Senior citizens across York Region express grave concerns about changes to services

Yorkregion.com
Feb. 21, 2014
By Sean Pearce

Two weeks after senior citizens at the Keswick Gardens seniors apartment complex in Georgina spoke out about their concerns with the looming transition from on-side service with York Region’s Alternative Community Living program to a network model through CHATS and CareFirst, other clients poised to be impacted have raised their own red flags.

Currently, clients at Keswick Gardens and six other residences around the region, those being Hadley Grange in Aurora, Cedar Crest Manor in Markham, Heritage East in Newmarket, Armitage Gardens in Newmarket, Genesis Place in Richmond Hill and Kitchen-Breedon Manor in Schomberg, enjoy ACL offices on-site with personal support workers present 24/7 who assist with light housekeeping, meal preparation, toileting and a variety of other tasks, including immediate responses to slips and falls.

As of April 1, service will be provided via a hub-and-spoke system and a mixture of scheduled and unscheduled visits where care could be up to 15 minutes away.

Heritage East resident Helen Quesnelle is among those concerned by what the transition from the region’s program over to CHATS will mean.

The 77-year-old has called the building home for a 18 months, lives with mobility challenges and requires help using the washroom. With ACL, it’s comforting to know someone is always close by in case she needs to use the toilet at night, she said, adding the program also puts her sons’ minds at ease.

Mrs. Quesnelle worries that she’ll be waiting longer than promised if she needs assistance during the overnight periods.

“I just don’t think they’ll make it here in 15 minutes,” she added.

Compounding her fears is the fact that the building possesses only a single walk-in shower and it’s the only one she can use with her health issues. It’s located in the ACL office which is scheduled to close and be converted into just another unit.

“What are they going to do?” asks Heritage East resident Rena Ilott. “Make it so Helen can never take a shower or bath again?”

Mrs. Ilott, also 77, has called Heritage East home for about four years. She lives with inclusion-body myositis, a rare degenerative disease that leads to weakness and wasting in the muscles, and is deeply concerned about what the upcoming change will mean for her and her neighbours.

The current group of PSWs are like family, Mrs. Ilott said, and always just a button-press away with her lifeline. She pointed to a recent situation where she fell in the shower and landed half-in and half-out of the tub and described how the on-site PSWs got there right away and prevented her from going into shock until help arrived.

“Am I going to have to lay there for 15 minutes?” she said. “That could be the difference between life and death for me.”

Many clients are scared and feel like their security is being taken away, Mrs. Ilott said.

“I’m frightened for me, I’m frightened for Helen and I’m frightened what will happen when no one is here,” she added.

Residents Jean Coates and Fran Davis expressed concerns about the loss of an on-site PSW overnight, while Kathleen Baglieri said she’s afraid about what the future holds.

Mrs. Baglieri has dystonia, an incurable neurological movement disorder, and has fallen multiple times.

“We need these girls,” she said. “They are our lifeline.”

As far as 97-year-old resident George Saunders is concerned, the service replacing ACL cannot be called anything other than a “downgrade”.

The bottom line, Mrs. Ilott said, is that ACL’s clients simply don’t need the stress and aggravation they’re being made to endure.

“They’ve put a terrible strain on us that we don’t need,” she said. “We simply want to be safe and comfortable for the years that are left.”

The seniors estimate the cost of getting a similar service through a private provider would cost up to $5,000 per month.

The change is coming about because the province introduced a new policy in 2011 that resulted in the Central Local Health Integration Network re-examining how the needs of high-risk seniors living at home are served, York’s general manager of housing and long-term care Sylvia Patterson recently told the York Region Media Group.

The Assisted Living for High Risk Seniors Policy also caused the LHIN to re-examine its criteria for funding to deliver the service resulting in York, Toronto and other organizations becoming ineligible to do so, she explained.

By moving from an on-site office to a hub-and-spoke or network model, the two agencies taking over from the ACL program April 1 will be able to serve more clients and provide care to them no matter where they live, Ms Patterson said.

The region is proud of the service it provided for 20 years, she said, adding the focus now is to support both the clients and staff through the change.

In response to queries from the York Region Media Group, the Central LHIN forwarded a communication explaining that the new policy is intended to improve assisted living services to seniors who need service most and to build capacity in the system through a $5-million investment. What that means, according to the LHIN, is that 625 more assisted living spaces will be created and that more seniors will receive the care they require on a 24/7 basis to continue living independently at home.

The communication goes on to say that clients can expect to receive 24/7 scheduled visits, unscheduled visits within 15 minutes, security checks and increased access as care will no longer be linked to supportive housing.

The changes are “responsive to residents’ preferences, needs and values and promote maximum dignity, independence and individuality”, the LHIN said.

Those at Heritage East with concerns had hoped to get more answers at a meeting scheduled for today (Feb. 20). Similar sessions were also scheduled at the other residences around the region that will be affected by the April 1 transition.

However, residents learned these gatherings were cancelled this week and will instead be replaced by one-on-one meetings.

York Region spokesperson Kimberley Henderson explained the group sessions were cancelled as it became evident that many clients would want to discuss their circumstances and, by extension, would be disclosing personal health information. A shift to individual sessions with the client, York staff and CHATS will allow everyone to deal with specifics privately and more quickly.

CHATS CEO Christina Bisanz reiterated that serving seniors and helping them live in their own homes longer is what CHATS has been in the business of for more than 30 years.

CHATS offers a basket of different services and tailors its approach based on needs of each individual, she said.

And while it’s true CHATS won’t operate an office on site at any of the residences now served by ACL, PSWs will continue to be in the buildings for scheduled visits and unscheduled help will be just 15 minutes away 24/7 out of offices it will operate in Newmarket, Keswick, Richmond Hill and, most likely, Schomberg, Ms Bisanz said.

As to the meetings, Ms Bisanz said the individual sessions were always part of the plan so the client, his or her family, regional staff and CHATS could work out a care plan. The group meetings were meant to be a precursor to the one-on-one sessions, she said, but it was realized that larger gatherings might result in clients divulging personal details and/or being too hesitant to ask questions.

Progressive Conservative Newmarket-Aurora MPP Frank Klees said he had been contacted by a number of ACL clients in his riding and asked to attend the group meetings.

He had planned to do so, but, with their cancellation, he indicated he will now allow the one-on-one sessions to take place, but will be monitoring the situation closely to ensure an adequate resolution.

“I hear from residents there will be a significant change in the level of service,” he said. “However, I’m not going to pre-judge these meetings, I’ll let them occur, then I can assess the resolution and I will take this up on their behalf if need be.”

He went on state his hope the change isn’t an attempt on the part of the Liberal provincial government to save money by cutting services to seniors and other vulnerable individual, adding his efforts to get answers from Health Minister Deb Matthews in the legislature have, thus far, proven unsuccessful.

Liberal Oak Ridges-Markham MPP Dr. Helena Jaczek, a parliamentary assistant to the Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, was unavailable for comment by deadline.