THE SHAME OF LONG-TERM ELDER CARE IN ONTARIO

Last week's Waterloo Region Record carried the following opinion piece titled "Long-term care was a crisis waiting to happen. We must fix it now". The article was written by Karen Galer a retired Registered Nurse. She categorically states that the current Covid crisis "...is highlighting these inequalities, exposing our society's dark side. The inequalities that she is referring to are the higher death rates in the U.S. due to Covid amongst Black people and Latinos. here in Canada it is the astronomical death rates occurring in some of our nursing homes.

She states that standards in long-term care homes have eroded over the decades with poorly paid staff, improperly trained staff, and a lack of personal protective equipment. Furthermore inspections are few or non-existent. That is outrageous that for profit nursing or retirement homes are not routinely inspected without advance notice being given.

More than twenty years ago I voiced my displeasure both to family members as well as to the institutions involved regarding my parents care. I even lodged a formal complaint to the Waterloo Regional Police in regards to a serious wounding incident at Sunnyside Home in Kitchener. Nothing, absolutely nothing was done. Apparently conditions have gotten worse not better in the interim. We can only hope that our decision makers themselves end up in one of the worst of these institutions. At that point their regrets will not help them.