A newly implemented regulation of the Long-term Care Homes Act could be the ticket to togetherness for an elderly Sudbury husband and wife who have been pining for each other for six months.
The 67-year marriage of Gottfried Adler, 91, and his bride Hildegard, 88, took a sad turn Aug. 5 last year when Hildegard broke her pelvis and had to be hospitalized. Hildegard remains at Health Sciences North after being designated an alternate level of care patient Sept. 18, 2017.
That means she qualifies for placement in a long-term care bed.
Meanwhile, Gottfried’s health was declining at home in the two months after his wife was hospitalized and he was placed at Finlandia Hoivakoti nursing home at the end of September.
Since then, the couple has been frantic to reunite and their children have been fighting to end the agony of their parents’ forced separation.
Hildegard’s room on the fourth floor of the North Tower at Ramsey Lake Health Centre is decorated with cutout hearts and flowers, and dozens of smiling photographs of family members. But those cheery touches don’t ease the heartache of being away from her lifelong partner or her fear they may never live together again.
At Finlandia, Gottfried is missing his wife, waiting impatiently for her to join him in the room he has decorated with touches of their native Austria.
The regulation passed this week should help the Alders, 10 or 12 other families in Sudbury and dozens more in the rest of Ontario.
During question period Wednesday, Kitchener-Waterloo MPP Catherine Fife also called on Hoskins to reunite a couple that has been separated by what she called a broken long-term care system.
Patricia and Don Deighton have been married for 64 years, but have been living separately since August of last year. Patricia requires long-term care and Don lives in a retirement home. In December, Fife asked Hoskins to reunite the couple in her community, but said they are still waiting.
Fife was critical of the Health ministry for not putting the regulation filed in December into effect Jan. 1 as it was supposed to. “And now, 52 days later, Patricia and Don Deighton are still being forced to live without each other.”
Nickel Belt MPP France Gélinas, Fife and NDP Leader Andrea Horwath have been asking for a public inquiry to look at what is wrong with the long-term care system and offer solutions.
Gélinas thought the Adlers’ situation would be resolved shortly after a letter was issued by the ministry instructing long-term care home directors to allocate family reunification access beds under the new regulation. Two of these beds have been set aside at Finlandia.
Long-term care home directors have some leeway to interpret the regulation, and at first the North East Community Care Access Centre ruled that family reunification beds would only be available for spouses of loved ones in long-term care who have been declared to be in crisis in the community. The regulation would not apply to residents such as Gottfried Adler who was already in long-term care and whose spouse was in hospital.
Gélinas said Thursday that she took the matter to Hoskins herself that day and discussed the regulation with him. His interpretation and understanding of the intention of the regulation was that it would reunite couples such as Gottfried and Hildegard. His office was to contact the North East CCAC to clarify how the regulation should be interpreted.
Helga Leblanc, the daughter of Gottfried and Hildegard, sounded weary Thursday after a months-long fight to have her parents reunited. She and sister-in-law Linda Adler went public with their situation when Horwath was in Sudbury last month.
The women have said Hildegard has questioned the point of living if she can’t be with her husband. Her daughter and daughter-in-law were disappointed that news coverage did not help their family’s situation.
Leblanc was particularly frustrated her mother’s name kept moving up and down a list of people awaiting a long-term care bed, making it to the top and then falling as low as sixth place. A weary Leblanc said Thursday she understands her mother is now No. 1 on the list for a family reunification bed at Finlandia where her husband resides and is also on a list of people waiting for a long-term bed. She is hoping her parents will get back together soon.
For months, she has called the CCAC every Monday morning to see if a spot has opened up at Finlandia and where her mother might be on a waiting list for a bed.
Last week, before the family reunification regulation was implemented, Leblanc was cynical about her parents’ situation. “We can see that they will never get together again.”
Part of that cynicism stemmed from the fact the Liberals had delayed putting the regulation passed in December into effect.
Leblanc said her family was told at one point to send her mother home to live, where she would be declared to be in crisis in the community, and that might get her parents reunited more quickly.
Her cynicism extends to her belief it is lucrative in some cases for seniors declared to be ALC to remain in hospital. Hildegard is billed $1,695.19 a month for the room, which is the cost of placement in a long-term care home. Another $7,300 is being paid by Gottfried’s insurance plan because the couple asked for a semi-private room rather than a four-bed ward.
That means Health Sciences North is receiving almost $108,000 annually for Hildegard’s care in hospital. Most long-term-care residences have abandoned the use of wards and move to the semi-private room model.
Leblanc specified her family has never wanted her mother to bump anyone on a waiting list for a bed at Finlandia, but they have feared their parents may never be reunited.
In the meantime, the Adler family has Hildegard’s bags packed and can be ready with very short notice to take her to live with her husband.
“Dad is just waiting to move her in,” said Leblanc.
Carol Mulligan is an award-winning reporter and one of Greater Sudbury’s most experienced journalists.
