As members of provincial parliament prepare to vote on a bill to legislate a minimum care standard in Ontario’s nursing homes, long-term care workers in Peterborough are set to tell their sometimes-horrific stories of the current state of care in nursing homes.
Workers from Peterborough, Ont., will load onto a bus on Nov. 2 to be in the gallery at Queen’s Park with other personal support workers when the expected vote on Bill 33, the Time to Care Act, takes place. If passed, the bill will legislate a minimum care standard of four hours a day for seniors living in Ontario’s nursing homes.
“The seniors we care for are counting on all parties to support this critical bill,” said Andrea Legault, a personal support worker for the past 19 years at the municipally run Fairhaven Long Term Care Home in Peterborough.
“We have five to 10 minutes to help a resident with their morning routine. That includes waking, washing, dressing and use of the commode. Imagine if you only had eight minutes for all those activities in the morning. Then imagine you are 87 years old with mobility issues.”
“It’s just not right,” she said.
“The hardest thing for me is the residents that we literally force into incontinence because we don’t have enough staff to get to them when they call for help to the bathroom,” she said during a news conference held Wednesday in Toronto.
Currently, the government requires one nurse on-site in a long-term care facility at all times. Residents are guaranteed two baths a week. There are more than 78,000 people living in Ontario long-term care homes.
The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents long-term care workers, reports that Canada has the lowest care levels among countries with equivalent economies, and Ontario has the lowest in Canada.
“It’s not acceptable that our loved ones, the people who spent their lives building our province and caring for our communities, are now being neglected in their final years. We are very grateful to the NDP health critic for bringing this bill forward, but this shouldn’t be a partisan issue,” said Candace Rennick, secretary-treasurer of CUPE Ontario and a former Peterborough long-term care worker. “We are counting on all parties to step up and vote ‘yes’ for the Time to Care Act. Seniors across Ontario are counting on them.”
NDP health critic France Gelinas said the bill was written to help protect the “health and dignity” of seniors living in long-term care homes in Ontario.
“Families in this province are concerned about the treatment their loved ones are receiving in long-term care. If we want to protect our most vulnerable citizens, a minimum standard of daily care is a must.”
The second reading vote on Bill 33 is expected to take place around 3 p.m. on Thursday. The bill would have to pass a third reading before it can become law.
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