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Govind Rao

'We had to protect my grandmother'; Fariza Trinos thought her grandma was being cared for in a Mississauga nursing home - until she saw her bedsores - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246471|tost|20150916|229367801

from heather ltc Ontario continuing care

shared by Govind Rao on 16 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Toronto Star Wed Sep 16 2015
  • The infected bedsore on her grandmother's buttock made Fariza Trinos cringe. She grabbed her iPhone and shot pictures of the pressure ulcer, a foul wound eating into the skin of her 88-year-old grandmother at Erin Mills Lodge, a nursing home in Mississauga. The shock of seeing that sore jolted Trinos into action. With her mother, Zohreh Mehdizadeh, she asked nursing staff hard questions. When problems persisted, the mother and daughter created a file folder of evidence, shooting photos and videos of the home's care.
  • "We had to protect my grandmother," said Trinos, a 30-year-old sales co-ordinator for a Bay Street bank. "I can't imagine what happens to people without family to advocate for them." A Star investigation has found that the failure of nursing homes to deal with pressure ulcers results in catastrophic injuries to elderly residents. Many die, painfully, from these grotesque, infected sores, leaving families devastated. Last year, inspectors from the Ontario Ministry of Health issued 229 violations in 213 homes - up from 88 in 77 homes the year before. That spike is likely due to a boost in the ministry's tough new annual inspections - there 589 carried out in 2014, compared to 45 the year before.
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • "We are committed to the health and well-being of Ontarians living in long-term care homes and firmly believe in public accountability and transparency," said ministry spokesman David Jensen. Today, the Star profiles the story of former nursing home residents Fatemeh Hajimoradi, who has a serious pressure ulcer on her buttock, and Dorothy Benson, who died from problems related to gaping bedsores on her leg and foot.
  • Hajimoradi is now in Credit Valley Hospital, thanks to her family's advocacy. But the complaint filed by her granddaughter, Trinos, with the ministry got no results. Trinos emailed those photographs, with a complaint, to the ministry last spring. The ministry inspector didn't visit the home until Aug. 25 - two months after Hajimoradi was permanently moved to the hospital. Without interviewing the family, the investigator discounted the complaint and told Trinos the photos were not accepted because they could be edited or photo-shopped.
  • "I feel like I'm helpless now," Trinos said, after ending her call with the ministry. "They aren't going to send anyone else in there. They just go in, close the book and that's it." Jensen, the ministry spokesman, said inspectors do accept photos and must interview families in their investigation. Asked why that didn't happen in this case, he said the inspector used notes and photos from Trinos' original complaint with an intake worker. Now Trinos and her mother, Mehdizadeh, want their story made public as a warning to other families: watch closely, speak up and remember that a bedsore isn't a benign skin condition - it's a toxic threat that requires the most vigilant care.
  • In January 2013, Mehdizadeh entrusted her mother, Hajimoradi, to the Erin Mills Lodge. Hajimoradi has Parkinson's disease and dementia. She isn't able to move on her own and - like a growing number of long-term care residents - requires help with regular repositioning so that pressure from sitting or lying in the same spot does not create bedsores. Mehdizadeh said she understood skin breakdown was a risk but expected the staff to provide intensive care - including proper nutrition and hydration - so as to prevent the agony of serious infections and open wounds.
  • "My mother is suffering, suffering. We are all suffering," Mehdizadeh said. "I'm speaking out about this for all people in the older generation. Nursing homes are supposed to give them a safe journey home. But where are their rights to proper care?" Two years later, in May 2015, Trinos' notes said a worker at Erin Mills Lodge privately told the family about a serious and smelly bedsore on Hajimoradi's bottom.
  • Trinos and her mother said they didn't recognize the significance of the sore, nor did they see it, because the dressings that covered it were changed before their visits. "Come at a different time than you usually do, come and surprise (staff)," they recalled the worker telling them. The next day, Trinos' mother, Mehdizadeh, visited in the morning instead of the late afternoon. She told the nurse to open the dressing on her mother's bottom. The pressure ulcer was partially black and smelled like rotting flesh. Horrified, she took the first of many pictures. Several days later, her mother wasn't eating and was shaking with fever and nausea. Mehdizadeh demanded that the home call 911 and took her mother to hospital.
  • Mehdizadeh said her mother was admitted to hospital with two infections: sepsis, from the bedsore, and a urinary tract infection. In the hospital, Mehdizadeh and Trinos watched as nurses treated the pressure wound with sanitary cleaning kits. They were impressed. When Hajimoradi returned to the nursing home 10 days later, Trinos took photos and notes to document the difference in wound care. She said staff didn't follow the specific instructions sent by the hospital and didn't have the same cleaning kits. She said staff didn't offer pain medication before using undiluted iodine on the open wound "while my grandma was crying and screaming." Unlike the careful cleaning process used in the hospital, where nurses changed their gloves twice, Trinos photographed a worker cleaning the infected sore with one gloved and one bare hand.
  • On June 21, Trinos and her mother noticed that the dressing for a pressure wound on her hand was missing and the air mattress to help with the bedsore on her grandmother's buttocks was deflated. Eventually, Trinos called 911 and Hajimoradi was returned to Credit Valley Hospital, where she remains. This time, she was admitted with a dark red early-stage ulcer on her tailbone and a deeper ulcer on her buttock.
  • Erin Mills Lodge was sold by Sifton Properties to Schlegel Villages on July 10 - after Hajimoradi left. Schlegel spokeswoman Rose Lamb said the former operators tried to work with Hajimoradi's family but said the family insisted on taking her to the hospital. Lamb also said a subsequent meeting between Erin Mills workers and hospital staff concluded there had been no neglect. Lamb said the home's current internal monthly data shows that four out of 86 residents have "worsening" pressure ulcers.
  • She also cited the most recent report from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which shows the incidence of worsening pressure ulcers at the home declined in 2013-14. That year, Erin Mills' incidence rates dropped to 1.1 per cent from 3.9 per cent the prior year. The Ontario average for 2013-14 was 3.9 per cent. Hajimoradi developed problems with ulcers in the spring of 2015, a period that is not included in the report.
Govind Rao

