OrilliaMatters welcomes letters to the editor. This letter, from Seniors For Social Action Ontario is in reference to the article published March 26, titled, 'Former HRC residents want buildings torn down.' Send your letters to [email protected]
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Thanks to OrilliaMatters for shining a light on possible plans to re-purpose the site of Huronia Regional Centre for a long-term care facility.
Should the government proceed with any plans of this nature it will pay a political price. Older adults across this province have made it clear that they do not want to end up in long-term care institutions. They share the concerns of Huronia survivors that this never happen again.
Institutions like Huronia were part of the darkest period of Ontario's history, where people were segregated and excluded from their communities and subject to dehumanizing treatment that caused significant harm and in some cases, death.
We have seen the same scenario play out in long term care institutions during, and for decades before the pandemic. The Deputy Minister of Long Term Care admitted to the COVID-19 Long Term Care Commission that 22,000 people a year - a quarter of the resident population - dies in these facilities every year.
Some die as the flu rages through them, others of preventable causes like serious falls, infected bed sores that cause septicemia, and other forms of substandard care spelled out in inspection reports.
It is well known that the majority of these facilities have not met basic standards set out in Ontario's Long Term Care Homes Act. Several were the subject of a devastating report by the Canadian military.
Institutions like this are no place to house anyone, and Seniors For Social Action Ontario stands with Huronia survivors in calling for an end to them and for funding to be redirected to in-home support, paying family caregivers, having money follow the person to ensure that funding is tied to people's needs not to institutions, and to the creation of small, non-profit community residences for those who cannot be supported at home.
Individuals with dementia are supported far better in their own homes and community residences where they can receive care tied to their specific needs.
Institutions are archaic and belong in the 18th, not the 21st century. It is time Ontario did better by older adults and people with disabilities.
Dr. Patricia Spindel,
Co-Founder, Seniors For Social Action Ontario
References:
See Page 22 - testimony by Richard Steele, Deputy Minister of Long Term Care -
http://www.ltccommission-commissionsld.ca/transcripts/pdf/DM_Angus_DM_Steele_and_CMOH_Dr._Williams_transcript_October_16_2020.pdf
CBC - Pedersen et al - long term care facilities have not met legislated standards -
https://www.cbc.ca/news/marketplace/nursing-homes-abuse-ontario-seniors-laws-1.5770889
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