Recently, I had to place my 82 year old mother, living with mixed dementia, into a Long Term Care (LTC) facility in London, Ontario. This was the most difficult and distressing decisions I have ever made.

Once the decision in imminent, the arduous task of finding a suitable Facility began.  My main research tool was the publicly reported inspections of our local LTC homes. These reports can be found at this website. It was during this investigation that I was outraged at the amount of violations found during inspections and follow-up inspections. Equally disturbing is the extremely high volume of Complaints and Critical Incidents that were reported and investigated.  It was nearly impossible to find three acceptable facilities, with reasonable waiting lists in my community. I encourage you to browse through reports in your area in order to fully comprehend the magnitude of this situation. 

The Ontario Liberal’s are “pulling the plug on yearly inspections at more than 500 homes” according to an article in the London Free Press on June 28, 2016. The follow-up article on July 2, 2016 states that “Ontario Liberals said nothing of plans to scale back inspections…”

Without vigilant yearly inspections, especially of those homes with a history of high complaints and critical incident reports, our most vulnerable citizens become targets of abuse and neglect.  Without the data gained by these inspections, positive changes simply will not be forth-coming. As the Baby Boomers age, the system that is already highly inadequate, will be at disastrous levels.  Are you willing to take this chance for the future of your loved one?

Have your voice heard! Sign this petition so that the Health Minister and Premier of Ontario will ensure that our Long Term Care Homes are kept under very close scrutiny so that our elderly are treated with the care and respect they so richly deserve.