[Music]
It's okay to think it, that this looks hard and it's not at all easy to imagine yourself living in long-term care.
You hear all the worst things.
Louis Cappozi couldn't. Were you scared to come in?
Oh yes. Yes, because I heard so many awful things about you know people getting not well taken care of, laying in bed.
But something changed not just that Louis met a friend in James Armstrong but he realized he was in a city-run place Lakeshore Lodge in Etobicoke.
It's one trying something new
upending how long-term care homes work and for him it is working.
Are you happy? Well I got to tell you, honestly two weeks ago I told my wife
you know Bonnie, I'm really happy. I feel very happy.
I'm dying I have ALS, but you know I'm trying to enjoy my life the best I can.
Happy must be a huge word in your last days. [phone ringing]
Frank it's Louis. [off camera] Oh, hi Louis.
How are you doing buddy?
At a moment when life steals so many of your freedoms, this home is trying to give some back.
Louis once a builder, is now consulted on big things like renos and on the daily details.
Kim and I were fortunate enough, we were on the committee with other residents here to select the menu for next year.
They don't do that everywhere else. No.
And we nixed a few things and...
What did you get rid of?
[off camera] Salisbury steak Salisbury steak, nobody likes that. No.
All of it starts with the resident.
Administrator Rani Caley says unusually here staff are assigned the same residents every day.
Typically it just depends who's on shift, but here the bonds are strong.
And I suppose that means that when you know that the person in room 234 doesn't like to get up in the morning
then you don't have a PSW going in three or four times that morning to say Joyce, you know it's time, come on, it's time to get up get up.
No. there's no pressure on this staff, you know there's no longer the measurement of their performance based on their ability to deliver on a certain time
If there's a late riser, no need to argue, and to ensure peace and comfort at mealtime
Lakeshore Lodge invested in something that seems basic, but isn't, a hot/cold cart.
Oh this side is freezing. Yes.
And this side is super hot.
So we're able to provide residents food at the absolute right temperature.
So if they're having a little bit of a rough go getting up in the morning they're not going to be faced with a cold breakfast.
Absolutely right
and that means a lot to people.
I'll be back okay.
There is pride here... a quick tour to see the differences in a renovated and non-renovated floor
And we have done the painting
which to an outsider, doesn't necessarily look like much.
Forgive me for saying this it still kind of looks, like, institutional there's nothing you can do about that right?
Not about the physical structure but we can do our best to make it a home-like environment.
As best as possible residents making calls about their own lives
right down to choosing green paint in the hallway, the type of furniture.
but the biggest investment in the strategy, called Care TO, is more staff for more care.
We keep hearing about the ratios being so high, one PSW to like 10 11 residents, what's the ratio here?
We did get some increase in staffing and our ratio on day shift is one to eight and it's one to nine on the afternoon shift, so it's...
Is that good?
It is good and, you know, I think if we're honest, we'd all like to see it better than that
and what I heard from the residents they really loved our staff
but always felt they were rushed and sometimes there was a hesitancy if they should ask for one more thing
That reality was breaking staff like Susset Bartley
Hi are you okay?
a PSW at Lakeshore for 18 years, struggling before the changes
I'll be back.
Where would you have been mentally in terms of how long you could stay doing this?
If they did not put as in place, I don't know, they will be getting a lot of sick call from me, because
I, personally, was getting burnt out.
You have a heavy workload.
That time we have 10 residents each.
And how are you going to fulfill all 10 residents needs in 7.5 hours?
But you have eight residents now right? Yes.
That's just a difference of two. Yes, a big difference.
Consider that if someone now calls in sick it's not the catastrophe it was before because there's a buffer.
More staff, more training on conflict resolution.
We talk first before we run to management because there must be some things that we can fix. We are adults.
Constant reminders from the likes of Susset that they all work for the residents in their home
If we're miserable, our a resident is going to be miserable, so most of the time, if not every time, what we give is what we get.
Susset says what she sees happening now is how she would like to be cared for
Did you call Sue?
No. You know you can call her too right?
Yeah I'll try calling her a bit later. Okay.
We have the resource, we have the staff, and we have the flexibility, we can sit
we don't have to go in right away, and like, Mary Jane You're sure right now, let's go
Now we can sit down like, Mary, good morning, how was your night?
We have a resident here who refuses blood work for weeks
the last time I said if you do this, I will hug you. I'll give you a good hug.
and he looked up at me and said do you know how long I wanted to hear that from you?
That's about time. How else do you know if it's working?
