Larry Hughes is trying to help make sure a senior will have a place to go when she gets out of the hospital. RON WARD/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT
Social Issues
Coalition upset over senior’s eviction
Cecile Cassista, executive director of the Coalition for Seniors and Nursing Home Residents' Rights,
An advocate for seniors says it
is “absolutely appalling” that a local woman was served an eviction
notice from a special care home due to behaviour issues, after only two
months.
Cecile Cassista, the executive director
of the Coalition for Seniors and Nursing Home Residents’ Rights, said
she was recently approached by someone whose 85-year-old relative was
evicted from Sunset Village Special Care Home in Moncton due to
aggressive behaviour.
“We’re talking about elderly people that
have built this country, helped build this province and it’s treating
them with disrespect,” she said. “(Special care homes) applied for a
license, they are approved through the government and they shouldn’t be
able to cherry pick who they keep in their facility.
“It takes about a year for people to
adjust when they live in these conditions. And unfortunately when she
was eventually told that she would be affected, she was very upset about
it.”
Larry Hughes is the man who approached
Cassista seeking help. The woman who was in the special care home is his
wife’s aunt by marriage and they have assumed responsibility for the
woman through power of attorney. She moved into the special care home in
November 2012 and was served an eviction notice on Jan. 8.
Hughes stressed that he doesn’t believe
the special care home is at fault for the eviction, as the report given
of the incidents included the woman pushing, shoving and having verbal
outbursts. However, he wants to see a better system put in place to deal
with situations like these, with more work being done to ensure seniors
are placed in the right types of homes, rather than having them soon
after put out in the cold with nowhere to go when the living arrangement
doesn’t work.
“Of course a special care home is not a
place for someone who may be more than they can handle or are expected
to handle. Fair is fair. But in the mean time you are still dealing with
a person, so you can’t in my mind keep shipping them back and forth
between where they are and somewhere else and the somewhere else is
totally unknown,” he said. “You are discussing things with a senior who
doesn’t remember the occurrences and the hospital says ‘She’s OK, take
her back,’ they say ‘we’re not sure we want to.’ You go around and
around and around. The merry go round is not so merry and at some point
it’s got to stop and reach a decision. It may not be the happiest for
all parties, but at least a decision.”
Hughes said the senior ended up at the
special care home after having some falls and making the decision
herself that she couldn’t safely live at home anymore. After being
evicted from the special care home she was put into the hospital and in
the meantime she has developed some back pain and an infection. She is
currently under examination in the hospital and awaiting a more
permanent home, while also being assessed to determine if she requires
more stringent care than what is provided by a special care home.
“Fortunately in a sad way to comment,
she’s back in the hospital and things may get turned around. But in the
meantime it still leaves a lot of soul searching, questions, pieces of
the puzzle that need to be put together. But there will be more folks
like that,” Hughes said. “Being a baby boomer myself, there’s lots of us
coming down the track here. It’s going to be interesting to address
those issues.”
An employee at the Sunset Village
Special Care Home refused to comment when reached Monday, suggesting any
comments to media would come from the government.
Jean-François Pelletier, a
communications officer with the Department of Social Development, noted
they aren’t able to discuss any specific case due to privacy
legislation. However, he did provide some specifics about how issues are
dealt with at special care homes when they arise.
“Special care home administrators will
try to work with the family in addressing an issue, usually over many
weeks and months, before taking action to evict someone,” he wrote in an
e-mailed statement. “In absence of collaboration from the resident and
their family, the special care home will provide a formal notice that
the placement has been terminated at a certain date (at least 15 days
notice), if the situation is not addressed in the meantime.”
Cassista doesn’t believe the due
diligence was done in this situation. She has issued a complaint to
Social Development Minister Madeleine Dubé regarding this situation and
she wants an investigation to be launched.
“We just believe that this is just very
disheartening for operators. The act got changed — at one time the
standard operating procedure said they could give you a notice within 15
days, that was it,” she said. “Now basically they have to involve a
family member and the person that is affected and the social worker. So
when talking with Mr. Hughes I asked him to get in touch with the social
worker — the social worker knew nothing about it.
“The only time operators can discharge
somebody is if there’s a safety threat to themselves or other
individuals in the facility.”
Pelletier added that in its election
platform, the Alward government “committed to expand the mandate of the
provincial Ombudsman to include nursing homes, special care homes and
home care services as part of a new Seniors’ Charter of Rights.” He said
that the work is currently underway and being led by the Department of
Healthy and Inclusive Communities.
Cassista said in the two Moncton-area
hospitals there are currently 115 seniors awaiting placement in other
residences and across the province there are 545. She hopes the
situation is more closely monitored in the future and she’s also hoping
medical staff are put in place at special care homes in order to better
meet the needs of residents.
“It sends a bad message to other seniors
when people get evicted,” she said. “It silences them and I shutter
when I hear another senior being evicted.”
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2 Comments
JOHN TUPPER
January 29, 2013 01:45:36AM
As a Senior who might be in such a situration, I hope this gets
attention.. Special care means professional people with special
abilities. (not special equipment like chairs with attachs) so small
problems like this type does not seem difficult to address.
Sad that such lack of concern that it happens.
January 29, 2013 01:45:36AM
January 29, 2013 09:29:05AM