Seniors Advisory Committee report

Editor’s Note: This column is part of a monthly report being submitted by members of the Leamington Seniors Advisory Committee. This month’s article has been submitted by Mayor Hilda MacDonald.

September 2020

This past month, the Seniors Advisory committee finished up with putting final touches on the resolution going before council in support of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and their recommendations regarding improving the Long Term Care Outbreak response in Ontario.

The recommendation is “that Leamington Municipal Council support the exploration of implementing continuum person centered care across various care models, including alternative level of care and long term care”.

The committee discussed at length the forty-nine recommendations made by AMO to the Long Term Care COVID-19 commission.

These recommendations were broken into topics that were further detailed into finer points.

The Vision topic discussed such points as developing a Centre of Excellence; homes should not be treated or operationalized as health care institutions; post-secondary training curriculums should include infection control measures and long term care culture.

On the Public Health and Safety side, the report stressed prioritizing vaccinations for LTC residents, staff and essential caregivers, as rapidly as possible, and where feasible, facilitate vaccinations on site as well as increasing funding and resources for Personal Protective equipment for staff to assist homes in event of an outbreak.

The rest of the document deals with overall funding, staffing measures, care for residents and inspections, enforcement and compliance.

These recommendations were made by AMO’s own Health Task Force and Expert Working Group.

The intent was to focus on what was needed for municipal homes to provide safe and high quality services in a home setting in a sustainable manner. The intent was not to comment on the system as a whole, but as to what municipalities are responsible for.

After several meetings and lots of discussion, including emails to AMO for clarification, The Seniors Advisory Committee agreed that the recommendations on improving long term care were adequately covered.

It is expected that council will discuss the resolution and hopefully forward on their support to the provincial government.

Next month we are on to other interesting topics of discussion that involve seniors living in our community.