Tom Mulcair makes multiple pledges to improve health care - Politics - CBC News - 0 views

www.cbc.ca/...r-healthcare-doctors-1.3227153

from heather ndp federal election

shared by Govind Rao on 15 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Announcements come 1 day after NDP promised $1.8 billion to improve seniors care
  • Sep 14, 2015
  • The NDP continued its push on health-care issues Monday, announcing that a New Democratic government would commit millions to develop a national Alzheimer's and dementia strategy to improve care for Canadians living with the disorders.
Govind Rao

Area long-term care staff urge MPP Leal to be a champion for more care for nursing home residents | Canadian Union of Public Employees - 0 views

cupe.ca/re-care-nursing-home-residents

from heather cupe Ontario ltc continuing care campaign

shared by Govind Rao on 06 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • Oct 5, 2015
  • PETERBOROUGH, ON — Area long-term care staff want MPP Jeff Leal to show he cares about the well-being of nursing home residents. Tomorrow (Tuesday October 6, 2015) at 1 p.m. Kelly Twiselton a personal support worker and a dozen or so of her co-workers will head to Leal’s, Peterborough constituency office at 236 King Street for a “Time to Care” rally. They want Leal to champion making a four-hour daily care standard for nursing home resident the law in Ontario. When first elected in 2003, Leal’s Liberal government had committed to legislating a care standard. But have since reneged on that promise, says Twiselton.
  • Every year, more complex hospital patients often with dementia and behavioural problems, are downloaded into long-term care as hospital beds are cut and budgets slashed. But care levels in long-term care homes have not increased to meet the heavier and more complex care needs of these residents, placing residents and staff at higher risk. “The liberal government has failed to act on these recommendations and the outcome has been dire,” says Kelly O’Sullivan chair of CUPE Ontario’s health care worker’s group.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Ten years ago a coroner’s jury recommended sweeping changes into the operation of Ontario’s long-term care homes after the deaths of two residents at the hands of another at the Casa Verde home. Key jury recommendations included a minimum care standard, improved staffing levels, mandatory specialized units for residents who pose a risk to themselves or others, and better admission and assessment protocols be instituted to protect against future tragedies. 
  • “We are looking for our MPP to show leadership within his government, change the law and give me and other long-term care staff, the time to provide care with compassion and dignity to residents,” says Twiselton.
  • For more information please contact: Kelly Twiselton Personal Support Worker 705-931-7679
  • Stella YeadonCUPE Communications 416-559-9300
Govind Rao

