SITUATION CRITICAL – Homicide and Violence in Ontario’s Long-Term Care Homes

MEDIA ADVISORY Ontario Health Coalition to release new report SITUATION CRITICAL – HOMICIDE AND VIOLENCE IN ONTARIO’S LONG-TERM CARE HOME The Ontario Health Coalition is releasing a new report, Situation Critical, across Ontario from January 21^st to February 5^th. Situation Critical is a new report that examines government data to reveal the current shocking state of long-term care in Ontario. Among all the data that the Ontario Health Coalition has collected on long wait lists, inequities, staffing shortages, and medical needs is a statistic that over the last 5 years measured there were 27 homicides. It is part of a rising tide of violence among residents of long-term care facilities. Why is this happening? This Ontario Health Coalition report bases its assessment of the current state of long-term care in Ontario and what the needs of our population of seniors are from available data from the long-term care industry and the Ontario government. The Ontario Health Coalition will provide copies of the long-term care report at local news conferences and local first-hand accounts of conditions in long-term care locally following the themes of the report. The report is being toured around 30 towns around Ontario from January 21st to February 5^th.

WHERE: Huntsville, Bullock’s Independent Grocer, 131 Howland Dr.

WHEN: 1:30 pm

WHO: Local Lead Liaison Peter Cross PRESENTER: Devorah Goldberg, Researcher and Campaign Manager

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Jan 21, 2019

“Intolerable” levels of violence and homicide spark renewed call for improved care standards in Ontario’s long-term care: new report

Toronto—In a Queen’s Park press conference today the Ontario Health Coalition launched a 30-community tour of a new report, “Situation Critical: Planning, Access, Levels of Care and Violence in Ontario’s Long-Term Care”. The report was inspired by increasingly frequent complaints by families and care workers of violence in long-term care homes (nursing homes). In its research, the Health Coalition found what it describes as “shocking” and “intolerable” levels of homicide, the extreme end of a “spectrum of violence that is escalating”. Almost 80,000 Ontarians reside in long-term care homes.

Among the key findings in the report:

There were 27 homicides in Ontario’s long-term care homes, according to the Ontario Coroner in the five years leading up to the report: a homicide rate that is 4-times that of Toronto and 8-times that of communities that are similarly-sized to Ontario’s long-term care home sector (80,000 people).
Resident-on-resident violence has increased since 2011 and staff injury rates in long-term care are among the highest of any industry in our economy.
Access to long-term care is poor, and even more difficult for equity-seeking groups.
By every measure the acuity, that is the complexity and heaviness of the care needs of the residents in long-term care has increased dramatically. This is a result of massive hospital cuts: Ontario has cut more hospital beds than any other province and is almost at the bottom of OECD rankings. As a result, today’s long-term care homes are yesteryear’s chronic care and psychogeriatric hospitals, but without the same resources.
In fact, long-term care beds are funded at 1/3 the rate of chronic care beds but house residents that used to be considered chronic care or psychogeriatric care. This shift is saving money at the expense of the health and safety of the vulnerable residents in long-term care and their care staff.
While acuity has skyrocketed hands on care levels have actually declined. The result is the escalating violence that we are witnessing.

Quotes:

“By any reasonable measure the twin issues of insufficient care and violence in Ontario’s long-term care have reached a level that can no longer be ignored,” she added. “Voluntary approaches to improving staffing are a proven failure. If you put your child into day care there is a staffing ratio: a limit on the number of children for each staff person. We are asking for the same thing: a minimum care standard that would guarantee a minimum average of 4-hours of hands on nursing and personal support for each resident, and we are insisting that this be a requirement that is enforced.”

“No one should have to go through what my mother and my family went through,” added Lance Livingstone, a senior himself, who struggled for months to find his mother a space in long-term care and was ultimately unsuccessful and she passed away. “The government has cut care and continues to ration it in order to give tax breaks to the wealthy. We can afford to provide decent long-term care for seniors and others who need it. The truth is families can’t afford to go without it.”

For more information: Devorah Goldberg, Research & Campaigns Director; Natalie Mehra, Executive Director.

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~ Protecting Public Medicare for All ~

Ontario Health Coalition
15 Gervais Drive, Suite 201
Toronto, ON M3C 1Y8
ohc@sympatico.ca