Seniors Advisory Committee report

This report is the second in a monthly series of reports from the Leamington Seniors Advisory Committee. Each committee member will alternate in supplying a report to the Sun.

By Hilda MacDonald

The topic of discussion for the last two meetings of the Seniors’ Advisory Committee has centred around the report released by the Ontario Long Term Care Covid-19 Commission.

Our members on the SAC either have professional experience with long term care providers, or next best, lived experience via family members.

All of us will, eventually, be having conversations at some point in time about this stage of life with our parents, our spouses or our children.

The Commission’s Report came about after the long term care sector suffered many deaths at the beginning of the pandemic. As of December 31, 2020, 2,800 residents and eight staff in Ontario’s LTC (Long Term Care) homes had died as a direct result of Covid-19 and a total of 11,143 residents and 4329 staff had contracted the virus.

The Commission was of the opinion that improving the care and safety for LTC residents was a necessity not only during the time of unprecedented medical crisis, but also when the population of seniors is expected to grow and also, with residents more frail and in need of greater health care.

HILDA MacDONALD

In six months, the commission heard from more than 700 people. Their 322-page report covered the state of long term care before Covid; the deficiencies in Ontario’s pandemic preparedness and the Covid crisis in LTC and its devastating impacts.

In short, the commission found there was no up-to-date pandemic plan in 2020. The Ministry of Health did not meet its legislated obligation to plan for a pandemic and did not take steps to ready the elderly community for such an occurrence.

The lack of planning exposed a vulnerable population to a deadly threat with little to no safeguards, and when safety measures were introduced, it was already too late.

Put that together with chronic underfunding, severe staffing shortages, outdated infrastructure and poor oversight, the pandemic’s impact on long term care facilities was an accident waiting to happen.

In conclusion, the commission also made some final recommendations based on best practices in addition to interim recommendations from October and December 2020.

After reading through the report findings, the members of the SAC talked about how well our own local sector worked through the challenges of the pandemic as well as the historical issues.

Every death was a heart wrenching loss, but our numbers were kept low thanks to the swift reaction to the threats in our local LTC facilities.

The Association of Municipalities of Ontario, also known as AMO, made a list of its own recommendations to the Covid 19 Report, based on advice given by its own Health Task Force and Expert Working Group.

Those recommendations and the resulting response to the provincial government led to more discussion amongst our Seniors’ Advisory members.

Next month, we will talk about the Commission’s as well as AMO’s recommendations, and the resolution, including actions that SAC would like to bring before council for approval and subsequent endorsement by other municipalities in Ontario.