Retirement News : Seniors : Long-term care homes under fiscal pressure

Long-term care homes under fiscal pressure

Date Added: 21-03-2005

Georgina Charlebois has been living at Bethammi Nursing Home in Thunder Bay for a quarter-century and the 67-year-old says her home could use more caregivers.

“We don’t have enough staff to get the proper care,” the woman said on Thursday as she sat in her wheelchair.

“I’m being honest. I’ve been here 25 years. I know.”

She’s one of thousands of seniors living in long-term care homes across Ontario that are deprived of adequate funding by Ontario, according to the Ontario Association of Non-Profit Homes and Services for Seniors.

The Toronto-based group which represents about 170 long-term care homes with 26,000 beds came Thursday to St. Joseph’s Heritage, which houses Bethammi, to spread their message that Ontario’s next budget needs more funding for care homes and community services for seniors.

The group is demanding $225 million more for community services for seniors in Ontario’s next budget.

It also wants the province to add $367 million to its current spending of $2.5 billion on long-term care for seniors. That would result in an increase of $13.42 in daily funding for each senior in long-term care, whether they are in for-profit or non-profit residences.

Thunder Bay has eight long-term care homes for seniors, with a total of 1,048 beds.

They would spend the added funding on meeting basics, such as toileting and feeding residents, as well as on more specialized services to deal with cognitive impairments afflicting many seniors, said Donna Rubin, chief executive officer for the association of non-profit homes and services for seniors.

Typically, seniors in long-term care require about seven medications a day and more than 65 per cent of them have Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, Rubin said.

But fewer than six per cent of them get mental health services as the need for more long-term care staffing is considered desperate, she said.

There is currently about one registered nurse for every 60 residents at long-term care homes in the day and one RN for every 100 seniors at night.

The number of registered nurses needs to at least double, while more licensed practical nurses and health-care workers are also needed, say local administrators.

“(Workers) are burning out is what it really boils down to,” said Michael Kennedy, administrator in the Dawson Court home for the aged.

“We provide quality care with what we are getting now, but it’s not good enough.”

Ontario Liberals promised about $450 million more in funding during their 2003 election campaign, and started last year by boosting funding to care homes by $110 million, Rubin said.

Rubin thinks the money is flowing too slowly. She wants the rest of the promised funds to be put in the next budget and not spread out over the next three years.

The Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care did not respond to The Chronicle-Journal regarding Rubin’s concerns.

For More Information: http://www.chroniclejournal.com/story.shtml?id=26300