes, only a handful have daycares or doctor's offices on site, said Daniel Fontaine, CEO of the B. C. Care Providers Association, which represents 60 per cent of the privately-operated homes. But none are attached to a facility that offers a large variety of community services. One of the best Canadian examples of a nursing home that achieves just that, said Fontaine, is Niverville Heritage Centre, near Winnipeg. It is home to 116 seniors but is also a gathering place for major community events.

The centre hosts 100 weddings each year. As well, about 50,000 visitors drop in at the centre annually to access their doctor's office, dentist and pharmacist or visit the full-service restaurant and pub. "We found seniors don't want to be retired to a quiet part of the community and left to live out their lives. They want to live in an active community and retreat back to their suite when they want that peace and quiet ," said Niverville Heritage Centre's CEO Steven Neufeld.

Before the centre opened in 2007, he said, members from the non-profit board that operates the centre visited traditional nursing homes and discovered that the lounges that were built for seniors were seldom used. "I remember going to one place where there was a screened-in porch that was packed. The seniors were all there wanting to watch the soccer game of the school next door ," he said. Having services like doctors'offices, dentists, a daycare, a full-service restaurant, and hair styling shop on site fulfil the centre's mission of being an "inter-generational meeting place which fosters personal and community well-being." Fontaine said it's worth noting that Niverville was able to "pull all of this together in a community with a population of less than 5,000 people." He hopes more B. C. nursing homes follow Niverville's lead.

Elim Village in Surrey, which offers all levels of residential senior care on its 25-acre site, is on that track. There are 250 independent living units, 109 assisted living units and 193 traditional nursing home beds. The village also has a 500-seat auditorium, located in the centre of the village, that hosts weddings and is available for rent for other public events. Elim Village also rents out space in one of its 10 buildings to a school, which allows inter-generational programs to take place easily between students and seniors. Another "continuing care hub " at Menno Place, in Abbotsford, has a public restaurant called Fireside Cafe, popular with staff from nearby Abbotsford Regional Hospital and Cancer Centre. There's also a pharmacy and hairdresser on its 11-acre "campus " site but these services are available only to the 700 residents and staff. "We purposely try to involve the community as much as possible ," said Menno Place CEO Karen Baillie. "It's Niverville on a smaller scale." She said Menno Place partners with high schools and church groups and hundreds of volunteers visit regularly. "Seniors are often challenged with isolation and fight depression. That's why we have different programs to encourage them to socialize ," she said.

Research shows 44 per cent of seniors in residential care in Canada have been diagnosed with depression, and one in four seniors live with a mental health problem, such as depression or anxiety, whether they live in their own home or are in residential care. A 2014 report by the National Seniors Council found socially isolated seniors are at a higher risk for negative health behaviours including drinking, smoking, not eating well and being sedentary. The report also found social isolation is a predictor of mortality from coronary disease and stroke, and socially isolated seniors are four to five times more likely to be hospitalized.

Since more seniors now remain in their own homes longer those who move into care homes are often more frail and need a higher level of assistance, said Menno Place director of communications and marketing Sharon Simpson. Seniors with dementia, in particular, can be socially isolated as friends and family often find it more difficult to visit them as they decline, she said. But Simpson said an intergenerational dance program, run by ballet teacher Lee Kwidzinski, has been a wonderful opportunity for seniors with dementia to be connected to the community. The program is also offered in four other nursing homes in the Fraser Valley. "For them it's an opportunity to see children. You can see the seniors come to life, smiling and giggling at the girls'antics. It's very engaging ," she said. "Some may not be verbal but they are still able to connect. They feel their emotions and they know whether someone is good to them. They feel these girls and become vibrantly alive. It's one of the most powerful things I've ever seen."

Creating community connections is key as Providence Health begins its planning stage to replace some of its older nursing homes in Vancouver, said David Thompson, who is responsible for the Elder Care Program and Palliative Services. Providence Health operates five long-term-care homes for approximately 700 residents at four different sites in the city. "It's always been our vision to create a campus of care on the land ," said Thompson, of the six acres owned by Providence Health where Youville is located.