Well sometimes success looks like nothing at all, looks like an entirely empty nurse's station.
I thought everybody would be gathering around a nurse's station.
No, we are supposed to be with the residents
Even when we're doing our documentation, we don't sit here to do it, we sit with them, we can talk with them, you know, you can multitask.
Hello dear. Trust is the most important part of care especially for family members.
It's me it's Clive, you want a big hug?
They know who she is as a person not just you know this resident that can't speak.
You must have been terrified during Covid?
Yeah, you know for several months, we weren't allowed to visit as you remember, right, you know, and that was hard, very, very hard.
How do you think she fared in that time?
I have no idea.
No idea because his, wife Christine Joannidi, was diagnosed with dementia at just 63 years old.
She stopped being able to talk before she moved to Lakeshore.
Her move was both hard, and good for Clive Smith.
It was so wonderful taking her here and realizing, you know going home, that, you know, I didn't have that 24/7 anymore but the moment I got home
it was horrible feeling of guilt.
You know, like, oh you've, you know you've given up, you know, these conflicting emotions , and we're not geared up to handle those.
In many ways the caregivers here are his too, he's here every day.
Do you feel cared for here? Yes. The staff know me you know we have banter together
and we joke around about their own lives too right, it's, there's a lot of laughter.
Families are included wherever possible.
Recognize James Armstrong from the dining room, he was with his friend Louis
his wife of 67 years comes as often as she can. They so miss each other.
But the staff keep an eye out for his mental health as well as his physical needs and it shows.
They're lovely, lovely women we have lots of laughs too they become friends
And what kind of difference does that make for you?
Makes a happier Jim.
And there's that word again, happy. Here's another one, love.
Sounds like she keeps you out of trouble this one? You better believe it.
Yeah? The love of my life.
Paul Murphy enduring the effects of several brain surgeries now has his best friend his wife as his roommate.
The residents found a way to make that happen even though Amelia's needs aren't quite as acute.
Their golden years are getting a little better.
It's good for him because he needs me.
And is it just because you're here or do you think the changes they've made in the last few months also make it better here?
Oh, the changes they've made help, yeah.
This is a good woman. You feel glad that she's here with you?
I certainly am.
No one knows what life will hand you and the pandemic showed everyone how cruel it can be when care breaks down
so this maybe is time to learn the lessons about how to build it back up.
And this Care TO program is being rolled out across 10 homes the city pays some of the costs
The Province pays most of the 16 million dollar cost
and as pleased as many people are with the program there's a lot of frustration
that Ontario isn't working harder or faster at bettering care elsewhere especially after all the pandemic has exposed.
So I went to ask the minister of long-term care what's happening?
I know you've been to Lakeshore Lodge, we've spent a fair amount of time there as well
How would you describe how different it is from other places you've seen?
You can see the difference in, in the people, it's a funner place to be there's a buzz but it's also what we're trying to get at in Ontario
and I think other jurisdictions as well as refocusing the long-term care to be a home.
They've, they've dramatically increased the staffing that, that they have there, which allows them to have more hours per day per resident
which is interesting, your, your own government's long-term care commission recommended a standard four hours of care per resident per day
that was 18 months ago the recommendation was that it happened urgently
but your government's timeline is still 2024 - 2025, how is that urgent?
Well when we came in, it was at about two and a half hours per resident per day
obviously that wasn't uh where we wanted to be so we've come into the standard we're four hours of care a day per resident by as you said by 24/25.
Now it's time to be in line with our ability to bring new staff.
As we bring in more, you can see the difference.
As we, we've now increased the uh, it, to about three and a half hours of care per person per day
and you start to see the difference that additional care has on, on the outcomes for the residents of these homes.
But it still doesn't answer the question about why you can't go faster
I mean 2024-2025 was the plan for four hours of care per day per resident
before the long term care commission looked at it and said that's not fast enough it needs to be urgent, but you haven't budged the timeline.
Again Adrienne it is working with our partners to, when can we bring on the uh the appropriate staffing
like we're hiring 27 000 uh health care workers in long-term care alone
27 000 and that is a mix of nurses PSWs, allied health professionals.
Are you happy with the pace of it ?
I am, look, I, I am. You'd always like to go faster right? Absolutely.
I, I think you would right? I don't think that's, you know, anybody would disagree with that but you have to do it in the context of what you're able to do
I wouldn't want to, uh, go out there and say I'm going to have four hours of care tomorrow, and not have the people to fulfill that mandate.
All right Minister, thank you very much.
Thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.