Liberals' silence on health funding shows they can't be trusted with our cherished public health care system | Canadian Union of Public Employees - 0 views

cupe.ca/shed-public-health-care-system

from heather cupe federal election accord

shared by Govind Rao on 06 Oct 15 - No Cached
  • The release of the Liberal platform last weekend makes it clear that they have no plan for one of Canadians’ top issues: public health care. The words ‘health care’ do not appear in the plan. There is no mention of a national prescription drug program. There is nothing on the expansion of federal funding for public home care and long-term care.
  • But two the two most disturbing elements of the plan for Canadians should be its total silence on restoring the $36 billion in cuts Harper has made to federal health care transfers over 10 years; and the Liberals’ stated intention to find $6.5 billion of ‘efficiencies’ in years three and four of their first mandate to bring their deficit-spending plan back to balance.
  • This is particularly worrisome when we think back to the Liberals’ actions the last time they set their sights on balancing the budget, during the 1990s. Paul Martin’s cuts to health care federal transfers by nearly 50 per cent in the five years starting in 1993-94 were devastating. This meant federal health care transfers relative to provincial-territorial spending fell below 10 per cent.
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  • The health care system was in crisis. It took nearly 15 years of incremental increases to bring the federal portion of health funding back to the level is was at before Paul Martin took his axe to it. Going through an exercise like that again would be devastating for the health services that Canadians depend on each and every day.
  • Adding fuel to the speculation that the Liberals are planning massive cuts to health funding is Trudeau’s September 2nd letter to the Council of the Federation that makes no firm commitments to health care or federal transfers. The only firm commitment was to improve the federal-provincial relationship. That’s pretty thin gruel considering the state of that relationship after 10 years of Stephen Harper!
  • All Canadians who are concerned with the future of health care in this country need to scratch below Trudeau’s soothing words and take a look at his hard numbers. When you break down their plan, 77 per cent of the value of their “new investments” are tax shifts and benefits (including others not listed under that category), 12 per cent is the catch-all of ‘infrastructure’ spending (though most Canadians don’t think of early learning and cultural facilities as ‘infrastructure’), and five per cent is EI (paid for through EI premiums).
  • That leaves only six per cent, or a little over two billion a year for everything else. How much of that available funding will go to public home care and long-term care? How much will go to the provinces for new hospital beds after years of cuts? On reading the Liberal plan, we have to conclude: not a penny.
  • Their plan also targets $6.5 billion in spending reductions from an expenditure review. Will health care be on the table for cuts, if they can’t meet that ambitious target? John McCallum said on Saturday that in the effort to balance their books before the next election, ‘everything was on the table.’ Contrast this with Tom Mulcair’s plan for health care under a federal NDP government, and the stark choice is brought in to focus. 
  • Mulcair has committed to reversing Harper’s $36 billion in health care transfer cuts to the provinces.  He has committed to investing $5.4 billion into new public health care programs, including a prescription drugs, a plan for 41,000 home care and 5,000 long-term care spots. Over five million more Canadians will have access to primary health care through his plan to build 200 Community Health Clinics. And there are practical policy initiatives on mental health for youth, Alzheimer’s and dementia care.
  • Canadians cherish their universal Medicare system as one of the things that makes Canada great. They want a federal government that will commit the necessary funding and leadership to build the public health care system of our collective futures, to meet the challenges of an aging population and increasing drug costs. The next party to lead the federal government should be judged by the real dollars and focused policy it has committed to meet Canadians’ health care needs.
  • On that measure, the Liberal plan is dead on arrival. Paul Moist is national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees. Representing over 633,000 members, including over 153,000 working in the health care sector, it is Canada’s largest union.
Govind Rao