He said the plan is to build another facility nearby, with 320 traditional nursing home beds. One of the ways to partly fund the cost is to include facilities that could be rented out by the larger community, which would be a benefit to the seniors as well, he said. There is already child care on site, and future plans to help draw in the community include a restaurant, retail space and an art gallery. He said another idea is to partner with nearby Eric Hamber Secondary School by providing a music room for students to practise.

"Cambie is at our doorsteps. If you have people coming in (to a residential care facility) it brings vibrancy and liveliness ," Thompson said

His explanation contradicts earlier narratives provided by U.S. officials, and MSF, which is calling the attack a war crime, has demanded a "full transparent independent investigation." As the story grows murkier, one thing is certainly clear, however: more people will suffer and die in Kunduz, where fighting between Taliban attackers and coalition forces is intensifying. Taliban fighters initially captured Kunduz city last week.

Now that the MSF hospital is destroyed, roughly one million people will no longer have a place to go for trauma care, said Yogesh Jha with MSF Canada, who spent several weeks in Kunduz last year. "Kunduz trauma centre is the only dedicated trauma centre in the whole province," Jha said. "An average of more than 3,000 patients per month used to visit the hospital." And in a region as unstable as Kunduz, trauma cases are dramatic, said McVicar. In his regular job at British Columbia's Kootenay Boundary Regional Hospital he sees maybe 10 or 15 outpatients a day, perhaps victims of car crashes or ski accidents.

But in Kunduz, where he volunteered with MSF in 2013 and 2014, a typical day involves between 75 and 100 outpatients, many suffering from gunshot wounds, bomb blasts or car crash trauma inflicted on Afghanistan's notoriously treacherous roads. McVicar recalls a distraught mother who brought in her 7-month-old baby, badly burned on both legs after a kerosene explosion. She had already gone to the national hospital but they discharged her baby with some topical cream. But McVicar could see that the child would die within days, so he decided to operate. Midway through, the electricity gave out - the surgical team completed the operation using light from their iPhones.

"We had to amputate a hand and a foot from that baby, but the baby did great," he recalls. "I can remember the smile on the mom's face there. She was so glad she came to our hospital and we saved the baby." McVicar knows that without the Kunduz trauma centre, patients like that baby girl will no longer survive. He also grieves the deaths of MSF colleagues in Saturday's airstrike - and the loss of invaluable skills and knowledge they had worked hard to acquire in the recent years.

"I just hoped someday (the Afghans) wouldn't need the expats here and they can be on their own," McVicar said. "But with the MSF hospital, they're gone. There is no health care now."

"I work with a lot of new staff in my role and they tell me, ""It's different here," she says. "Employees go above and beyond; they will do whatever it takes to make that difference in people's lives, whether it is a patient or a co-worker." Successfully recruiting employees who embrace Covenant Health's compassionate goals and values is no accident but, rather, it is the result of a careful process, says Dumelie. "We spend a considerable amount of effort and energy ensuring that, as we attract people to our organization, we attract people who want to be part of our mission." Attracting and retaining the right people is critical for the organization, which has 15,000 physicians, employees and volunteers, given the steady population growth of increasing demands for health care as the average age of Albertans rises. "We are a large organization that is growing rapidly," says Dumelie. "Population growth, demographic shifts and the rising need for seniors care has meant that the demands for our services continue to grow."

Engagement is a well-worn buzzword among employers that are focused on issues such as employee morale, motivation and job satisfaction. Covenant Health has an established engagement program and also measures its employee engagement every two years to ensure that staff not only share and live the organization's values but see a continuing or growing role with the healthcare provider. "We spend time with our employees to make sure that we provide them the opportunity to learn and grow, contribute to our culture and also be leaders within it," says Dumelie. The organization-wide engagement program "on all accounts improves quality," says the Covenant Health chief executive. "It improves retention, it improves every dimension of the workplace. Ultimately, it benefits those that we serve." © 2015 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Illustration: • / Body, mind and soul: Covenant Health employees live its values every day - at the bedside, in decision-making and in how colleagues treat one another.

unmet needs for assistance are associated with higher risk for injuries, having depression, falls and institutionalization.

