Thank you very much to all of you for being here today.
I was thinking about what Cynthia Baker said about long-term care and the aging population. For 13 years I've been serving on the board of a not-for-profit seniors residence in Toronto. We have three towers and 300 residents. We provide supportive care up to a certain level, but our average age is 89. Really we're almost like a nursing home for ambulatory seniors. In fact we had a birthday party in August for 14 ladies who are all over 100 years old. So it's not just the baby boom; it's the aging population. People are living a lot longer.
I want to relate a personal story, because it's perfectly relevant. My mother, in a not-for-profit seniors residence, last year had a heart attack and went to hospital. When she was ready to come out, she was what they call—you would all know this—a two-person transfer. It took two personal support workers to get her from the bed to a wheelchair and back. They couldn't accommodate her unless she paid for her own nursing care. Now, they haven't built any long-term care beds in Ontario. They say, “No, no, we're providing care in the home.”
They told me that my mother needed 16 hours of care a day. I talked to the CCAC, and they said they'd give her three. I said, “No, you have this wrong; she needs 16.” They said they'd give her three.
I got some advice from different people and I called back and negotiated. It was like a house deal, or a car deal. I said, “Well, if you pay from 8 a.m. until noon, my mother will pay the rest.” The person called me back and said she asked her manager, who said yes to that.
Luckily my mother was able to pay for that until she got into a long-term care facility, but the wave is coming, in Toronto in particular. For seniors who have a house in Toronto, they can afford it. Their houses are worth from $600,000 to $800,000, and over $1 million, so they can afford to pay for their care. It would have been $12,000 a month for my mother, at $25 an hour. But there are many who can't afford it, and no one wants to talk about it. We need to really optimize care for seniors who need different levels of care.
What should nurses be able to do, and then what should personal support workers be able to do in these facilities, in supportive housing and in long-term care facilities? What should doctors be doing? Who should be doing what? This is your chance to get on the record all those things you've been thinking about.
The second part of the question is for Barbara Mildon and then anybody else who wants to comment on it.
Is turf protection a problem in caring for patients, and in particular seniors? If it's a problem, please take this opportunity to identify it.
I'd like to start with Cynthia Baker.