Resident collects signatures
for OLTCA campaign
Friday, November 17, 2006
-- Natalie Miller
A Woodland Villa resident has thrown his support
behind a long-term care advocacy campaign in hopes
of securing a good quality of life for future
residents of the Long Sault nursing home.
Leland Coughler figures he has collected between
175 and 200 signatures by soliciting family members
and visitors for support as they enter Woodland
Villa. Leland says when administrator Michael
Rasenberg told him about the Ontario Long Term
Care Association’s (OLTCA) campaign that
raises issues about the provincial government’s
proposed Long Term Care Homes Act, he decided
to get involved.
“We collected some signatures,” says
Leland.
“It will affect the future residents. I
thought it was a good thing (to support the petition).”
The OLTCA is asking operators, residents and
families to solicit their local MPPs for support
in helping secure the future of their long term
care home and the care they need.
Under the Act’s proposed limited licensing
component, older nursing homes, which account
for about half of those in the province, will
be given an operating licence that expires in
10 years with no plan for what happens before
or after, says the OLTCA. After seven years, government
can decide to do anything it wants for whatever
reason, including close the home and move the
beds to another community.
The OLTCA is asking the Province to fix the limited
licensing component in this Act and provide funding
so older homes can upgrade to provide the comforts,
like private and semi-private rooms, available
in new and recently rebuilt homes.
Leland says Woodland Villa has residents living
in three- and four-bed ward rooms. “The
new buildings have one- or two-bed rooms,”
he says.
Leland moved into Woodland Villa in October,
joining his wife who has resided there since January
2005.
“He took it on like gangbusters,”
says Debbie Kitchen, director of care, about the
resident's involvement in the campaign.
“He caught everybody coming in through
the door.”
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