"Hospitals across the Southeast LHIN face a devastating restructuring plan that's all about cuts and centralizing services," said Mehra. Mehra described relocating complex continuing care beds to TMH as nothing more than a smokescreen. Retaining cataract surgery at TMH is also misleading. "The plan is to elimin

ate cataract surgeries at hospitals and move the service to private clinics," she same. The same goes for complex continuing care beds. Mehra said the ultimate plan is to relocate those beds to facilities outside hospitals. "Another kicker is losing half the acute care beds at TMH," said Mehra.

Mehra said other hospital across the province are, and have faced, a similar pattern to what's taking place at TMH. She also noted that hospitals in Ontario are chronically under-funded compared to other provinces. Mehra said hospitals in Welland, Fort Erie, Port Colborne, Niagara on the Lake and Niagara Falls are being gutted and face possible closure. Hospitals in those communities are part of the Niagara Health System.

"The first phase includes removing, diagnostics, surgical services and acute care beds, followed by replacing emergency rooms with urgent care centres," said Mehra. The final phase is closure. Mehra said amalgamated hospital systems have never worked. She used Quinte Health Care and the resulting yearly service cuts at TMH as a prime example.

"The current funding model has never worked. It means those hospitals face deficits every year. Virtually all hospital are under stress because the plan is to reduce the scope of services, resulting in the fact that residents will have to travel a lot further," said Mehra. The end result is that smaller hospitals inside large amalgamations are being "completely" gutted. But the local community, said Mehra, shouldn't give up hope. The Coalition has kept a watchful eye on Quinte West and Brighton, and its community hospital.

"Our TMH has done a fantastic job of generating great ideas that are constructive. They have great integrity and have done a great job of rallying the community," said Mehra. On that front, Mehra said the idea of a one-stop health centre and community operated hospital with inpatient beds has the potential to provide a "robust" range of care to tens of thousands of residents. Mehra said a proposed veteran's care centre is a natural extension of that plan. The idea has received attention from national party leaders during the federal election campaign.

But is that enough to convince the province, and those bureaucrats in charge at the LHIN and QHC? Ultimately, said Mehra, it depends on how hard the community pushes its agenda. De-amalgamating from larger hospital corporations wouldn't be precedent setting.

Mehra said smaller hospitals in Georgetown and St. Joe's Island (near Sault Ste. Marie) have successfully divorced from larger corporations. "But it's up to the community to raise a huge stink with the province and present a good plan," said Mehra. Mehra suggested Trenton Memorial, if it were locally owned and operated, form a coalition with other independently run hospitals such as Napanee, Campbellford or Northumberland.

"The bottom line is people have to fight for what they want. They have to stand up and be heard," said Mehra. Local organizers want that fight to continue in Trenton on Nov. 13. -The Trentonian

"It shows that people here really care about the Miramichi and it's too bad that politicians don't care about it as much," Driscoll said. "They want to privatize the nursing homes, they want to cut to the Education Department, their cutting the highway budgets and they're cutting to every service they can think of, so where are we going to go? They don't seem to think that matters." The Liberal government, come the fall, is expected to have a deal in place that will see all hospital food and cleaning services being outsourced to a private firm.

Government officials, including Health Minister Victor Boudreau have maintained that the changes are needed in order to help the province get its finances in order and will save the province millions of dollars through efficiencies that will be brought in under private management. Driscoll says those efficiencies, CUPE fears, are simply going to amount to job cuts at hospitals throughout the Horizon Health Network. The union learned from the province earlier in the summer that food and facilities management giants like Sodexo, Aramark and Compass Group are involved in the bidding process.

