Jake Romphf
A new report detailing the first-hand stories of Sarnia seniors and their caregivers is evidence local housing and health-care services are inadequate, officials say.
The report, “Where Will We Live? Who Will Look After Us?” was compiled following a meeting last September attended by more than 100 people who shared their personal stories about the system.
It was released last week by Navigating Seniors Care Lambton and Community Legal Assistance Sarnia.
“The report highlights real life issues people have experienced in navigating and trying to get help for their families,” said CLAS executive director Andrew Bolter.
Those issues include inadequate care time for patients, inappropriate discharges from the hospital, insufficient staff, food allowances of $8.33 per day for individuals in long-term care facilities, and public facilities granting exclusive prescription rights to pharmaceutical companies.
Bolter said the city’s poverty law clinic had no choice but to get involved.
“It was coming to our door. They had nowhere else to go,” he said.
Where supports for seniors do exist they are often hard to access, and patients are being discharged from the hospital without knowing their rights or where to turn, Bolter said.
Even basic information about health care and housing can be hard to access, he added.
The report provides information for seniors and caregivers on their rights, ways to address complaints, and how to navigate the system.
“We want to see standards in place, and we want to have that conversation in our community so we can speak with knowledge to the decision makers,” Bolter said.
Roger Gallaway, of Navigating Seniors Care Lambton, said the report is Sarnia-centric. The next step is to expand it into Lambton County to see if seniors and care facilities there have similar problems.
Toward that end, the group announced a $10,000 grant from the Ministry of Senior Affairs to expand its work to the county.
“These are matters that we’ve identified. Let’s see how they can be addressed and dealt with for the benefit of everyone,” Gallaway said.
Bolter added local demographic trends lend urgency to the report.
“There’s a tsunami coming,” he said. “That tsunami is Sarnia’s aging baby boomers.”