Routine "rescue" care for the frail elderly is unethical - Healthy Debate - 0 views

healthydebate.ca/...tions-without-informed-consent

from heather seniors dementia emerg home care continuing care ltc

shared by Govind Rao on 18 Dec 14 - No Cached
  • by Margaret McGregor (Show all posts by Margaret McGregor) December 15, 2014
  • When a frail older person comes into the emergency department or presents to our offices, we simply do what we are trained to do which is try to fix each broken-down part. We apply our medical decision rules and algorithms for each disease to that person. In many ways, it is much easier to do this than the careful digging required to diagnose and stage frailty, to say nothing of having the difficult conversations with patients and their families about the prognosis associated with frailty. In his  most recent book American surgeon Atul Gawande observes that doctors don’t know when to stop intervening and patients don’t know how to tell them to stop.
Govind Rao

Nursing home health-care aides need more training, suffer 'worrisome' burnout: study | National Post - 1 views

news.nationalpost.com/...suffer-worrisome-burnout-study

from heather psw care aide cupe

shared by Govind Rao on 21 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • January 20, 2015
  • They occupy the front lines of Canada’s crowded nursing homes, providing the bulk of care to increasingly challenging, dementia-suffering residents. But the workers known as health-care aides have limited training, no regulation, “worrisome” levels of burnout and, in cities, are as likely as not to speak English as a second language, a new study suggests.
  • Carole Estabrooks, a University of Alberta nursing professor and the study’s lead author.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • The authors tout their survey of 1,381 aides in three western provinces, just published in the Canadian Journal on Aging, as the first scientific study of a group who has been called health care’s “hidden” army.
  • But Govind Rao, a researcher with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents care aides in some provinces, argued that the workers are, in fact, “very skilled” and well-qualified to do the work.
  • The problem, said Mr. Rao, is that there are not enough of them. “We have care aides who are overworked, and they’re not able to get their work done and answer patients when patients need them.” He also said it was “offensive” to even raise the issue of the workers’ ethnic make-up, saying there is no evidence that having English as a second language would affect their skill as care-givers.
  • It is estimated — no one knows the true number — that as many as 250,000 care aides, also known as personal support workers, are employed in Canada, providing 70-80% of the direct care to nursing-home residents. Most provinces require some kind of education and certification to work in the field, but the standards differ widely, said Prof. Estabrooks. Unlike nurses, physiotherapists and other professionals in the sector, they are not subject to regulation. Meanwhile, the number of registered nurses has been dwindling, partly due to cost cutting, experts say.
Govind Rao

Ontario wants more patients to get same-day or next-day appointments, Ontario health minister says | Toronto Star - 0 views

www.thestar.com/...ease-health-minister-says.html

from heather Ontario waits

shared by Govind Rao on 03 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Ontario wants more patients to get same-day or next-day appointments with doctors, Health Minister Eric Hoskins says.
  • By: Rob Ferguson Queen's Park Bureau, Published on Mon Feb 02 2015
  • But Hoskins, a physician, acknowledged Monday after a lunch speech on transforming the health-care system that he’ll have to get doctors on side after imposing a contract on MDs, leaving many angry. Home and community care nurses are also on strike.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • “We will face some challenges as we go forward,” Hoskins told reporters after a 34-minute address that also talked about better home care, more telemedicine and improved supports for dementia as the population ages.
Govind Rao

Time to fix home care - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246243|tost|20150313|216308998

