A new report on senior health care in Sarnia-Lambton indicates that the current system isn't working.
Hearing Our Voices, a provincially funded local study, was released Tuesday by Navigating Senior Care Lambton (NSCL), and Community Legal Assistance Sarnia.
Focus groups held around the community collected information from 86 residents made up of seniors, care providers, and their families.
NSCL group member Andrew Bolter said the conclusions were alarming but not surprising.
"I think what we found was a system that is under-resourced. We have an aging population, the baby-boomers are now moving through the system and we just don't have the number of beds, the facilities in place, and the home-care resources to meet the need locally," said Bolter. "We need to recognize the system needs to be fixed and that the people that work in the system are even saying that. We need the government to look at this as a priority, an emergency really."
Bolter said a big problem locally for the aging community is the lack of access to health care information.
"We need a resource in the community that is going to help people with that and that's not just a website or a phone number. We need something with actual navigators that will help people navigate through the system, because it's a very complicated system."
Bolter also said Sarnia-Lambton needs more health care support from the Doug Ford Tories.
He said long-term care beds are nice, but more front-line personnel are what's really needed.
"You can't just build, you have to have a good ratio of staff to residents because otherwise, it's unsafe. The present levels are bad to the extent that families are actually having to spend time in hospital and long term care facilities providing care, which should be provided by the facility," he said. "In some long term care facilities, we've heard that there's one registered nurse on the floor for 174 residents. So yeah, there's a problem with staffing, with the number of PSWs in Sarnia-Lambton-- these ratios need to be addressed."
Bolter said the next step is to elevate the report to all levels of government and to create a local healthcare advisory group.
"So we're going to take this report to Sarnia City Council, to Lambton County Council, to MPPs, and to the Local Health Integration Network or whatever is in its place," said Bolter. "We're hoping county-wide to put together a seniors advisory group that would report and be an advisory to county council about these issues."
Bolter said we may also have to create a culture shift as to how we treat our aging community.
"When I took my 87-year-old father to Paris last year, he was treated with such respect and admiration," he said. "He was provided access to museums ahead of other people, he was given a chair to sit on while we were waiting for our cab. This surprised me because generally here, we warehouse our seniors in facilities, and getting old here, it's almost like you disappear."
NSCL is a grassroots citizens organization that has the goal of promoting health care, social engagement, and health literacy.
Hearing Our Voices report by Navigating Senior Care Lambton and Community Legal Assistance Sarnia.
