Oct 01 2010
By Moira Welsh and Dale Brazao
Staff Reporters
Ontario’s Minister of Seniors was “shocked” by an undercover Toronto Star expose on retirement homes and promises to create tough rules to keep residents safe in the future.
But critics insist the province must launch a probe now into homes like In Touch Retirement Living.
A Star investigation published Friday found deplorable conditions at the 18 resident home in west end Toronto owned by Elaine Lindo.
Minister Sophia Aggelonitis said in an interview she was “saddened and disturbed” by the video and story detailing the week in late August that an undercover Star reporter lived in the home.
She vowed the Ontario Retirement Home Act — three years in the making and still not in force — will fix problems like those encountered by the Star. A not-yet-created private regulatory authority will enforce standards. No time for roll out of the plan has been given.
“They are going to license the retirement homes, they going to inspect them. They will investigate and enforce homes,” Aggelonitis said.
“I will tell you that if they have to, they will not only give financial penalties, but they will revoke licenses if necessary.”
Reaction to the Star’s expose was swift.
The Ontario progressive conservative caucus immediately sent a letter to the government Friday calling for a sweeping investigation into the living conditions of seniors in both retirement homes and nursing homes.
In the letter, Christine Elliott, deputy leader of the PC party, wrote: “It is simply unacceptable that our parents and grandparents, who did so much to build our great province, are left to live in these horrible living conditions.”
“The details that have been revealed today require urgent action,” read the letter, sent to the government’s social policy committee.
In an interview, Elliott said the living conditions were “terrible.”
“Just to think of someone who is so powerless and alone to be left in those kind of conditions, it makes you want to cry,” Elliott said.
NDP health critic France Gelinas said her party wants the Liberals to scrap the retirement home act and start over, claiming the new authority will not be able to help people like those documented in the Star’s story.
“They rushed the bill through so quickly (last spring) that they are almost negligent in their duties,” Gelinas said, arguing that the fragile people detailed in the Star’s story should not be in retirement homes.
“We are failing the most vulnerable in our community,” she said.
On Monday, both the conservatives and the NDP plan to grill the government about the protection for seniors living in the homes.
The Star found profound neglect among seniors, many of whom were left for hours in urine soaked and feces-filled diapers. There was no toilet paper, leaving many residents to wipe themselves with their hands or use a flimsy communal towel. The food was substandard, with only traces of protein.
At least half of the 18 residents at the home, at Weston Rd. and Lawrence Ave. W., suffered from dementia or needed the medical care they can only receive from a government-regulated nursing home.
Friday, Lindo gave tours of her home to the media — not the Star — and reporters said they saw a clean home and residents eating good food.
Improvements started on September 8, the day the Star told Lindo an undercover reporter had found problems in her home. Lindo added fresh linens, served better food – and put toilet paper in the bathrooms.
Lindo said the Star’s undercover reporter Dale Brazao faked the problems, spreading feces and urine throughout the home.
She also claimed the Star fabricated the photographs that showed soiled towels, broken windows and a grungy shower curtain and shower mat.
"Those pictures were not taken here," Lindo said yesterday. "Your story is not true."
Lindo refused repeated requests for an interview over the past three weeks. She also did not respond to a detailed letter with questions about the home.
SOURCE: The Star
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