An association representing francophone seniors has published a report calling for major changes to New Brunswick’s long-term care system, including the creation of a province-wide non-profit care model.
Norma Dubé, chair of the Elder Wellness Action Committee for the New Brunswick Association of Francophone Elders, stressed that major reforms were necessary to ensure a good quality of life for seniors.
“What we’re looking for is a completely different culture as it relates to how we provide services to seniors in this province,” she said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The report highlighted issues like the quality of food served in care homes, medication being improperly administered, as well as care home residents being afraid to speak out about issues with their care due to fear of retaliation.
While the research done for the study was done with francophone seniors, she believes the findings are relevant across the province.
“There is no difference between the quality of life through services received by anglophones and francophones,” she said, noting the association had consulted with some stakeholders in the anglophone community, like the Nursing Home Association, which represents anglophone and francophone nursing homes.
Notable among the recommendations was a call to create mandatory entry-level education for nursing home workers.
While Dubé acknowledged this could create a greater bottleneck for care home workers among widespread staffing shortages, the association believes it’s a necessary change.
“We might have more folks tempted to go into care if it’s recognized, if the training is certified, and if the salaries follow that,” she said.
New Brunswick’s Department of Social Development announced it was working on a new plan for long-term care on Tuesday, saying in a statement that the aging population would soon put stress on a system already “stretched to capacity”.
On Wednesday, social development minister Bruce Fitch said the association’s call for a non-profit model would be difficult to implement.
“Regardless of whether it’s for profit or non profit, that level of care has to be met. And we set that and we inspect on that and if we find that level of care is not being met then there are consequences on that to the home,” he said.
Interim Liberal opposition leader Roger Melanson was present at the associations press conference on Wednesday.
He supports the recommendations in the report, including the move to a non-profit model.
“We need to make sure that the services being offered in all of these (long-term care homes) are meeting the standards and I don’t think that’s really happening,” he said.
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