Local MPP not surprised by rising incidents of nursing home violence in Windsor and Ont.

Windsor West MPP Lisa Gretzky said it's "disturbing" but she is not surprised that violence is on the rise in long term care homes.

"We regularly have constituents calling our office voicing concerns about what's going on in the long term care facility. It's been going on for a long time — it's not something that is new," said Gretzky.

A CBC Marketplace investigation has found reports of resident-on-resident abuse have risen sharply in Ontario nursing homes.

When Marketplace first examined the issue back in 2006, there was an average of four reports each day, according to provincial data provided by long-term care facilities.

A decade later, there were about nine reports a day province-wide, despite a fairly small increase in the number of residents — from 75,128 in 2006 to 78,000 in 2016.

Locally, Banwell Gardens care centre in Tecumseh had 33 cases of resident-to-resident violence or abuse in 2016.

• 40 Ontario nursing homes with the highest rates of reported abuse

That's the seventh highest location for these types of reports in the province.

It's not clear what the nature of the incidents were.

In a statement, the company said it has a zero-tolerance policy on abuse.

"The majority of residents in long-term care have cognitive impairment, which is often accompanied with behaviour changes," read the statement. "Most resident-on-resident incidents are caused by someone with cognitive impairment and/or psychiatric issues who can no longer interpret other people's behaviour or understand the consequences of his or her actions. Severe incidents of resident-on-resident violence are extremely rare."

Rosemary Fiss is the manager of education and support programs of the Alzheimer's Society of Windsor and Essex County. She said patients with dementia need to be engaged and live in environments that are supportive to their needs.

"That means that we need to fund them appropriately, we need to have staff that are appropriately trained … We have to allow people to be involved in the community somehow."

Fiss said that people with dementia may become violent if they feel threatened or scared of their environment, just like anyone else. She said they should be treated with dignity and as a whole person — despite how their brain damage may cause them to react.

"The dementia does not remove the importance of that person," she said.

Gretzky said that more government funding is needed in long term care facilities. And more oversight.

"It's the lack of funding to these facilities, which then turns into a lack of staffing at these facilities, and a lack of resources."