Disabled adults in LTC and COVID
September 12, 2020
As regular readers (!) will know, my research focus is on working-aged adults who live in long term care facilities, where the average age is 85 years old and the average resident tends to have some form of dementia. The care they are receiving simply doesn’t fit their needs – like going to the dentist to care for a broken arm.
We know that COVID-19 has exposed cracks in our social systems, and there have been horrific situations in long term care facilities, particularly in Ontario and Quebec. Moving forward there appears to be widespread support to “build back better” in our care system. Unfortunately, this is being framed as a seniors issue, and the voices of these disabled adults are still not being heard.
I am working with the MS Society to try to get these voices included in the myriad of task forces and working groups that are being formed to tackle this issue. We have written this paper, linked below, to explain the situation in more detail. If you find yourself with the opportunity to talk to someone with the capacity to make change happen in your community, please raise this issue.
