OMNI representatives delivered postcards to MPP Norm Sterling. From left: Rick Gourlie, Norm Sterling, Carolyn Della Foresta, and Kelly Desjardins.
Ottawa-area homes meet with MPP to discuss budget
Thursday February 28, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
Representatives from three Ottawa-area OMNI long-term care homes rallied together Feb. 27 in an effort to help raise awareness of the need for increased long-term care funding in the upcoming provincial budget.

Managers from Garden Terrace, Forest Hill and Almonte Country Haven collected more than 1,000 signed postcards urging the province to earmark the $513 million required in the 2008 budget to meet the staffing and supply needs of Ontario long-term care homes.

Other homes in the OMNI family will be following suit and meeting with their local MPPs during the next week.

The postcards — produced by the Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA) for membership homes — were delivered to the office of Carleton—Mississippi Mills MPP Norm Sterling, who met with the managers for 40 minutes to hear their concerns.

Carolyn Della Foresta, administrator at Garden Terrace; Rick Gourlie, administrator at Almonte Country Haven; and Kelly Desjardins, nursing administrative services manager at Forest Hill, met with Sterling and his top aide.

Della Foresta says the meeting went well, adding that Sterling sits on a committee examining the number of beds in hospitals that are being taken up by individuals who need long-term care.

“He had excellent questions,” says Della Foresta of Sterling. “This is a man who is aware of the concerns in long-term care.”

The trio explained to Sterling that $513 million would increase the care each resident in long-term care receives from an average of 2.6 hours per day to three hours.

According to the OLTCA, a $513-million injection would also:

• Provide an additional 24 minutes of daily care to help residents get to meals, go to the bathroom, etc., by adding more personal support workers
• Increase the average number of daily incontinence changes from 3 1/2 to approximately five for those who need it
• Increase programs and activities during the evening and on weekend by adding an activity aide per home seven days a week
• Improve dietary assessments by increasing the time for consultation with clinical dieticians
• Improve meal services by adding food service workers
• Improve clinical assessments be adding more registered nursing staff
• Stop the four year erosion in housekeeping, laundry, maintenance and other services

To help get signatures on postcards at Garden Terrace, staff members at the Kanata long-term home placed a poster near the front entrance with the slogan for this year’s advocacy campaign — “Long-Term Care Needs More Than a Band-Aid” — in large letters. Below the poster were the postcards from this year’s campaign for visitors to sign.

Della Foresta notes there will be one thing she plans to do differently for the 2009 campaign.

“Now that I know that we actually get to sit down with (Sterling) and speak with him, next year I’ll be taking a resident with me.”

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