SHOCKING DISCOVERY about Abuse

   You all know Buddy. He's in his late thirties and living with us. He's fortunate. For many adults with disabilities there are group homes. Buddy chose to stay with us and we are fine with that. Keep in mind that those homes only work for those who have some skills and the ability to function within that facility by applying their skills. If an individual's faculties require a more intensive care then the solution is to send that person into a long term care facility. There were special centres for the handicapped. There were others for those requiring drug abuse treatment and those needing help with other psychological issues. Each had it's own resources and space allocation. And there were long term facilities designated exclusively for senior care.
   However in order to save on staffing and space our government very quietly has changed the way all centres are to be used. From some time now they decided to just combine all of those units and allow the residents to be mixed together. That means a senior could be sharing a room with a psychologically challenged younger person suffering from a severe bipolar impairment. Even a criminal who can no longer be kept in prison due to a medical impairment will be in such a long term care place. As a bed becomes available clients are placed into spaces with no serious consideration of how the roommates match up in age or disability. And confidentiality makes it impossible to know what's wrong with one's roommate.

   On Friday, March 30th,  W5 aired a documentary highlighting what is really now happening in those care centres, the ones that get our government funding for the services they provide. The clients get very little in protection. In fact studies show that the abuse rate is four times higher there than anywhere else! And even the undertrained staff get harmed!!
   I cannot bear the idea that Buddy or I might end up in a place like that. The only solution preventing that would be private in-home care. Who would be able to afford tho huge cost of that? Are there any insurance policies willing to cover that? Likely yes for a high price but I doubt pre-existing conditions would be considered insurable unless the policy clearly stated it does.
   Are we being sent fearful messages like the one I saw to help make it better for those in care now or to push us more towards seeking spaces that will take payment for home care? And is this to shift our the tax contributions to lessen the number of long term care units? If so then what private heath care businesses are lobbying behind the scenes? What's really happening to our health care system?

The video provides you with information of how clients in those care centres struggle and how the government using our tax money refuses to hear that this situation is totally wrong. Clients should be selected to be with others of similar issues and age. Those who require similar care ought to be together. Integration can be useful but it needs to be constructive to the clients not just the budget. It seems to be going backwards with this issue. It appears to be creating monster institutions just like in the past, one that destroy the dignity of the elderly and the less abled. Back in the day we opted to have that changed citing cruelty to the clients mattered. Well it seems it no longer does. Cruelty is back and on the rise.
   What's wrong with our elected officials? Have they gone deaf and blind? They chose not to acknowledge there's an issue. Perhaps they ought to be forced to share a room in such a place, to feel the pain they are creating on so many poor helpless folks?
 
The direct link to W5 could not be created from my mac. The link you get takes you to the menu page. You will need to manually go to the part of the CTV News subheading, find there  W5 under News and click on W5 to get to the clip. The clip takes at least 20 minutes to tell the whole story The date is 12.30.03. A written version may be found under statistics but it does not have the harsh impact of the video.
    What have you got in your area?