Family tragedy provokes Thornhill woman's guide for seniors homes
Tour retirement or nursing homes in person, she advises

YorkRegion.com
July 15, 2014
By Simone Joseph

Thornhill’s Esther Goldstein has a vivid memory of the day in the late ’80s when she visited her grandmother’s nursing home and found her standing in front of a fan.

She had dementia, was blind and at this point, was almost catatonic because she was so hot.

Goldstein was alarmed to learn that there was no air conditioning at the home.

“Nobody knew how to advocate for themselves,” Goldstein said.

Looking back, Goldstein was dissatisfied with the process that brought her grandmother to that home.

Her grandmother was in hospital when a social worker acted on the elderly woman’s behalf and got her into a Toronto nursing home.

Home applications were signed when her grandmother’s family members were not present. No one from her family had a chance to visit the potential homes by the time the forms were signed.

“They were at the mercy of the social worker in the hospital,” Goldstein said.

One day, her family got a call informing them that her grandmother had been moved from a hospital to a nursing home.

“The home was horrible. It was ridiculous,” Goldstein said.

After her grandmother died, Goldstein knew she didn’t want another family to go through the same ordeal.

“I walked away thinking if I’m to do right, I will make sure no other family experienced what I did or felt that way about social workers...I became consumed with making sure people have information,” she said.

Goldstein is now president of Senioropolis Inc., which publishes an annual Comprehensive Guide to Retirement Living & Long-Term Care, which includes information on more than 250 retirement residences and long-term care homes in Ontario.

“My goal was to give people tools they could use to make decisions,” said the Thornhill resident, who won’t reveal her age, but says she is not yet a senior herself.

She maintains family members should not make choices about nursing homes or a retirement residence without researching them. She makes the analogy that most people wouldn’t put their child in childcare without researching various facilities first.

“Why is this any different? It is another very vulnerable population,” she said.

After the guide came out, she started receiving thank you phone calls and emails from people saying: “I didn’t know where to start, where to look for information”.

Long-term care facilities (also called nursing homes) are overseen by the Ministry of Health, which posts inspection reports. Now, there are more checks and balances than there were 25 years ago, Goldstein said.

Unfortunately, Goldstein’s grandmother’s story did not end well.

The elderly woman died of pneumonia on an X-ray table in hospital.

Goldstein believes the nursing home should have spotted her pneumonia and sent her to hospital sooner.

Goldstein started the book in 1997, while on her first maternity leave.

Through her experience as a social worker at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, she became an expert on housing options for seniors.

“There was no information [then] unless you had contacts. The retirement homes didn’t publicize themselves,” she said.

She started the directory in Toronto, then branched out to the 905 region, then expanded across Ontario. Goldstein doesn’t rate the residences or homes in the guide. She tries to be neutral, offering questions to ask during a tour.

In the GTA, a Community Care Access Centre co-ordinator speaks to family members to understand the health care needs of a senior and discusses options for care. These options may include different services provided by the CCAC and/or services available from other organizations, including publicly-funded and private care. In most cases, a family can apply to as many as five homes.

For information on CCAC, visit healthcareathome.ca/central

Go to senioropolis.com for more information on Goldstein’s guides.

GOOD TO KNOW

Looking for a long-term care or seniors’ home?

Esther Goldstein’s advice:

• Start looking before you need a long-term care or seniors’ home.
• Try their food (i.e. drop by for a meal).
• If you want to know what a seniors’ residence or nursing home is like, ask another resident’s family, she says. Even if you stand in the parking lot, waiting for families to come out and then ask them questions about the home.
• Take a tour. Does the place smell? Are there lots of people slumped in wheelchairs or is there lots of activity?