A Blenheim woman is hopeful a petition will increase the staff to resident ratio in nursing homes across the province.
Joanna Vaughan has created a petition that aims to bring more workers into long-term care homes. She said the limited number of support workers in Ontario nursing homes means that seniors aren't getting adequate levels of care.
"Our seniors are being neglected every day, they go without bath and food and mandatory care due to chronic understaffing," said Vaughan.
According to the Ontario Long Term Care Association's (OLTCA) website, there are around 625 long-term care homes in the province. Of the residents in them, one in three has a severe cognitive impairment while 85 per cent require extensive help with daily activities.
Vaughan, who works in long-term care, said the average ratio she has seen is around one personal support worker for every 14 residents. With such a low ratio, she said it can be challenging to provide basic necessities to residents, let alone go the extra mile.
"In a nursing home, you're supposed to support and try to encourage independence. The way the nurses are working, they don't have time to encourage these seniors to do things," said Vaughan. "There's not even enough time to talk to them."
Vaughan added that understaffing not only puts stress on residents but impacts employees as well.
"It's so overwhelming, it's so stressful, " said Vaughan. "No matter what you do, at the end of the day, you still feel like you didn't do enough. We have girls walking off the floor crying because they can't get the job done."
Vaughan met with Chatham-Kent-Leamington MPP Rick Nicholls in regards to the petition and got help from his staff in preparing it. She said she hopes she's able to get enough signatures to take the petition to Parliment Hill in hopes they improve funding for long-term care facilities and address the understaffing concerns.
According to the OLTCA, seven per cent of the provincial health budget in 2018 went towards funding long-term care. They estimate that if an additional $100 million in funding every year for the next four years would add two more personal support workers for every 32 patients in nursing homes across the province.
"When a dog is being neglected or abused, they go into the person's home and pull that animal out from being neglected or abused," said Vaughan. "That's what's happening to our seniors [they're being neglected]. The government should step in and make sure everyone's being taken care of properly."
With the baby boomers increasing in age, Vaughan is worried that the problem is going to get worse if somebody doesn't take a stand.
"Our seniors got us to where we are right now and everyone's turning their back on them," said Vaughn.
In hopes of the petition better standing out, Vaughan has opted for a hard copy petition instead of an online version. The petition can be signed at the locations listed below.
A list of businesses in Chatham-Kent where Joanna Vaughan's petition can be signed
