A recent data analysis of Canadian nursing homes meeting safety legislation found that 85%, or “six in seven care homes are repeat offenders, and there are virtually no consequences.” These offenses include but are not limited to abuse, inadequate infection control, inadequate hydration, and poor skin and wound care. A lawyer for the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly argued that the high percentage of repeat offenses “shows that non-compliance with the law has been normalized within care homes.”
As repeated stories of abuse come to light, victims and their families agree that this reveals a larger problem. Many facilities do not complete the required training and changes after abuse charges are made. In addition, “most homes have not faced any punishment for failure to comply with the law,” with only two Ontario homes shutting down in the past decade. These findings have prompted the federal government to promise a plan to “set out a national standard of care for long-term care,” appropriately punishing facilities that fail to meet these standards.
For more on this story, read here.
