In case you missed it, October 1 was National Seniors Day, a time when we were supposed to pay tribute to the older men and women who have made, and continue to make, contributions to our society.
October 1 was also the United Nations International Day of Older Persons, which this year had as its theme “Ageing with Dignity: The Importance of Strengthening Care and Support Systems for Older Persons Worldwide.”
As the UN notes, “Population ageing is a major global trend reshaping societies worldwide.” People are living longer than they did decades ago. The average Canadian woman will live to be 84; men’s life expectancy is 80.
If we are lucky, we will live long healthy lives and eventually pass on peacefully in our sleep, at home, in our own bed, without requiring any assistance from the health care systems.
But many of us will not be that fortunate.
That is why our hospitals and long-term care facilities are so stressed.
More than 45,000 Ontarians, almost the population of Cornwall, are waiting for long-term care, according to the Ontario Long-Term Care Association, which represents about 70 per cent of long-term care homes in the province.
The OLTCA projects that the wait list could increase to about 48,000 by 2029.
The average senior will wait 126 days to access long-term care, with some waiting up to 2.5 years, the association says.
Nearly half of Ontario’s long-term care homes need to be redeveloped to meet current demand, the OLCTA reports. To expand, operators need sufficient and stable funding.
It seems that, despite massive government investments in vital services, health care organizations are constantly fund-raising.
For example, both the Dundas Manor in Winchester and the Maxville Manor are in the midst of campaigns aimed at covering the local shares of much-needed and very costly expansions.
Dundas Manor needs to raise $18 million towards the $64 million cost of extending its capacity from 98 to 128 beds.
Maxville Manor’s new premises would accommodate 160 individuals, an increase from 122. The Manor needs to raise $11 million to finance the local portion of the $68 million price tag.
There are 100 people currently on the Manor’s waitlist.
As of July, the last time it was updated, the wait list at Dundas Manor was 199, according to Health Quality Ontario, a department of the provincial health ministry.
If you were wondering, money cannot help one skip the queue.
Check out a frequently asked question on the Maxville facility’s website.
“If I support Maxville Manor, does that guarantee a bed for me or my loved one when we need care?”
Response is: “If you give money to the Manor, it does not guarantee a bed for you or your loved one when they require long- term care as the waitlist is managed outside of Maxville Manor’s control. The next on the waitlist is determined by need and priority. That said, by redeveloping we will expand and increase the number of residents that we serve and increase the likelihood that a bed will become available for you or your loved one.”
Obviously, nobody wants to wait extended periods of time to receive service of any kind. But delayed admission to a long-term care home is particularly bad, resulting in people’s health deteriorating and causing stress for seniors, family members and other caregivers.
When people do land a spot in a home, most require a lot of attention. Residents have greater needs than ever. At the Dundas Manor, for instance, 87 per cent of residents have some form of cognitive impairment and 75 per cent need help with activities such as eating and using the washroom.
Both the hospital and long-term care systems are strained, as many hospitalized patients wait for a place in a long-term care facility.
In a bid to relieve the pressure on hospitals, the province’s More Beds Better Care Act, Bill 7, allows hospitals to discharge patients and place them in long-term care homes. If patients refuse to go to a home they don’t like, they could face a fine of $400 a day to stay in a hospital.
A legal challenge has been mounted by the Ontario Health Coalition and the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly. They want the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to strike down the law because they contend the act breaches the rights of patients who are designated “alternative level of care” (ALC) and considered eligible for admission to a long-term care home.
“Most of these patients are elderly, unable to care for themselves or be cared for in the community, and are among the most vulnerable members of our society,” reads the organizations’ submission to the court. “Many also do not have capacity to make decisions about their care and must rely on a substitute decision-maker (SDM) to do so. A significant number of these ALC patients are in the final months of their lives, and those who are ultimately admitted to an LTC home will join a population with a life expectancy of less than two years.” Bill 7 empowers thousands of physicians, nurses and other “clinicians” to designate such hospital patients as no longer requiring hospital care, but it does not establish any guidelines, criteria, or standards for making this determination, the lawsuit asserts. The law subjects the vulnerable to “the deprivations of Bill 7 when in fact they still require hospital treatment.”
The government says the law is having the desired effect and that the number of ALC patients has increased due to population growth, not the failings of Bill 7.
However, as the aging population continues to grow, everyone agrees that more must be done to ensure that everyone can age with dignity.
