MPP to visit Pleasant Meadow to retrieve postcards
Monday March 3, 2008 -- Deron Hamel
After two weeks of preparation, residents and staff members at Pleasant Meadow Manor are getting ready to give Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal scores of signed postcards from individuals who wish to show their support for increased funding to the province’s long-term care sector.

Leal will be visiting the Norwood long-term care home some time in March to collect the postcards and talk with residents and staff members about issues facing the long-term care sector.

The postcards — which are embossed with the slogan, “Long-Term Care Needs More Than a Band-Aid” — are part of an annual campaign initiated by the Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA) to draw attention to the challenges long-term care homes face when it comes to staffing and supply needs.

The OLTCA produces and distributes the postcards to long-term care homes throughout the province.

The campaign comes just weeks before the Ontario Liberals table the 2008 budget. The OLTCA is asking the province for a $513-million investment in this year’s budget to help increase the average hours of care residents receive from 2.6 to three per resident.

Life enrichment supervisor Jackie Arnott says the team at Pleasant Meadow galvanized a lot of support from within the home to get the postcards signed and returned.

“We’ve had participation from families, staff and residents and volunteers,” she says, adding the home has campaign posters set up in the front lobby and a display in the office, featuring cards for people to sign.

Although there’s no official count on the number of postcards signed and returned, office manager Sylvia Sanders says the campaign was successful at the home.

“Everybody has been signing one when they walk through the door,” she says. “The (staff members) also take them home to get their families to sign. The staff involvement is huge.”

According to the OLTCA, a $513-million earmark for the long-term care sector would:

• 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 weekends 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

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