"If they privatize these services, then these corporations are going to come in and say 'you don't need all these people' ... we're going to cut because they're going to want to make at least a 20 per cent profit. Driscoll said the hospital is just one example of the trend toward the greater privatization of public services the union is seeing. Nursing home workers at Mount St. Joseph Nursing Home and the Miramichi Senior Citizens Home have been protesting at various points throughout the summer after learning the Department of Social Development would be using a private-public partnership (P3) model in building a new 280-bed nursing home that will replace both of the city's current facilities, which are run by a volunteer board of directors. Workers at both homes will have to reapply for positions at the new nursing home if that's what they choose to do and, with a private company running things, the membership has said it is concerned that those who do catch on at the new place could be subject to reduced pay and benefits.

The government is expected to open up a request for proposals (RFP) in the coming weeks to begin the process of determining which proponent will build and operate what will likely be New Brunswick's largest nursing home by the time it opens. Currently, each of the three privately run nursing homes in the province are owned by Shannex. The unions have also warned that the move to a P3 model would lead to a reduction in the level of community outreach programming offered to local seniors through things like Meals on Wheels and adult daycare. Tourism Minister Bill Fraser, the Liberal Miramichi MLA who advocated heavily for the new nursing home to be built and the man at the centre of much of the unions' ire, has shot down those concerns in previous interviews. Fraser has reiterated that regardless of whichever proponent emerges with the right to build and manage the structure, the initiative represents a major upgrade in terms of nursing home infrastructure.

He said the standards of care are dictated by the province and will remain, at the very least, on par with what has existed at the two current nursing homes over the last several years. Programs like Meals on Wheels, adult daycare and lifeline, would remain in place and potentially even enhanced and in terms of jobs, he said there will be provisions written into the RFP asking that priority be given to local applicants and that with an increase of 26 beds, even more staff will likely be required. As for pay and benefits, he said staff at two of the three Shannex properties have already unionized and the third was in the process of doing that.

Nursing home staff have called on the province to force the boards at the Mount and the senior citizens home to amalgamate together and operate the new facility using a model similar to what was undertaken in Edmundston when two nursing home boards melded into one in order to operate the new $48 million, 180-bed Residence Jodin. Danny Legere, the president of CUPE New Brunswick, was on hand for the vigil and urged the Miramichi workers to keep up the fight. "I want to congratulate the people of the Miramichi for taking a stand - the fight that you have started is a fight for all New Brunswickers," Legere said. "The militancy that you are showing is exemplary and it has to be carried on from one end of the province from one end to the other."

Andy Hardy, a Miramichi native and the president of CUPE 1190, said his sector is used to certain services being contracted out to private interests but when it comes to health and senior care, he said it was "flat out wrong." "You're looking after the most vulnerable people in that building right there," Hardy said. "When you privatize the food services and the cleaning services all it is is for profit - the service goes down and the profit goes up, and for nursing homes as well." Length: 1090 words

oronto – From across Ontario representatives from dozens of communities facing devastating cuts to their community hospitals carted thousands of ballots to the Ontario Legislature. The votes – 93,840 of them as of last night – were cast in a province-wide voluntary “referendum” on Saturday May 28 and in lead-in advance polls held in the last two weeks. Since last night the coalition has received hundreds more votes, putting the total over 94,000. Hundreds of votes continue to be sent in to the coalition every few hours. To put the size of the vote in perspective, a very large petition presented to the Legislature might have 20,000 signatures at most.

Regardless of source, it’s important to ensure the safety and security of supply for patients who need blood and blood products. Currently, CBS collects about 200,000 litres of plasma annually. That is enough to produce only about 22 per cent of blood products such as intravenous immunoglobulin, which is used to treat a growing number of immune disorders. That product is purchased from the United States and Switzerland.

Currently, there are no manufacturers of blood products in Canada. However, both Green Cross Biotherapeutics and Therapure Biopharma are getting into the business. Within five years, CBS hopes to increase collection markedly to about 500,000 litres a year, with the use of dedicated plasma collection centres. But CBS has no plans to pay donors, other than the traditional cookies and juice. Nor does it plan to buy plasma from other providers, such as Canadian Plasma Resources.In fact, what Canadian Plasma Resources plans to do with the plasma it has collected is unclear as it does not have license from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which means it essentially can’t sell its plasma in the United States. What is clear, however, is that there is a lot of action in the blood business; as opportunities arise, we must be careful to not repeat the errors at the root of the tainted-blood debacle. What policy makers need to do now is come up with a clear, coherent position on issues such as paying for plasma and domestic production of blood products rather than grasping at every shiny bauble that comes along.

