ADVOCACY

Concerned Friends sends the Premier and Ministers of Health and Long-Term Care a Call to Action in five key areas; Staffing, Annual Resident Quality Inspections, Advisory Group, Infection Control and National Standards.  “We stand united with the many groups including doctors voicing outrage over the government’s failure to ‘put an iron ring around’ our most vulnerable population. The neglect, underfunding, overcrowding, and lack of appropriate government oversight of Ontario’s long-term care (LTC) facilities is tragic and has unfortunately existed for decades. Sadly, the situation has only worsened with the COVID-19 pandemic, which struck residents living in these facilities the hardest, resulting in thousands of needless deaths.” See the letter here. Concerned Friends Open Letter.

Concerned Friends was one of the 100 organizations that participated in the Ontario Health Coalition’s Zoom Press Conference on January 22 representing more than one million families of loved ones in long-term care, residents, care workers, health professionals, advocacy groups, seniors’ groups and community groups. Collectively they delivered a powerful message to Premier Ford calling for immediate action to address critical staffing and care shortages, unsafe conditions, the devastating spread of COVID-19 and escalating death rates in Ontario’s long-term care homes.

Concerned Friends participated in the Ontario Health Coalition Day of Action in Guelph on October 8 to create political pressure to expose the lack of action to improve care in long-term care and to push for an end to for-profit privatization of long-term care.

Concerned Friends submitted a letter to Premier Ford, detailing three priority areas of focus for LTC homes in Ontario: staffing, annual resident quality inspection and cross-sector sharing and support. We also requested the opportunity to be apart of the Commission.

Concerned Friends added our voice to the Ontario Health Coalition Open Letter  to Premier Doug Ford regarding the commission and the immediate measures needed in long-term care facilities.

Concerned Friends supports the work that Family Councils Ontario has been providing with their updates and resources relating to COVID 19. Family Councils Ontario works with long-term care residents’ families, Family Councils, and home staff in Long-Term Care Homes across Ontario.

Providing One-to-One Support

Concerned Friends have volunteer advocates providing information to families of residents in long-term care facilities concerning residents’ rights and responsibilities under government legislation.

Last year we received over 50 requests for assistance. The most prevalent themes were:

• Unfair and intense pressure to vacate hospital beds while waiting for a LTC bed
• Inadequate care of a loved one in LTC
• Inability to get prompt and reasonable access to a LTC home of choice

If you have a question or concern about LTC, you can contact an advocate at 416-489-0146, or 1-855-489-0146 or by email advocacy@concernedfriends.ca.