Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Members of the committee, I want to thank you for inviting CALTC to appear again before you today to discuss seniors living in long-term care and the supports that residents require to protect their mental health.
My name is Jason Lee and I'm here today as the treasurer of the Canadian Association for Long Term Care, also known as CALTC.
As the leading voice for quality long-term care in Canada, our members advocate on behalf of our residents at the federal level to ensure seniors can age and live with dignity.
Our conversation today is focused on mental health. This has no doubt been an extraordinarily difficult and painful time for everyone involved, including residents, their families, front-line staff and those who operate long-term care homes. In my limited time, I want to focus specifically on residents' mental health. If needed, I am happy to come back to the committee with more information on the effects of COVID-19 on mental health in families and staff.
Studies have shown that social isolation has a negative impact on health, especially in seniors, and that this increases the overall cost of our health care system. Moreover, social isolation in the senior population can even occur in care homes where there's an abundance of residents and staff. We know that those who are more connected with their families and friends lead longer, happier and healthier lives. COVID-19 has presented unique hurdles in residents' mental health, as physical isolation is required in outbreak situations.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, governments, public health officials and the long-term care and continuing care sectors have faced challenges that are not only unprecedented, but also ethically and emotionally complex. Perhaps the most significant has been the issue of family visits.
Family members or close companions are a vital part of the care team within long-term care and are crucial to the residents' experiences. When visitations were restricted earlier in the year, many residents experienced an impact on their overall quality of life, despite the best efforts of staff. While such restrictions were and still are necessary for keeping residents and staff safe, we also understand how important it is to be physically and emotionally close to those who are important to us, particularly as we age.
Staff in homes across the nation have been nimble, innovative and dedicated in trying to connect families with their loved ones with the use of phones, technology and other measures to protect their communications.
While directions for families and other visitors vary across the country, depending on the rate of COVID-19 in the community, many of the new approaches to connecting residents and their families during this turbulent time require new and updated technology, enhanced use of personal protective equipment, upgrades to home infrastructure and additional staff to ensure safe visits.
This is why CALTC called on the federal government in September for immediate and stable funding in the amount of $2.1 billion over two years to cover personal protective equipment, staffing and other costs associated with COVID-19. I would like to acknowledge and thank the federal government for investing the first $1 billion of that ask through the safe long-term care fund just last week.
However, mental health challenges in long-term care, like other challenges exposed through the coronavirus, are not unique to this moment. Further long-term care investments are required to support structural changes that bring the infrastructure and training that homes and staff need to provide the level and type of care seniors deserve.
Specifically, investments need to be made in the retrofitting and rebuilding of new long-term care homes to create environments that live up to modern design standards, especially with respect to residents living with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.
Additionally, a vital component of success in the provision of health care, from individual care plans to facility operations to government policy direction, depends on having the best information available that has been collected at the point of care. This is true for long-term care. Facility-level data that is comparable and shared across Canada can support policy-makers and health practitioners in improving the quality of care, and therefore the quality of life for long-term care residents.
Finally, it is time to modernize the Canada health transfer to include dedicated demographic top-up that reflects the increased costs of aging populations. We can only hope to appropriately address mental health for residents through the appropriate funding of all aspects of their home life and their care, and there is a role for the federal government in ensuring access to the appropriate mental health supports.
In closing, we cannot pretend that mental health care is somehow separate from other types of care received in homes, or even separate from other challenges the sector faces. It's easy to look at the current situation in long-term care homes across the country and say that long-term care is something to be avoided at all cost. It's easy to discuss and demonize long-term care homes as warehouses for the elderly. This, however, is not the long-term care that we as operators and staff know it to be.
There is not a home in this country that does not see itself as an extended family, one that includes its residents, their families, staff and the community in which they operate. Phrases such as “warehousing” are a real problem in mobilizing much-needed funding and support for the sector.
To truly address the systemic issues in long-term care and ensure that the effects of COVID-19 don't happen again, we need to stop discussing long-term care as a last resort for seniors and start thinking instead of how we can make the last years of someone's life vibrant and comfortable. How can we invest in long-term care homes, communities and wraparound seniors services to ensure that seniors who come into a care environment feel as though they are making a new home?
Thank you for this opportunity to speak to your committee.