Peel focuses on wraparound supports, not LTC expansion, to help seniors

Peel Region's long-term care homes are full and the waitlists have grown since 2020, but its plan to deal with that challenge is to push for what it calls wraparound care so that seniors can age in place for as long as possible.

This matters because, according to a staff report, seniors are the region's fastest growing demographic. By 2041, it's estimated one in five will be over the age of 65.

Peel Region operates five long-term care homes — that's about 700 beds in total — and they are full. Each facility has a waitlist in the hundreds, and Peel is not asking the province for additional bed licences. 

Numbers shared by the region show demand has climbed steadily at all five homes in recent years (seniors can make up to five applications and be on multiple lists at the same time, it said.)

At Peel Manor, for example, there were 240 people on a waitlist as of Oct. 1, 2020. By Oct. 31 of 2023, that number had climbed to 506. At the end of this August, there were 596 people waiting for a spot.

Donna Kern, director of seniors' services development division at Peel Region, said in an email that the region is seeking $4 million from the province to bolster services and transform that site into what it's dubbed the Seniors Health and Wellness Village. 

That money would be used to double the capacity of the site's adult day services program, provide integrated and specialized primary care and open an eight-bed overnight respite centre, Kern said.

Development of the site is nearly complete, the region said.

The region itself isn't building new long-term care homes, nor seeking funding to do so. New facilities are being built by private entities, though the region doesn't have a list of what private entities are planning new builds.

An administrator at Brampton's Tall Pines Long-Term Care Centre says she worries about people who are left behind, waiting for the care they need to survive.

"It means that we failed. We are putting them in a situation where they're not able to still thrive," Jessica Altenor said.

"Because that's going to be us one day. So, it does worry me," she said. 

Demand for beds high across Ontario

Rubab Sarwar, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Long-Term Care, told CBC Toronto in an email that Peel Region receives $3 million from the province annually toward community paramedicine program in long-term care.

"This program provides individuals with complex needs that are awaiting long-term care more support at home by paramedics," Sarwar said.

Sarwar also said there were 47,000 people awaiting a long-term care bed across Ontario as of June 2023, and that the government is working to respond to the demand for long-term care beds across the province. 

The ministry plans to spend $6.4 billion to build 58,000 new and upgraded beds in the coming years to address that demand, Sarwar added, although it's unclear how many new beds will open in Peel.

Situation 'disheartening,' says caregiver

Eugenie Renata Bruce, 89, says she was told to expect a long wait for an LTC bed after being discharged from the hospital following treatment for heart failure and bleeding valves in November.

Her daughter took care of her for the next three months but developed prolapsed organs from lifting her regularly, Bruce says. 

It's a situation they say was a "crisis," and led to both women being hospitalized multiple times.  

Given her condition, nurses looking after Bruce bumped her up the wait list for long-term care, Bruce says. That helped her reserve a spot at Brampton's Tall Pines Long-Term Care Centre in January. 

"We were so lucky," Bruce said.  "It gives me hope for maybe another two or three years of life and I'd be grateful for it."

But Bruce's daughter, Lillyan McGinn, says it's "disheartening" to know many people like her won't get the long-term care support for their parents, which she says can have physical and emotional impacts on caregivers' health. 

Since moving into long-term care, Bruce says her health has improved to the point where she could get the heart surgery she was previously unfit to get. 

It's a far cry from November last year when she was incapable of doing things that brought joy to her life like painting, she says.

Now, her paintings fill the walls at Tall Pines long-term care home, where she hopes to make new friends.