Neglect of Aged an 'Outrage'
By Thomas Walkom, The Star.com Canada October 4, 2007
The Ontario government is helping to break its own laws when it lets nursing homes leave elderly residents lying for hours in urine-soaked diapers, according to a legal opinion prepared for the Ontario Federation of Labour.
Federation president Wayne Samuelson says he has sent letters to all major party leaders warning that unless whoever wins next week's election moves quickly to clean up the problem, the OFL will "pursue any and all legal recourse."
"It's absolutely outrageous," he said in an interview.
"People shouldn't have to end up in these situations. If these were kids in a child-care centre, there would be outrage."
Written by Toronto lawyers Mary Cornish and Jo-Anne Pickel, the 29-page brief concludes that most nursing homes in the province violate laws, regulations and binding contractual obligations that require long-term care institutions to keep patients "clean and dry" and "promote their dignity and independence."
They say the so-called 75 per cent rule, whereby a diaper is changed only after it is three-quarters full of urine, contravenes the province's human rights code against discrimination on the basis of age, disability and sex (elderly women suffer from incontinence more than men). And, they say, it may also violate the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Nursing home administrators who insist that staff leave immobile residents festering in their own urine could also be charged with professional misconduct, they say.
Full-text: Global Action on Aging
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As kids, we were often told to learn from our own mistakes or that of others.
Why, then, do governments around the world not learn from others? I believe the above report may be mirrored in many other countries. Politicians, community groups and other groups - let us be united in the fight for Ageing with Dignity - NOW. Do not wait till you are helpless!
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