Kitchener seniors' advocate wants normal visiting to resume at long-term care homes

The rules around visiting loved ones in long-term care homes means residents are being treated like prisoners, one seniors' advocate says.

The province allowed visits to homes not in outbreak to resume last Thursday, but there are rules around the visits including that they must take place outside and they are by appointment.

John Vice is with a group called Seniors Guardian Angels Program and he has also launched his own campaign called Nursing Homes Are Not Prisons. He says he's worried the new rules around how those visits take place will continue beyond COVID-19.

Vice, of Kitchener, Ont., says people should be allowed to pay pop-in, surprise visits to people in long-term care homes. He plans to launch a constitutional challenge because he says not allowing visits infringes on the rights of people living in the homes under The Canadian Charter Of Rights And Freedoms.

"The big concern is this: Visitors to long-term care homes involk the complaint process. They're the ones who complain to the management at nursing homes. They're the ones who file complaints with the government, who call the police," he said.

"When this is removed, there is no feedback loop. Nursing homes can do whatever they want behind closed doors."

Personal experience

Vice says unscheduled visits were how he and his wife saw problems with the home his mother-in-law was in, located in Paris, Ont. He recounted "the most horrific" situation being when his wife stopped by and found her mother "soaking in her own urine."

"She is completely dependent on care from a nursing home. She is wheelchair bound and has difficulty speaking," he said.

In January 2019, Vice wrote Premier Doug Ford about the conditions they found his mother-in-law in and received an email back from the premier's office. He says he was shocked last month when he heard Ford say he was shocked by the conditions found in some long-term care facilities as outlined in a report from the Canadian Armed Forces.

"I know dozens if not hundreds of people who have put in complaints to Doug Ford, to the minister of health, to the minister of long-term care, to their MPPs," he said. 

"Based on my personal experience, he knows. He knew about this a long time ago and he's going to start addressing this crisis by lying, can we really believe what else he says?"

Listen to the whole interview with John Vice on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo's The Morning Edition:

Guidelines 'overly restrictive'

Others raising concerns include Dr. Nathan Stall, a geriatrician at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. 

Stall called the new visitor guidelines "overly restrictive" and "a little bit cruel."

He told CBC Toronto that some private long-term care homes may continue complete lockdown measures because it is easier and less expensive than letting people interact with their loved ones in full protective equipment. 

"For-profit corporations are choosing to go above and beyond that, to implement their own conservative policies, restricting access to loved ones in these facilities and that's terribly distressing," Stall said. 

Pandemic necessitated restrictions

In an email to CBC Kitchener-Waterloo, a spokesperson for Minister of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton noted the Residents' Bill of Right in the Long-Term Care Homes Act says every person living in a long-term care home has the right to communicate in confidence and receive visitors "without interference."

"While the current state of emergency has necessitated visitor restrictions, these restrictions are intended to be temporary and are in place to ensure we don't introduce or re-introduce COVID-19 into long-term care homes. We all look forward to a time when they are no longer necessary," the email said.

"As you know, Ontario is reopening in stages. Through all stages, public health and safety will remain our top priority. In long-term care, conditions will be assessed with resident wellbeing in mind before the launch of each stage."

Vice says he encourages people to speak out if they're concerned about the visiting restrictions by writing to MPPs, provincial ministers and the premier. He says the issue will impact everyone.

"Ultimately, we are all going to end up in long-term care if we live long enough," he said.