megram - Index

megram - 55NovOttawa - Index

November/December 2008 • Ottawa 16 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine
equipped to cope with staff burnout
and excessive workloads for which
adequate funding and educational
resources would be required.
The shortfalls persist despite the
compilation of many comprehensive
reports, audits, media exposés and
submissions from family members
and caregivers on the serious problems
regarding basic care to residents
in long-term care facilities.
The provincial government’s
response was to commission another
review led by Shirlee Sharkey,
President and CEO of Saint Elizabeth
Health Care. Sharkee’s June 2008
report makes 11 recommendations
to strengthen staff capacity and to
establish a strong foundation for better
quality of care and accountability
for resident outcomes. One of the
most important recommendations
was the call for provincial guidelines
to support funding increases
designed to raise the level of care
from three and a half to four paid
hours per resident per day over the
next four years.
These recommendations may be
on target, but there are no guarantees
that all will be implemented and sustained
without further debate and
study. And what of the immediate
need to provide regular and consistent
basic care — like toileting twice
daily?
Residents of long-term care facilities
across the province don’t deserve
to be put on hold any longer. They
were there for us once, and now it’s
time to return the favour with action
and dollars.
Lise Cloutier-Steele is the author of
Misinformed Consent and Living and
Learning with a Child who Stutters.