Minister, levels of occupancy this high are dangerous at so many levels. They are testing the limits workers, patients, families and volunteers. If these conditions continue, we are simply waiting for a critical incident to take place. I urge you to address the overcrowding at our local hospital.

France Gelinas MPP for Nickel Belt Health critic for the NDP

Davidson also has an idea where to find the money. “We always tell them to look at their executives wages. It’s definitely a top heavy bloated organization.” Indeed, CBS CEO Dr. Graham Sher, earned more than $800 thousand last year. An astounding nine Vice Presidents together made another cool $3.2 million.

It’s one thing to want to keep your workers poor and precarious. Many companies do it. But donors? “These days donors probably have more complaints about scheduling and clinic times than employees do.” That’s what Ron Stockton told us when we first talked to him in January of this year. Stockton is the  NSUPE business agent for the PEI local now on strike. “With CBS it is never about delivering service, it is always about getting the biggest bang for your buck,” Stockton says. A 2015 press release issued by CBS announced the Canada-wide closure of three permanent clinics, the replacement of a permanent clinic with a mobile one, pulling mobile clinics from 16 communities, and “adjusting clinic schedules across the country.” “CBS is being transformed into a business, as opposed to a public service or a humanitarian organization. These days it’s all about automation and squeezing efficiencies out of donors and workers,” Stockton concludes.

“When you walk into the clinic you register by inserting your health card into some kind of ATM machine, then you have your blood taken by an employee who is too rushed to talk to you, then you schedule your next appointment at another machine. “Having  been a donor, I can tell you donors want to see people,” Stockton says. “I am old enough to remember the days when staff taking your blood had time to talk to you. “Doesn’t happen anymore, to CBS you are a piece of meat giving blood, you could be a bag.”

Lately CBS has been in the news because of its endorsement of Canadian Plasma Resources, a private for-profit company that wants to pay for plasma donations.  The Saskatchewan company is eying Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for expansion. Organizations such as Bloodwatch and public healthcare advocates in the Maritimes have strongly opposed the introduction of private for-profit clinics while we have an effective not-for-profit blood service already in place. Paying for donations is asking for trouble, they believe. But concerns around the quality of our blood supply go deeper. “Workers in our locals fear for the safety of this blood system altogether,” Davidson warns. “CBS is more concerned about cost savings than about the safety of the blood supply. They have  pared the organization down so much that all resilience and safety is removed, and we are going right back to 1997,” Davidson says.

“CBS tries to make its operation as lean as possible,” he says. “We cautioned them to make sure that there are no system failures such as the Krever enquiry identified. But they are continually watering it down. It’s all about dollars and cents for them.” When front line CBS workers are concerned about safety, then provincial Health ministers who fund CBS to the tune of $1 billion per year should listen, says Davidson. “We call upon the responsible ministers to step up and pay attention. We need to raise the alarm that things are not good.”

The problems continue because the nursing home system is taking increasingly sick and demented residents but lacks the money for increased staffing levels to provide a minimum amount of daily care.

Personal support workers who do the majority of hands on work are not regulated and have little training to manage residents with complex needs.

Just over a year ago the ministry rolled three confusing nursing home acts into one piece of legislation

The new inspection system — with a focus on resident complaints — is now uncovering hundreds of cases of assault and neglect.

The Star obtained more than 1,500 inspection reports carried out since the new rules began.

The system relies on homes volunteering negative information about themselves or residents speaking out, even though many fear repercussions.

Of 1,500 inspection reports (the Star obtained about 70 per cent of reports from the last year), serious problems were found in 900 cases. Of those, roughly 125 were abuse related, 350 revealed neglectful treatment of a senior and the remainder found other types of poor care. There are 627 homes in Ontario with 77,000 residents.