Skip to main content

The importance of having a Seniors' Advocate in Manitoba and of improving the quality of care in long term care facilities.

 

On January 29, 2021 we released our Manitoba Liberal Caucus report on the state of support  for Manitoba's seniors.  The report focused particularly on the need for a Manitoba Seniors' Advocate and on the need for improvements in long term care facilities.  The Media release is below.  The report itself can be found by:clicking on this link.   The title of the report is Standing Up  for Seniors:  Ending 40+ years of Neglect.  Why Manitoba needs a Seniors' Advocate and a new model for Long Term Care. 

Manitoba Liberals Release Report Detailing 40+ Years of Neglect in Seniors Care:  Seniors need Advocate, System Needs Reform

Treaty 1 Territory, Winnipeg, MB - The Manitoba Liberal Caucus released a report detailing 40+ years of warnings and reports of neglect by Manitoba Governments of the conditions in personal care homes they say contributed to the appalling Covid-19 death toll in personal care homes across the province.

Of all OECD countries, Canada’s death rate in personal care homes is by far the worst. Manitoba’s per capita mortality rate is the second worst in the country.  Manitoba Liberals say that Canada’s appalling PCH morality rate is directly connected to Canada having one of the highest numbers of seniors living in institutions in the world.

The report details a series of grim concerns: the abuse of anti-psychotic medications as “chemical restraints” and homes that don’t give residents enough food or water. Deaths and injuries in care homes are rarely investigated and almost never result in charges.

“The PC government’s response to the second wave was a disaster, but it is a disaster that happened because for decades, NDP and PC governments alike ignored red flags, pleas and horror stories.” said Dougald Lamont, Leader of the Manitoba Liberal Party and MLA for St. Boniface. “This report shows why Manitoba desperately needs an independent Seniors’ Advocate and a new model for caring for seniors in our province.”

In August 2020, long-term care facilities were pleading with the Pallister PCs to provide funding to help pay for Covid measures. Shared Health and the Manitoba Government had ordered facilities to comply, but provided no new funding to do so.

Long term care facilities made it clear that the PCs’ two years of cuts followed on more than a decade or more of frozen funding from PC and NDP governments alike.

The report details complaints about inadequate inspections, bad food and dangerous conditions going back 40 years in Manitoba.

1980 -  “All but one of Winnipeg’s 23 group homes for the elderly fall short of provincial standards and are operating without licenses, says a Community Services Department spokesperson.”

1993 - “Residents of privately run care homes run significantly higher risks of having conditions that indicate a low quality of care that those in non-profit facilities… A study by the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy says that between 1987 and 1991, patients in privately run facilities were 20 per cent more likely to have falls, fractures and pneumonia and nearly 40 per cent as likely to be dehydrated.”

1995 - Manitoba PCHs have no obligation to report incidents of abuse

1999 - Care Home staffing “woefully inadequate”

2000 - NDP rejects calls for increased staffing

2006 - Manitoba Nurses’ Union says LTC standards are not consistent and many do not meet the minimum level of care

2015 - Existing infrastructure in nearly half of Winnipeg’s 39 PCH were in “poor condition”

2016 - Pallister government limits reporting of Protections of Persons in Care (PPCO)

2019 - MARCHE report states capital equipment funding had not increased for 25 years.

Manitoba Liberals have been calling for action for seniors throughout that time. Since 2016, Cindy Lamoureux, MLA for Tyndall Park and Manitoba Liberal Seniors’ Critic, has been calling for the creation of a Seniors’ Advocate modelled on a similar position in British Columbia. It was part of the 2019 Manitoba Liberal platform.  

In 2019, when Manitoba Liberal Health Critic Dr. Jon Gerrard quoted a relative of a care home resident saying “It was easier to watch my dad die in a personal care home than to watch him live in a personal care home.” When the then-Health Minister Cameron Friesen suggested that Gerrard was insulting staff and should apologize, Gerrard’s reply “You’re the one who should apologize.” Gerrard was called out by the speaker, and ejected from the legislature for the first time in his 20 years as MLA.

“The pandemic has shown just how rotten many of our systems are, and we have a moral obligation to learn from this human tragedy and change how we care for seniors, now and into the future,” said Lamont. “We can afford to do the right thing, and it’s past due time we did.”

Comments

  1. Hans OttoMarch 20, 2021 at 6:22 PM

    I have been with the virus for 2 years when i was introduced by a blogger who also narrated Her story online on how she was cured by a herbal medication which was sent by doctor chala, am telling you today that my test results come out negative. Contact Dr chala on his email address dr.chalaherbalherhome@gmail.com or you can visit his website on http://drchalaherbalhome.godaddysites... or https://mywa.link/dr.chalaherbalhome

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dougald Lamont speaks at Meth Forum last night to present positive ideas to address the epidemic, while exposing the lack of action by the Pallister Conservatives

Last night at the Notre Dame Recreation Centre in St. Boniface, at an Election Forum on the Meth Crisis in Manitoba, Dougald Lamont spoke eloquently about the severity of the meth epidemic and described the Liberal plan to address it.  The Liberal Plan will make sure that there is a single province-wide phone number for people, or friends of people, who need help dealing with meth to call (as there is in Alberta) and that there will be rapid access to a seamless series of steps - stabilization, detoxification, treatment, extended supportive housing etc so that people with meth addiction can be helped well and effectively and so that they can rebuild their lives.  The Liberal meth plan will be helped by our approach to mental health (putting psychological therapies under medicare), and to poverty (providing better support).  It will also be helped by our vigorous efforts to help young people understand the problems with meth in our education system and to provide alternative positive
3 comments
Read more

Manitoba Liberal accomplishments

  Examples of Manitoba Liberal accomplishments in the last three years Ensured that 2,000 Manitoba fishers were able to earn a living in 2020   (To see the full story click on this link ). Introduced a bill that includes retired teachers on the Pension Investment Board which governs their pension investments. Introduced amendments to ensure school aged children are included in childcare and early childhood education plans moving forward. Called for improvements in the management of the COVID pandemic: ·          We called for attention to personal care homes even before there was a single case in a personal care home. ·            We called for a rapid response team to address outbreaks in personal care homes months before the PCs acted.  ·          We called for a science-based approach to preparing schools to   improve ventilation and humidity long before the PCs acted. Helped hundreds of individuals with issues during the pandemic including those on social assistance
Post a Comment
Read more

The Indigenous Science Conference in Winnipeg June 14-16

  June 14 to 16, I spent three days at the Turtle Island Indigenous Science Conference.  It was very worthwhile.   Speaker after speaker talked of the benefits of using both western or mainstream science and Indigenous science.  There is much we can learn from both approaches.   With me above is Myrle Ballard, one of the principal organizers of the conference.  Myrle Ballard, from Lake St. Martin in Manitoba, worked closely with Roger Dube a professor emeritus at Rochester Institute of Technology, and many others to make this conference, the first of its kind, a success.  As Roger Dube, Mohawk and Abenaki, a physicist, commented "My feeling is that the fusion of traditional ecological knowledge and Western science methodology should rapidly lead the researchers to much more holistic solutions to problems."   Dr. Myrle Ballard was the first person from her community to get a PhD.  She is currently a professor at the University of Manitoba and the Director of Indigenous Science
Post a Comment
Read more