NORTH PERTH – Concerns regarding the long-term care (LTC) situation in North Perth have been hot button topics for local stakeholders and influencers in recent discussions.
The province has committed to creating 30,000 new LTC beds in Ontario by 2028. The sector is highly regulated and the province requires applicants to be an existing LTC operator or have a partnership arrangement with an established operator.
The current provincial financial model for LTC homes results in 96 beds being the minimum number at which a facility is financially viable. The Caressant Care home in Listowel is currently approved for 52 beds, although it will be operating at lower capacity due to limitations on the number of patients allowed per room.
“I don’t want to get too political other than health care is a system and it takes all parts of the system to be functioning,” said Listowel Wingham Hospital Alliance CEO Karl Ellis. “As the community grows we want to make sure that Listowel has a modern and appropriately-sized LTC facility available and right now there are lots of provincial announcements about additional LTC beds in the province and we want to make sure that North Perth is on the list of communities that are being considered for new LTC development… There is municipal interest. There is health care sector interest. So there are lots of conversations happening.”
Mayor Todd Kasenberg noted that there is another deadline related to the LTC situation in North Perth.
“That looming deadline is in 2025,” he said. “The province has indicated that by that point all nursing homes, which are graded on a letter-based scale… must be upgraded to a level A nursing home… In Listowel, the looming challenge to the community is that the current nursing home environment is a level C home.”
The municipality has a block of land, about six acres north of Riverview Park Residence, which has been earmarked for a seniors’ campus.
“My predecessor began work because of course the land was available and now work has continued under my watch as mayor as well,” said Kasenberg. “We have been consulting the health care community. We have been consulting some prominent local citizens. We had a discussion group recently to talk about the next steps in the LTC target and we’ve continued to hold and commit to making the land available that we have. We are currently pondering how we ensure that change happens by 2025. The clock is now ticking quite anxiously in the background.”
He acknowledged that three years is a small window of time, whether it’s for a renovation to current facilities or a new build.
“We’re aware that the province is providing various pots of money to make things happen on the LTC home front,” said Kasenberg. “Of course, we are very aware the province is also making a fair amount of money available for increased staffing in the LTC environment. All those factors converge to create a need in Listowel that gets more significant with each passing week.”
He said a recent conversation with the operator of Caressant Care “was encouraging.”
“That doesn’t change our sense that we need secure the future of LTC in Listowel and North Perth,” said Kasenberg. “All options are still available but I was certainly encouraged by the conversation that I had with the owner of Caressant Care this week.”
He reiterated that there is a great amount of concern for the future of the rapidly growing community of North Perth.
“The notion that our beloved elderly who were born here, raised here, lived their lives here, made contributions to the local economy here, built a community here – then have to go live in Milverton, in Brussels, in Tavistock, in Mitchell – it doesn’t sit well with me or many others in our community,” said Kasenberg.
Whatever the solution is for the LTC situation is, he said it has to be pitched to the province and then he mentioned a further issue of the problems finding staff to work in the LTC sector.
“The province has to come in,” said Kasenberg. “We have a lot of people who are retiring, we have a lot of people who are burned out and leaving the profession and this is a COVID thing. But there is a longer than COVID history of Personal Support Workers (PSW) exiting their profession… Here we are in this climate with the government appealing to people to take the PSW course and the government paying the full ride of tuition for the PSW course and these people putting in anywhere from nine months to two years in some cases… and then a whole bunch of them are out again and that is just like wasted spend in society right. If they are leaving the profession they are not helping the problem and that’s concerning. We need to figure out how to make it possible, positive for those who are interested in providing senior care to find joy and success in that and to remain committed to it… It’s a fascinating problem and the province needs to – it’s going to take more than just throwing millions and millions of dollars at.”
He conceded he believes Ontarians are “in for a number of difficult years in the health care system.”
“The withdrawal from the health care system of so many highly- qualified, highly-experienced, highly-caring people is just an ongoing, everyday worry for me and not because I am mayor but just because I’m a citizen who occasionally needs healthcare and I’m concerned about its future,” said Kasenberg.
As far as solving the LTC dilemma in North Perth he said the right people are at the table and they are trying to find the best solution for the community.
“There is some action here and I think there’s a lot of goodwill at this point,” said Kasenberg. “It is unquestionable from our community consultations that most people would prefer an aging with grace in their home solution. It just makes sense right. We want to age well and we want to be at home. Unfortunately at this point according to all the models that’s the most expensive possible solution.”
This news is republished from another source. You can check the original article here
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