from heather home care Ontario

shared by Govind Rao on 13 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Toronto Star Fri Mar 13 2015
  • A woman goes without eating or drinking for two to three days, even though she was under the supervision of Ontario's home-care system. Patients receiving palliative home care get cut off because they don't die fast enough. A patient with diabetes gets sent home after a heart attack. The expectation is that a friend will take care of her. She returns to hospital in a diabetic coma. Those are just three tales from the trenches from personal support workers, patients, nurses, community service-provider agencies and other groups involved with home care in this province. Their testimony is contained in a two-year study, "The Care We Need," released this week by the Ontario Health Coalition, an advocacy group that is rightly calling for a complete overhaul of the home-care system. If that message isn't strong enough to be heard by the Ontario government, many of the group's findings are reinforced by a second report on home care, made public on Thursday by a group of experts commissioned by the Ontario government.
  • That report, "Bringing Care Home," contains 16 recommendations to streamline and integrate services to make it easier for patients and caregivers to navigate a system that is now overly complex and unresponsive. As the experts say, the current home care system simply "fails to meet the needs of clients and families." The health coalition's exhaustive study details what happens when: People are forced out of hospitals to free up beds and cut costs without a co-ordinated, well-financed home-care system in place to support them. Patients end up back in expensive hospital emergency beds because they haven't been given enough home-care hours. Elderly patients end up in expensive long-term nursing homes, because they can't access the home-care support they need. What's clear from both studies is this: the Ontario government cannot have it both ways. It can't cut the extraordinary cost of keeping patients in hospital simply by pushing them out the door as quickly as possible, without providing sufficient home care on the other end to ensure they don't end up returning in worse shape, requiring more expensive care, than when they left. And it can't prevent elderly patients from accessing expensive long-term nursing home beds if it doesn't provide the care they need at home.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • The government has been warned for decades about the need to co-ordinate and support home care to accommodate: The fast-growing number of Ontarians with Alzheimer's and related dementia. There were 181,000 of them in 2011, and that number is expected to grow by 40 per cent before 2021. The 13,042 people currently on wait-lists for home-care services. (This does not include those cut from the lists because Community Care Access Centres had to tighten eligibility due to a lack of funding.) The increasing need for home care to help seniors retain their independence. But instead of properly supporting and funding home care - to save money, never mind provide compassionate care - the current $2.4-billion budget for home care provides less per patient than in 2002/03, according to the health coalition's calculations. This year, the Ontario government topped up the entire $4.9-billion budget for both home and community care (which includes community health centres) by $270 million and plans to increase that gradually to $750 million over the next couple of years. Still, the Ontario Health Coalition is recommending:
  • Patient advocates or an ombudsman to help people access timely, sufficient home care. Increased funding to ensure those in need are cared for. More controversially, an end to the current mix of private and public health-care services. (It argues the home-care system should be a public, not-for-profit service.) Their report is a well-researched, well-thought-out eye-opener - backed up on many issues by the government-commissioned report. Health Minister Eric Hoskins should act on both immediately. The most vulnerable of patients - those waiting for help at home - depend on it.
Govind Rao

Couple is reunited at long last; Wait for long-term care forced them to spend almost two years apart - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246243|kwrc|20150323|216976584

from heather ltc waits continuing care

shared by Govind Rao on 23 Mar 15 - No Cached
  • Waterloo Region Record Mon Mar 23 2015
  • An Ontario couple is finally living under the same roof after being forced to spend most of the past two years apart. The Clelands - Robert, 90, and Elizabeth, 84 - were reunited Wednesday after he was finally given the green light to move into her long-term-care home from his, two hours away.
  • Consequences of old age, failing health and an overburdened long-term-care system had pulled the couple apart. Until April 9, 2013, they had lived together in an apartment in Orillia, where Robert was caregiver for Elizabeth, his wife of almost 63 years who has dementia. A knock at the door that day set off a turn of events that would separate the pair for the next 23 months. He got up from his chair too quickly and his legs gave out from under him. Next thing the retired architectural draftsperson remembers is waking up in Soldiers' Memorial Hospital with a broken hip.
Govind Rao

Stressed health authority budgets leave little room for progress on seniors' care | Hospital Employees' Union - 1 views

www.heu.org/...progress-seniors%E2%80%99-care

from heather bc cupe hospital budget

shared by Govind Rao on 23 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • February 16, 2016
  • Urgent calls to address a growing crisis in seniors’ care have been largely ignored in a provincial budget that will see a continuing erosion in front-line health services, says the 46,000-member Hospital Employees’ Union. HEU secretary-business manager Jennifer Whiteside says that inflationary pressures, population growth and population aging will cancel out annual budget increases to B.C.’s health authorities that will average less than two per cent. “No one questions the urgent need to address rising levels of dementia and other complex care needs in the province’s long-term care homes,” says Whiteside.
  • Relief welcome, but government misses opportunity on MSP
Cheryl Stadnichuk

