CARP Calls on Ontario to Implement Wettlaufer Inquiry Recommendations

Posted on by CARP

WOODSTOCK, Ontario, July 31, 2019  — CARP welcomes the recommendations included in The Long-Term Care Homes Public Inquiry Report, and is calling on the Ontario government to implement its recommendations.  The Inquiry was commissioned after former nurse Elizabeth Wettlaufer confessed to murdering eight long-term care residents and assaulting or attempting to kill six others.

“At every turn, systemic failure in the long-term care system failed to detect and stop Wettlaufer’s killing spree,” said Marissa Lennox, CARP spokesperson. “CARP has long called for appropriate staffing levels, including an appropriate mix of nursing staff and personal care workers to keep long-term care residents safe,” stated Lennox. “We were pleased to see this recommendation highlighted in the report.”

The comprehensive yet sobering report outlines the problems facing a system that is strained but not completely broken. CARP supports the commission’s recommendations to install cameras in medication rooms; to develop a standardized protocol for autopsies performed on the elderly; to provide ongoing training to staff about their obligations to report instances of abuse and neglect; and to regulate and limit the supply of insulin in long-term care homes.

“CARP is urging the Ontario government to move quickly to implement the recommendations and ensure a tragedy of this scale does not happen again,” said Lennox.

Recent CARP surveys indicate that:

  • Fully 92% of CARP’s 320,000 members agree that long-term care homes are not adequately staffed.
  • More than half of respondents (55%) believe the measure that would most improve care and safety is a higher staff to resident ratio.
  • 80% of members know someone who is living or has lived in long-term care

CARP is a non-profit, non-partisan association representing more than 320,000 older Canadians across Canada. We advocate to uphold the rights and improve the lives of Canadians as we age. CARP’s policy platform, The Faces of Canada’s Seniors, urges government to support affordable and safer long-term care options across the country. Visit: www.carp.ca.

For more information:

Lisa Hartford, ABC
National Communications Lead
CARP
[email protected]
cell: 647.466.8053