Mr. Bill Walker and Mr. Alex Ruff,

My name is Bev Illman and I am an Office Manager in Long Term Care. I have been working in this field for 25 years and find it sad that a pandemic brings to light a long-standing problem of staff shortages.

Working in long term care is not for everyone. It takes a very special person to work there.

Staff rush to get residents up out of bed, provide morning cares, then down to breakfast. It is like an assembly line. There is no time to spend with one resident when the next is waiting for their turn. Staff currently work with 9 to 10 residents each shift.

If a resident has physical health issues such as arthritic pain can you imagine having to rush to get dressed?
If a resident has a cognitive impairment or psychiatric disorder or perhaps both, can you imagine the confusion and fear created for them when trying to quickly get dressed, go to the washroom and down to have your meals when you don’t really know where you are nor are you able to understand what is happening?

These situations can lead to staff injury! I have seen staff with blackened eyes, who've been cursed at, pinched, punched , bitten and spat at. In an RNAO (Registered Nurses Association of Ontario) submission to the Long Term Care Staffing Study Advisory Group this year, they noted that 83 per cent of all residents in Long Term Care homes experience some form of cognitive impairment, and that in 2019 alone nearly 90 percent of Personal Support Workers and Nursing staff reported regular violence from residents!

Thru all that the staff that I work with remain caring individuals quick to give a hug when needed and a kind word, working as best they can with the given situation.

These are very real examples of what the lack of staff ratio has forced on our elderly and staff in Long Term Care. It is completely disrespectful to our elderly and disheartening for our staff. Our elderly deserve to be treated with the respect and dignity they deserve, and our Staff need to be able to provide safe appropriate care for our elderly!

I urge you to support our residents living in long term care and the staff that care for them by having a lower resident to staff ratio to allow for the proper care they require. This needs to happen now not down the road. I understand these things take time, but this is one area that can not be put off. It needs action now!

Again, it takes a very special person to work in Long Term Care and I work with the best COVID-19 Warriors there are at Country Lane Long Term Care in Chatsworth!

Sincerely
Bev Illman