Feature
OMNI homes get behind awareness campaign
Tuesday March 11, 2008
OMNI’s 17 long-term care homes were busy in February as residents, families and staff members all chipped in to help drive an annual Ontario Long-Term Care Association (OLTCA) campaign aimed at raising public awareness of challenges faced in the long-term care sector.

Every year at this time the OLTCA embarks on a campaign to draw attention to the sector ahead of the provincial budget. This year’s budget will be tabled March 25.

This year’s campaign, entitled “Long-Term Care Needs More Than a Band-Aid,” is aiming for a $513-million earmark in the budget to help ease staffing concerns and supply needs in the more than 400 OLTCA membership homes.

The OLTCA says a $513-million injection into the long-term care sector would allow homes to increase the average hours of one-to-one care from 2.6 per resident per day to three.

The sector is expecting to see a surge in the senior population in coming years. This will inevitably result in a growing population in long-term care homes. As the resident population expands, so will the need for more capacity to help provide residents with the best possible quality of care.

As part of the campaign, postcards produced by the OLTCA were sent to membership homes where they were displayed in accessible areas for everyone to see. Management and staff members did an excellent job of engaging all stakeholders in the process of getting postcards signed in support of increasing funding to the sector.

Once returned, representatives from each home were tasked with bringing the signed cards to their local MPP and, if possible, meet with their representative to discuss the importance of increased funding.

While every OMNI home did a fantastic job during the campaign there were some champions of note.

Ottawa-area homes Almonte Country Haven, Forest Hill and Garden Terrace brought more than 1,000 signed postcards to Carleton—Mississippi Mills MPP Norm Sterling.

Almonte Country Haven brought in 426 postcards. Rick Gourlie, the home’s administrator, credits the family council at the home for putting a push on getting the postcards signed.

Gourlie, along with Garden Terrace administrator Carolyn Della Foresta and Forest Hill’s nursing administrative services manager and Kelly Desjardins were granted a 40-minute meeting with Sterling, who sits on a committee examining the number of beds in hospitals that are being taken up by individuals who need long-term care.

Rosebridge Manor focused on engaging residents to help drive the campaign. Martin Stubbs, a resident at the Jasper long-term care home, didn’t need much encouragement. To him, helping with the campaign was a way of giving back to the home.

“Rosebridge has been very, very good to me and if it wasn’t for them I would not be walking today,” he says.

Although every OMNI home used different engagement techniques to make the campaign a success, they all had the same goal in mind: to help bring hope, purpose and belonging to the more than 1,300 residents in the OMNI family.