Long Term Care

From Neil Ford, FCP Candidate Prince Edward - Hastings.

 

Today I received a message from the director of a long term care facilty in my riding who is frustrated with the conditions her workers and residents must put up with. The place is understaffed, and overworked to te detriment of all. I sent her the folllowing e-mail :

Thank you very much for writing in to express your concerns. Rest assured that the Family Coalition Party respects human dignity from conception until natural death, so this includes our senior citizens, who are so often neglected in our youth oriented society.

My wife works as a PSW, and I myself have taken the course, so I am well aware of some of the conditions in which people in long term care are subjected, as well as the strain and pressure under which PSWs must work in order to serve their clients as required.

The Family Coalition Party has come up with some potential solutions which will simultaneously relieve some of the pressures PSWs face in their quest to provide quality care to those they serve, and to offer more choices for families insofar as to where and how care can be delivered.

I am attaching a PDF file which is our policy brochure which outlines briefly some of the ideas we have to help the situation. If you want more specific details, please ask, and I will get you as specific information as I can.

The bottom line is, our seniors built this country, and we owe it to them to allow them to live as dignified human beings regardless of the challenges they face, and we recognize front line workers, and their families as the best means to deliver the care needed, and will work with them to find the best way to do this, and to make more choices as to the best kind of care for each individual and family available. We also believe that Seniors have much experience to offer in our communities. This important, under-utilized resource needs to be an integral part of our community. They need places to go, to work, and to share their knowledge, skills, and experiences. The FCP advocates for integrating seniors centres and programs with schools and co-operative education programs using the UK model, teaming youth with seniors for support and skill-building projects. We believe that this is therapeutic for the seniors themselves, and will improve their health and quality of life, and instill in our youth -oriented society a healthy respect for seniors in terms of their life experiences, and their value as membrs of that society.

I trust that I have at least provided enough information on wheich we can begin a dialogue, since we offer our ideas, which can be improved on through input from concerned members of the community such as you.