Municipal politician wades into seniors' care

Ward 4 Coun. Evelyn Dutrisac said she's regularly contacted by constituents concerned about how seniors are being treated by the health-care system.

Although health care isn't a municipal responsibility, Dutrisac said she has an interest in the area, and does her best to help people.

Sometimes that means contacting politicians or health-care agencies on families' behalf, or even sitting in on meetings between families and health-care agencies as an advocate.

“I think municipal politicians are close to the people,” said Dutrisac, who sits on the city's seniors advisory panel. “We get more calls and we meet with people on a regular basis, more than provincial and the federal politicians.”

Because she's heard so many complaints about seniors' interactions with hospital, home care and long-term care services, Dutrisac has written her own list of recommendations on the issue.

She forwarded these suggestions to Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Deb Matthews, and on Aug. 20, Dutrisac – along with Mayor Marianne Matichuk and Ward 3 Coun. Claude Berthiaume – met with Matthews.

The meeting took place during the annual Association of Municipalities Ontario conference.

“(Matthews) was extremely positive,” said Dutrisac. “She told me she would read my recommendations and that she would get back to me. I haven't had a response yet. If I don't get one within a week or two, I'm going to send her an email.”

Dutrisac's suggestions for long-term care range from placing seniors in the nursing home closest to their community, to keeping couples together in facilities, to developing smaller facilities where seniors feel they're part of a community.

“If I have a resident in Chelmsford or Azilda, and they want to go to St. Gabriel's, it's like fighting hell to be able to get there,” Dutrisac said.
“At the same time, you have people there who don't want to be there. They want to be in Finlandia or Pioneer Manor or Extendicare.”

The home care system was also the subject of Dutrisac's scrutiny.

Her suggestions include increasing the number of home care hours people can receive, better training and working conditions for home care workers and providing training and financial benefits for unpaid caregivers.

Dutrisac said she's currently working with an elderly man who is attempting to get two more hours of home care per day for his wife, who recently had a stroke, and requires round-the-clock care, most of which he's providing himself.

“It's like asking for gold,” she said.

The city councillor also suggests that alternate level of care (ALC) patients in the hospital have speedier access to transfers to long-term care facilities, assisted living or home care.

Dutrisac said she has a friend who has been in the hospital for a year as an ALC patient, waiting for a nursing home.

“I think the province has to look at if we have enough nursing homes,” she said.
Because families are often uninformed about exactly what services are out there for seniors, Dutrisac said there should be more communication on this issue.

Giving seniors a good quality of life is the whole community's responsibility, she contends.

As such, Dutrisac, a retired high school home economics teacher, said this message should be driven home early by encouraging youth to do their compulsory volunteer hours with seniors.

There should also be greater partnerships between the province and municipalities to improve the way seniors are treated, she said.

Dutrisac said she thinks officials such as geriatrician Dr. Samir Sinha, who helped the province to develop its seniors' strategy, should consult with municipal politicians to see if they have any solutions to offer.

But Dutrisac isn't waiting for the province to act. She said she plans to work with the seniors' advisory panel and others in the city to develop a seniors' strategy for Greater Sudbury.

“I really have a passion for seniors,” she said.