Sitting around her dining room table, Londoner Carol Saxby outlined the plight of her 93-year-old mother, who suffers from dementia and lives in a long-term care facility, to Ontario's NDP leader.
Andrea Horwath met with Saxby and her husband Bob at their Killarney Rd. home on Wednesday. The visit is part of a provincial tour Horwath has embarked upon to talk to families and front-line health care workers about Ontario's long-term care system.
"Over the last seven and a half years I've been visiting my mom on a regular basis and I've seen first hand the issues facing the already hard working staff," said Saxby, whose mother Madylin moved into Westmount Gardens Long-Term Care in 2010. "When my mom went into care, the personal support workers took their time with her and were even able to play a game of cribbage once in awhile to keep her mind active. What I witness now is more residents with behavioural issues, dementia, and mental health problems. There is no time for one on one care."
Saxby said, as a way of helping nurses who are spread too thin, she has stepped up to provide extra care to her mother, including taking her to the shower. But she recognizes that is something not all people with loved ones in long-term care can do.
"Some family members are still working, caring for their own children or grandchildren or live a distance away and are unable to assist in their loved ones care," Saxby said. "Let's not forget those residents that have no family or people to come to visit them. These residents require more time from staff to feel loved and cared for."
Horwath echoed Saxby's concerns, renewing her call for a two-pronged inquiry into the province's long-term care system.
"It's obvious that our long-term care system is broken. There have been deep cuts to long term care from back when the Conservatives cut, the Liberals have been causing even more damage, and now we are in a situation where we are in a crisis," said Horwath. "There has to be some attention to this issue. That's why we are calling on the Liberal government to take the time to do a full public inquiry into our long-term care system."
The first phase of Horwath's proposed inquiry would be to examine the case of killer ex-nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer. She would then like a second phase that looks at the broader, systemic problems in long-term care, including staffing levels, funding, and safety conditions.
"What I am doing is modeling our request after the Walkerton situation. Certainly everyone wanted to see the water tainting that happened in Walkerton dealt with but the justice there decided that there was a broader issue around water safety for our province. This is not dissimilar," said Horwath. "Yes, the Wettlaufer murders are heinous crimes and there is a necessity to look into how that could happen here in Ontario. But what we also need to look at and recognize is that our long-term care system is failing families and our loved ones on a daily basis."
The provincial government promised an inquest into the Wettlaufer case after the 50-year-old former nurse pleaded guilty last month to murdering eight seniors in her care. The scope of the independent public inquiry has yet to be established.
Horwath said if the Liberals don't investigate the broader issues in the long-term care system, an NDP government would do so within the first 100 days of taking office after the provincial vote next spring.
Prior to meeting with Saxby in London, Horwath spent the morning in Woodstock where she held a roundtable meeting with residents, care workers, and family members of Wettlaufer's victims. She was joined by London MPPs Teresa Armstrong and Peggy Sattler.
