Engaging family council results in 426 campaign signatures
Friday February 29, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
Almonte Country Haven administrator Rick Gourlie credits the “dynamic” family council and staff members at the Ottawa-area long-term care home for helping get 426 postcards signed in a campaign to draw awareness to funding challenges faced within the sector.

The postcards, which are produced by the Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA), are part of an annual campaign driven by the OLTCA to prompt membership homes to collect signatures asking the province to closely examine the funding needs of long-term care homes.

The postcards feature this year’s campaign slogan — “Long-Term Care Needs More Than a Band-Aid.” Gourlie says the slogan works well in pushing the envelope for more funding to the sector.

“Having a simple message like “Long-Term Care Needs More Than a Band-Aid” is a good message to put out — people get it,” he says.

OMNI representatives delivered postcards to MPP Norm Sterling. From left: Rick Gourlie, Norm Sterling, Carolyn Della Foresta, and Kelly Desjardins.

On Feb. 27, Gourlie, along with Garden Terrace administrator Carolyn Della Foresta and Forest Hill nursing administrative services manager Kelly Desjardins, took more than 1,000 signed postcards to Carleton—Mississippi Mills MPP Norm Sterling.

The trio met with Sterling for 40 minutes to discuss the need for increased funding to the long-term care sector in this year’s provincial budget, which will be released in the spring.

The OLTCA is asking for $513 million to be allotted in the budget to meet staffing and supply demands in Ontario long-term care homes. Among other improvements, the $513 million would go towards increasing one-on-one care from an average of 2.6 hours per day to three hours per day for each resident.

Gourlie says in the week following the Feb. 12-14 OMNIway forum in Orillia, family council and staff members worked tirelessly to get as many postcards signed as they could. The 426 cards were signed and returned in only a week and a half. Had there been more time, Gourlie believes they could have doubled that number.

Nonetheless, Gourlie says he’s proud of his home’s achievement. He notes that the postcard campaign is more effective at getting signatures than petition signing. The postcards, he adds, are also a better engagement tool.

“I like a postcard campaign because it’s not about signing a piece of paper — it’s here’s all the pieces of paper, take them, get them signed and bring them in,” says Gourlie. “That allows everybody to have much more inclusion.”

And because the home has engaged families in past campaigns, Gourlie says the seven-member family council takes it upon itself to push the campaign and get the postcards signed and returned.

“They want to know when the campaign is coming out and they want to know how they can get involved,” he says, adding that he expects another 60-70 postcards to be returned. When those cards come back, Gourlie will deliver them to Sterling’s office.

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