Editorials
Editorial
FUNDING A FAILING SERVICE SYSTEM INSTEAD OF THE PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP
October 23, 2024
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Post pandemic, most will now agree that long-term care institutions are a failing “service” system. Some have turned into battlegrounds between staff and management, and residents have to live in these conditions.
If staff consider them to be toxic environments but can at least go home at night, imagine what residents are living through 24/7 with angry staff caring for them, and angry managers battling it out with staff?
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Editorial
CRUSHING THE PEOPLE WHO CARE
October 15, 2024
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As the Ontario Government continues to hand out lucrative Home Care contracts to friends and supporters, Ontario still has no Paid Family Caregiver option under Home Care that would support the people who care and give the most.
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Family and friend caregivers are the bedrock of Ontario’s caring system. They are also the least valued by the Ontario government.
For almost five years now, Seniors for Social Action Ontario has urged this government to follow the lead of Newfoundland and Labrador and the government of the Northwest Territories and introduce a Paid Family Caregiver Program. Doing so would help to ease the significant financial burden that caregivers face.
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Editorial
WHO IS REALLY RUNNING THE
GOVERNMENT OF ONTARIO?
October 3, 2024
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There is currently a question in the minds of Seniors for Social Action (Ontario) policy analysts - who is actually running the Ontario government?
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There are striking similarities between the actions taken by the Mike Harris government (1995-2002) and the Ford government (2018 – Present) in directing public funding towards the mass institutionalization of older adults with disabilities to the benefit of the long-term care industry.
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Editorial
FOLLOW THE MONEY
September 30, 2024
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For years elders in Ontario have said that they want to spend their last years living in their own homes and communities. That does not seem an unreasonable request after a lifetime of paying taxes, raising families, and contributing to society.
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But the current Ontario Government is continuing to spend billions on building institutions refurbishing them, and giving bed expansions to some of the worst long-term care corporations in this province.
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Guest Editorial
A ROADMAP OF NONINSTITUTIONAL LIVING OPTIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DEMENTIA:
“DON’T FENCE ME IN.”
September 18, 2024
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For four years Seniors for Social Action Ontario has advocated for residential alternatives to institutions because we believe that needing residential care does not have to mean an institution.
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In this excellent guest editorial Dr. Maude Lévesque from the Université du Québec à Montréal and Dr. Margaret Oldfield, Independent Social Scientist & Disability Scholar, make the case for why there need to be alternatives to institutions for people with dementia and older adults who need extra services and what some of those alternatives are.
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Like Drs. Lévesque and Oldfield, SSAO recommends small, non-profit community residences as options as outlined by the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) here: https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/basics/info-2020/group-homes.html
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