Legislate B.C. care home staffing, advocates demand - 0 views

www.vancouversun.com/...story.html

ltc staffing BC

shared by Cheryl Stadnichuk on 09 Feb 16 - No Cached
  • Cheryl Stadnichuk on 09 Feb 16
     
    When Pamela Hollington placed her 80-year-mother into a nursing home she was shocked to learn there would be as few as two care aides at times overseeing 50 residents on a specialized ward for people suffering from dementia. To ensure her mother's needs are met, Hollington now pays for a companion to visit her mother daily to "augment staffing levels." Daycare has mandated staffing levels for children in care but that isn't the case for seniors in nursing homes. Instead, administrators of B.C.'s 331 long-term care facilities can decide their own staffing needs and can choose or not choose to follow Ministry of Health guidelines. Vancouver Coastal Health, for instance, follows the industry standard of one care aide at night for every 25 residents. The Hospital Employees Union, which represents 15,000 care aides in British Columbia, said the standard being used in the industry is not enough, and chronic understaffing has reached dangerous proportions. "We hear from our members routinely that they are not backfilled when they are on vacation or sick. Our members are literally rushed off their feet to the point where safety is compromised - both their safety and the safety of residents," said the HEU's Jennifer Whiteside. The union is among many advocates for seniors in B.C. who are calling for staffing levels to be put into law for long term care facilities, and at a higher staff ratio than the current guidelines. She said this would also ensure consistency in staffing levels for nursing homes across the province. A HEU study of care aides in late 2014 found more than 70 per cent of its members felt they did not have enough time to comfort, reassure or calm residents they were caring for when residents were feeling confused, agitated or fearful. And nearly 75 per cent said they felt they had to rush through basic care for the elderly. Another 83.1 per cent reported they have been "struck, scratched, spit on or subjected to
Govind Rao

Taxpayers should pay for physician-aided deaths: experts - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246471|tost|20151215|235885245

from heather doctors palliative ltc

shared by Govind Rao on 15 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • Toronto Star Tue Dec 15 2015
  • Taxpayers should pay the tab for doctor-assisted deaths with no age limits imposed, says an expert panel set up by the provinces to guide the process once it becomes legal in February. Those are two of 43 recommendations in a report made public Monday that sketches a roadmap for patients with "grievous and irremediable" medical conditions to end their "intolerable" pain and suffering. If the vision is accepted by provincial governments, it would give citizens a much greater voice in their own end-of-life treatment.
  • For example, someone diagnosed with dementia but still competent to make decisions about future medical care would be able to fill out an "advanced directive" saying their life be ended when they get to a certain stage, such as not recognizing their children and requiring nursing home care. "I think a lot of the aging population is concerned about that," said Maureen Taylor, a co-chairwoman with University of Toronto bioethicist Jennifer Gibson of the nine-member panel that began work in August.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Taylor's late husband, Dr. Donald Low of SARS crisis fame, made an impassioned video plea for physician-assisted death for the uncoerced terminally ill in his final days of fighting brain cancer two years ago, fearing a horrible end.
  • The report also says anyone wishing to die would require the go-ahead from two doctors who certify the criteria for informed consent has been met. Physicians who object could opt out but would have to provide referrals. Doctors assisting with a death would have to report to a review committee afterwards - a recommendation that set off alarm bells for the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition based in London, Ont.
  • "It's not really a safeguard," warned executive director Alex Schadenberg, vowing to raise concerns when the Ontario government holds consultations online and in nine communities in January. Ontario Health Minister Eric Hoskins said the province will take the recommendations under advisement as it examines the "complex and sensitive issues" raised.
  • A federal panel, which is studying Criminal Code amendments necessary to make physician-assisted death legal, was expected to report Tuesday.
Govind Rao

