Yes, that is the actual figure. 79 PERCENT OF COVID DEATHS ARE CONNECTED TO LONG TERM CARE HOMES. Which should make it very clear the PRIMARY PROBLEM is with/within the FACILITIES. Or the casualty count would be vastly higher in the general population. It isn't!Globe and Mail
" 79 per cent of all deaths in the country now connected to long-term care and seniors’ homes. Numbers released on Tuesday show a steep jump from two weeks ago, when almost half of all coronavirus deaths were linked to the homes.
The updated models confirm the well-documented problems in seniors homes and raise more questions about the lack of transparency around the federal models and their underlying assumptions"
There is much in the above article regarding the myriad of issues with "modelling".That topic has been covered previously and will be featured yet again in an upcoming reportFor now we're focusing on the FACT that long term care homes left seniors as "sitting ducks" for infection. Any infection! Another article from the Globe and Mail
The pandemic ravaging Canada’s long-term care facilities is exposing how elderly residents are “sitting ducks” for catching deadly infections, even in the best of times, according to people who work in the sector, partly because of systemic deficiencies that have festered for years.
The systemic long term widely known deficiencies were reported on in yesterday's post;
Because care homes have been hit so hard by the virus, there are pressing concerns about how and why their infection-control practices were sorely lacking.
The Globe and Mail put those questions to numerous caregivers and their representatives, as well as seniors’ advocates, infectious-disease specialists, representatives for the facilities and their staffing agencies.
Most pointed to serious, chronic shortcomings – causing perpetual disease and death among frail residents – largely ignored by governments, until now.
Still ignored. No one is acknowledging that it's been the wide spread, well known, systemic deficiencies that left the seniors unprotected. Unshielded. Doug Ford's iron ring fail.
“I hate to say it, but this happens all the time in long-term care. It is constant. Every year, we have [flu] outbreaks.”
“There is always a problem, when there is an illness in the homes,” said Jane Meadus, staff lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly in Toronto, who pointed out that seniors in care facilities are older, and more vulnerable, than ever.
“But, they are certainly not keeping up with the staffing,” she said. “There doesn’t seem to be the ability to protect people who are living there. They are sitting ducks.”
You tell me why Doug Ford is being lauded? He failed to protect the elderly and the vulnerable and he destroyed most of the rest of this province. Putting many of us out of work. As we watch local business, mom and pop places, be destroyed. As we pinch pennies. And wait for call backs. Locked down. Some here receiving hefty fines for lingering too long in a park. Just one example of power gone to the heads of "by law" officers
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Mom Says She Was Fined $880 For 'Standing Too Long' in a Park With Baby
Roxana said Aurora bylaw officer Mario Munguia got out of the vehicle and told her, “you were standing around too long.” According to Roxana, he said he’d been watching her from afar and that she’d been “standing for over two minutes.” She said he told her there was a zero-tolerance policy and that he was going to issue her a fine. Roxana said she was shocked; she’d expected him to make some kind of argument over the use of amenities (she said she didn't use any). “I didn’t know standing in a park was a crime,” she said.
The fine speaks to a larger problem about heavy-handed enforcement of COVID-19-related measures in parks, where people are being fined and hassled for sitting on benches, walking their dogs too slowly, or making genuine mistakes.
Systemic deficiencies resulting in deaths-
Those illnesses are regularly brought into facilities by part-time or casual caregivers, who are coming and going all the time to make up for the dearth of regular staff.
Some said casual caregivers go into work even when they feel ill, because they don’t have paid sick leave and need the money. They typically work in more than one facility and travel back and forth on public transit, which makes them vulnerable to picking up and spreading illness.
“It’s really unfair to the elderly,” she said. “When there is flu outbreak, they just shut down the floor … but the staff are still working on that floor in the nursing home, then going to another one, for another shift. It happened many times like that before.”
In FACT, Just FACTS
The most recent data from Statistics Canada show more than 1,545 residents died in long-term care homes in 2018 from communicable diseases, including the flu, which amounts to almost five deaths a day. (Data exclude Quebec, as comparable statistics from that province were not available). More than half of those deaths were in Ontario, a 30-per-cent increase from 10 years ago.
- 1545 residents die every year in long term care homes, EXCLUDING, Quebec. - More then half of the 1545 that died of communicable diseases including flu died in Ontario. - It's reasonable to suggest that minimally 775 of those that died were in Ontario. We should expect a higher number from Quebec. (But will err on the side of caution) It seems likely the number out of Quebec 2018 was 900 to 1000, ball park figures, likely low. This demonstrates that likely more then 2445 long term care residents died in elder care homes.(2018) As of today Canada's total death rate from Covi19 stands at 2904. (Last Data Update 2020-04-29 11:01 EDT.) 80 percent of the death rate as of April 29/ 20 results in 2323 deaths. Which is slightly below the same number of fatalities, from communicable diseases, in 2018. Making the problem in seniors homes the same problem it's been for some time.Systemic and deplorable elder care. No matter the communicable disease.One conclusion that can be drawn from all this information is that the Ford and Trudeau governments are using Covid to deflect from the pathetic conditions in these homes! Conditions both levels of government were aware existed and worse had a hand in creating these conditions!
/https://www.thespec.com/content/dam/thespec/opinion/contributors/2019/09/05/premier-doug-ford-s-long-term-care-cuts-are-harming-ontario-seniors/B88854205Z.1_20190905142006_000_G48NA32Q.3-0_Gallery.jpg){kind=link}
One shower a week!
"That's what the latest round of budget cuts has meant to vulnerable residents of long-term care homes in Ontario. One shower a week; when summer temperatures all week have been in the thirties. One shower, out of the regular, government-mandated two."Respect the vulnerable ." These words were buried in Doug Ford's campaign "Plan for Ontario," along with a promise to, "Commit resources to combat elder abuse."Really? As shown by the initial results of the latest cuts to long-term care, it seems the Ford government is more focused on committing elder abuse than combating it:
How is cutting the weekly hours of personal support workers in Ontario LTC homes combating elder abuse?
How does sowing anxiety and fear about their own job security among the uncut personal support workers (PSW), that results in increased sick days and heavier workloads for those who do come to work, combat elder abuse?
How does denying residents, some of whom require two people at a time to help them, the second of only two government-mandated weekly showers, in a heat wave, due to a government-mandated skeleton staff, combat elder abuse?
How does breaking up teams of PSWs, that have worked successfully to care for and comfort the same vulnerable residents for 10 years and more, to enable "bumping" by outsiders with more seniority, combat elder abuse.
How does cutting the hours of activation therapists, who work to engage isolated residents and reduce their loneliness and boredom, combat elder abuse?
How does no longer funding individual-specific physiotherapy, but basing funding on number of beds per home, combat elder abuse?
How does reducing the number of weekly hours a dietitian can devote to any Ontario LTC home, along with maintaining current funding for food at last year's level, in spite of well documented, constantly increasing pricing, combat elder abuse?
Deplorable, systemic negligence killed these individuals. Doug Ford and his government need to be taken to task. Trudeau's Liberals as well. It's shocking to me. Simply shocking and disgusting that Canadians are too frightened by the perception managing media to really question the systemic negligence built into our elder care systems. Don't blame Covid. It takes the blame off the real problem and those actually responsible for it! Don't deflect.Wake up people! Wake up!