Media release: The ACE (Advocates for the Care of the Elderly) Team is very concerned that the eight tragic killings of nursing home residents by Elizabeth Wettlaufer could be repeated outside of Ontario, including Nova Scotia.
“In the end I can say that what I have learned about myself is how incredibly strong I am, because I have to be,” said disability rights advocate Joanne Larade in February at a panel on the lack of suitable housing for people with severe disabilities. At the panel she explained what it is like to find yourself, at the age of 42, living among people with dementia, many twice your age. Joanne passed away early last week.
Imagine being 28-years-old and not being able to decide what you are going to eat for dinner—or breakfast or lunch. Imagine having to live with people who scare or threaten you. Imagine living down a hallway from someone who sexually assaulted you, and you are told not to make a fuss. All this can and does happen to people with severe physical disabilities who must live in nursing homes in Nova Scotia. Judy Haiven on the need for community living options for people with severe physical disabilities.
At present, few housing options exist for Nova Scotian’s with severe physical disabilities. In order to receive round-the-clock care, people with severe physical disabilities are forced to move into a nursing home if they cannot afford to live independently.
Media release: CUPE Nova Scotia is calling on the McNeil government to immediately increase funding to all publicly-funded long-term care facilities, so they reach a minimum staff funding of 4.1 hours of care per resident each day.
Letter by Nan McFadgen, president of CUPE Nova Scotia, on the continuing crisis in long term care in our province. “I am frustrated that government does not hear our voices. Recruitment and retention continue to get worse in long term care. Would you be attracted to a profession where you are underpaid, undervalued, understaffed and underfunded?”
We talk with Dr. Ellen Hickey about how in Nova Scotia we give up way too easily on people with dementia. “When it comes to long term care, all you hear is doctors, drugs, nurses. What about the rest of the team? There is all kinds of know-how that will help keep people off these drugs, that will keep them out of the doctor’s office. Isn’t that what it is all about?”
Toni MacAfee with some personal observations on on the tremendous job done by Long Term Care workers anywhere in the province. They do this under very difficult circumstances. We need more and better paid staff, the residents and the workers deserve it, says Toni.
Karis Mitchell: Nova Scotia needs a provincial long term care strategy that revisits training and staffing hours so that the care facilities can provide the optimal care that is required by its residents. To be placed in a care facility at such a vulnerable stage in our lives can be traumatizing, so it is our responsibility to ensure that we speak openly about these concerns. We must speak up for those that do not have a voice, and those that voices that may not be perceived as valuable in our society.
The ACE (Advocates for the Care of the Elderly) Team welcomes the new bedsore measures for nursing homes which were announced today by Health and Wellness Minister Randy Delorey. But ACE also wonders why it took so long for the government to finally act.