Why do so many nursing home residents end up in emergency departments? - Healthy Debate - 0 views

healthydebate.ca/...emergency-department-avoidance

from heather ltc hospital emerg

shared by Govind Rao on 10 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • by Wendy Glauser, Maureen Taylor & Debra Bournes (Show all posts by Wendy Glauser, Maureen Taylor & Debra Bournes) December 10, 2015
  • This January, Sylvia got a call from a nurse in her mother’s long-term care centre. Her mother, Angela, woke up “extremely agitated and crying in pain,” so the nurses sent her to the emergency department. Sylvia was worried about how her 92-year-old mom, who has dementia, would react to the trip – the lights, the new faces and the loud noises.
Govind Rao

Canadian health care flunking | The London Free Press - 0 views

www.lfpress.com/...think-health-system-works-well

from heather primary care survey it doctors

shared by Govind Rao on 08 Dec 15 - No Cached
  • December 8, 2015
  • Twenty years after e-mail started to eclipse snail mail, most family docs in Canada are still in the dark age, with 85% not set up to reply to e-mail from patients, the worst mark in an international report released Monday. That poor finding for Canada was one of many in a report that found family doctors here ill-prepared to manage patients with the most challenging conditions, from dementia to multiple chronic ailments.
  • Published by the U.S.-based Commonwealth Fund, the annual report is grounded in surveys each year of primary-care physicians in 10 countries — Canada, Australia, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Govind Rao

Elder care: Failure is not an option - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246243|tost|20160115|237929589

from heather home care ltc

shared by Govind Rao on 15 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • Toronto Star Fri Jan 15 2016
  • Carol Goar
  • The harder the Ontario government beats the drum for home care, the more worried York University sociologist Pat Armstrong becomes. "We're kidding ourselves if we think we can care for everybody at home. There will always be people who need 24-hour nursing care. We can't neglect them."
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Currently 76,000 vulnerable seniors live in nursing homes. Thousands more are on regional waiting lists. Hospitals consider them "bed blockers." Private retirement residences aren't equipped to meet their needs. Their families can't take care of them or get enough home care to keep them clean, safe and stable. "I think we see nursing homes as a symbol of failure - failure of the individuals to care for themselves, of families to care for older people, of the medical system to cure them," Armstrong said. "It's something we don't want to think about because we intend to avoid such places when we grow old." That attitude has led to underfunding, understaffing, low wages and high turnover in nursing homes. Care providers don't have time to listen to residents, respond to their needs, help them eat, talk to them or alleviate their boredom. Food service workers lock the dining room between meals. Clothes vanish in the laundry. Government-required paperwork takes precedence over caregiving. It is not unusual to see a dozen seniors - some with dementia, some in wheelchairs, some heavily sedated - lined up in front of a television staring vacantly at a rerun of I Love Lucy.
  • "They deserve better," Armstrong thought. So she pulled together a team of 26 researchers from six countries (Canada, Britain, Sweden, Germany, the United States and Australia) to reimagine institutional long-term care. Could it be a humane, dignified, financially viable option? The team included doctors, pharmacists, architects, economists, psychologists, social workers, historians, philosophers and communication experts. It began by collecting success stories from Europe and North America and identifying the most promising practices and best ideas in the field. That was five years ago. Armstrong and her colleagues have now done 25 site visits in 10 jurisdictions; interviewed thousands of long-term care residents, workers, managers, policy-makers and advocates for seniors; published 50 academic papers and released an 86-page public report entitled "Promising Practices in Long-Term Care."
  • Last week, she and co-author Donna Baines, of the University of Sydney in Australia, led a panel discussion in the dining room of Hart House at the University of Toronto. "The reception was very positive. People are excited by the possibilities." It will take many more community forums - and a lot of public pressure - to change the mindset at the ministry of health and long-term care. It regards the elderly as a financial burden and nursing home workers as an expense to be controlled. For one evening, Armstrong and Baines managed to change the public dialogue from failures and shortcomings to promising practices. They provided proof that nursing homes don't have to be grim, depressing places. They offered hope to desperate families, exhausted caregivers and aging boomers contemplating their future.
  • Armstrong acknowledged afterward that it will take a prodigious effort and a significant public investment to reach the level of long-term care regarded as normal in countries such Germany, Sweden and Britain. But even without a cash infusion, she argued, there are ways to make life better for the residents of Ontario's nursing homes: Label their clothes properly before sending them to the laundry; allow them to make a cup of mid-afternoon tea or go to the fridge for a beer; let them eat chocolate or ice cream if they wish; make the decor less hospital-like and more like a home. Give personal care precedence over paperwork. Reorganize who does what to bolster teamwork and reduce staff turnover. These reforms are not costly. Three principles are vital for high-quality long-term nursing care, the researchers concluded: It fosters person-to-person relationships. It respects individual differences, while striving for equity. It offers dignity to older citizens regardless of their infirmities.
  • One of the biggest impediments to progress, Armstrong said, is the province's knee-jerk response to scandals. Any time something goes wrong in one of Ontario's 629 nursing homes, the ministry of health imposes blanket regulations. These one-size-fits-all rules reduce the ability of care providers and nursing managers to tailor their practices to the needs of residents. "We've become so obsessed with safety and standardization that we've taken the life out of living." So far, there's been no sign of interest in the project from Queen's Park. That is not likely to change until Ontarians open their eyes and raise their voices. Instead of complaining after their elderly parent is admitted to a nursing home, they need to speak out for everyone's parents. Instead of giving up on long-term care, they need to push back when policy-makers offer visiting part-time help.
Govind Rao

