BradfordToday received the following letter about the need for senior care in the province to change.
I went for a walk yesterday. Get some fresh air and clear my mind was the thought. I walked by a senior living home and then an emergency seniors' centre. These days ambulances have been coming and going at a high frequency back and forth from our local hospitals.
I stood before the emergency centre and prayed for the many residents who have gone there, and the many people who are caring for them. Prayers for our precious seniors. Our mothers, sisters, aunts, neighbours and friends. I thought about the number of elderly who have passed since this pandemic started over a year ago. I cannot count them on my fingers anymore. Too many have gone.
Parents of my friends, a neighbour who we have known for over 30 years, someone I worked with.
I think about a great deal as I walk. Strangely I was not comforted, nor did I calm down during my walk.
I have an 80-year-old mom and a 93-year-old mother-in-law. Both are dealing with various illnesses but living at home, not in a seniors facility. My mom lives alone, while 'Poh Poh' lives with her daughter.
I think about how lucky they and we are that they do not live in a seniors home. I can go see them, wave to them, talk to them on the phone. They are among those who love them.
Our seniors living in these privately run homes have become prisoners, unable to be with their loved ones, often ignored by over worked staff. Senior living before the pandemic was difficult enough. Being charged extremely high monthly charges for the bare minimum. Now they are being charged the same amount of money and they have been put into a perilous environment where they are threatened by COVID-19, lack of staff, lack of protective tools. The bare minimum again but with added fear and danger.
Our Provincial Government said so very long ago that they would protect our seniors. Have they?
The attention given to senior living has been a lowly portfolio since The Liberal Government previous to our present day administration. I have been to many homes in Canada and the USA, and believe me when I say privately run senior homes can be horrific places, where abuse, intolerance, ignorance and confinement reign supreme. Look how unprepared many administrations of these homes were. Lacking in all necessary protective tools, with staff being forced to work many jobs since the pay or hours were not there to make a good living. Two to four seniors living in a single room. The Government has allowed these businesses to put as many residents into limited spaces . Our Provincial Government says they have control over the situation. Their regulators visit these places, do they not, inspect each home for assurity, safety and livability? So they say eh? If the Provincial Government has been doing its job the horrible mess in our seniors homes would not be right? Our Government had to bring the military in to save some of these homes from a medical and social genocide.
That is what it appears to be. A genocide, a war of ignorance upon our elderly. These bureaucrats in Queen's Park and Ottawa have ignored our seniors. They have manipulated them, politically used them and financially called upon them but when the chips were down, way before the pandemic, these political /financial bureaucrats have ignored them.
Imagine what the death toll will be in Ontario and Canada once this pandemic is over. Imagine the medical and health effects that will linger among our seniors far into the future. Side effects and prolonged medical illnesses we are only learning about now. Will the Provincial Government be there for the seniors when these effects occur? They will promise just as they promised our seniors that a healthy and safe retirement was possible. Promises that need to be seen for what they are. Concern shown, but certainly little invested in senior living. After all, private senior living is based upon profit not for the resident by some numbered corporation.
My two mothers weep for the friends that have passed. They weep for strangers who have lost their loved ones. Who do our politicians and bureaucrats weep for? Many weep for lost careers, dismal futures and loss of political power. Harsh words? Watch as our politicians perform their dance and listen to their proclamations. All weak and ill timed. Buck passing bureaucrats who know what to do but will allow political and financial concerns to influence their decisions.
Ontario's health and senior living portfolios need to belong to the masses, the young and the seniors who shaped this land. Presently most seniors live in places owned and shaped by a few businesses.
That must change. Our political system must change. Concern for all our lives must be accepted as a goal of every Government, whether it be in a crisis or a normal situation.
Those who did not act, and those who have acted foolishly will have to answer for their failures. Those who shaped and made Ontario demand it.
Steven Kaszab, Bradford