Attacks by patients on nurses called rampant - Health - CBC News - 0 views

www.cbc.ca/...nurses-attacks-1.3422851

from heather nursing nurses cupe Ontario hospital violence health and safety pn

shared by Govind Rao on 15 Mar 16 - No Cached
  • Staff cutbacks present a 'recipe for disaster,' conference told
  • Jan 27, 2016
  • Nurses are being beaten and choked during attacks from patients as they struggle with understaffing, a conference heard Wednesday. Registered practical nurses from across Ontario are meeting in Kingston to address violence they face on the job, from beatings to being spit on, in hospitals and nursing homes.
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • At the same time, nurses who call in sick aren't being replaced, so there are fewer people to deal with aggressive patients, said Linda Clayborne, a forensic psychiatric nurse in Hamilton.
  • 'When you have a patient holding onto your clothes and punching you, 54 seconds is a long time.'
  • In the last two months, violent incidents in Hamilton included attacks on two nurses who sustained concussions, Clayborne said.
  • Clayborne witnessed an incident last week and pressed her personal alarm to call for immediate help.
  • In another incident, a female RPN had hot coffee thrown in her face by a patient. Last week, a male co-worker sustained a black eye and swelling to his cheek and eye, Clayborne said. Now his children fear for him.
  • In long-term care, the majority of patients are over the age of 85 with Alzheimer's, dementia and other cognitive impairments that require a higher standard of care, Fetterly said. "Cutting back on staff is recipe for disaster," Fetterly said, because when a nurse is slow to answer a call bell, she's the "recipient of displeasure." The Ontario groups are also calling for legislation to protect health-care workers from violence.
Govind Rao

CUPE Ontario | Time to Care - Long-term care - 0 views

cupe.on.ca/...time-to-care-long-term-care

from heather cupe Ontario ltc continuing care campaign workload

shared by Govind Rao on 26 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • Let’s Take Action. Make a care standard for nursing home residents the law.
  • Since 1992, the complexity of care needs of Ontario’s long-term care residents – the majority of who are 85 years of age or older – has increased significantly. 73 per cent of residents have some form of Alzheimer’s or dementia and most need help with feeding, bathing, toileting and getting out of bed.
  • Every 4th Day of the Month Help raise awareness for a 4-hour daily care standard for long-term care residents. Every 4th day of the month, it’s Time to Care day in Ontario and CUPE long-term care workers, supporters and allies will “make it blue.” The #makeitblue day is to: Raise awareness of the need for a legislated 4-hour daily care standard for residents; Broaden and strengthen membership and community engagement; Educate others and build astrongbase; Reach out and engage others in concrete action. Show your support on social media: On the 4th of every month, add a filter to your Twitter or Facebook profile picture.
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