Advocacy
ONTARIO ADVOCACY CONSORTIUM
PRESS STATEMENT ON NURSING HOME
CLOSURES IN TORONTO
July 10, 2024​
Seniors for Social Action Ontario is pleased to partner with 6 provincial disability justice and rights organizations in advancing the need for alternatives to the dehumanizing practice of warehousing people with disabilities of all ages in long-term care institutions. This News Release challenges the Ford government to redirect funding for closed nursing homes towards building a 21st Century long-term care system that offers choice in the provision of long-term care.
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Advocacy by an SSAO Member
July 3, 2024
Canadian Human Rights Commission,
344 Slater Street, 8th Floor, Ottawa, ON K1A 1E1
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Dear Commission
Last October I sent a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) regarding the action of my bank. It began to require more security measures by requiring a code when making an e-transfer.
The code could be sent by mobile phone only and not by land line.
My complaint filed with the CHRC was that this is an example of ageism. There are a number of steps in the bank complaint process all of which were fulfilled.
Advocacy Bulletin - June 3, 2024
SECRECY AND LACK OF ACCOUNTABILITY – WHAT IS THE GOVERNMENT HIDING IN LONG-TERM CARE?
The Case of Orchard Villa, Pickering
Orchard Villa in Pickering, owned by Southbidge Care Homes Inc., has one of the worst track records in Ontario. During the COVID pandemic 206 of 233 residents contracted the disease in that facility and more than 70 residents died (Brown, 2024).
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On April 21, 2020, the Durham Region Medical Officer of Health was concerned enough that he issued an order to Southbridge under the Health Protection and Promotion Act to address the immediate risk of COVID-19 to residents and staff of the facility. The order included the local public hospital, Lakeridge Health, taking the lead in monitoring, investigating, and responding to the outbreak. The Order required Southbridge Care Homes to “enhance measures for the protection of residents and staff” (Durham Region, 2020).
Bulletin - May 16, 2024
ONTARIO ADVOCACY CONSORTIUM BRIEF TO THE CABINET AND
SENIOR CIVIL SERVICE OF ONTARIO
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For the first time in four decades provincial organizations representing elders and younger disabled people have joined together to speak with one voice, sending an urgent message to the Ontario Cabinet and the senior civil service. Seniors for Social Action Ontario played a pivotal role in bringing these organizations together to work collectively for change.
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The brief entitled Mass Institutionalization of Persons With Disabilities of All Ages was sent to the Cabinet and senior civil service yesterday, demanding a change in long-term care policy direction and an end to the warehousing of human beings in violation of their human rights.
This document details the range of alternative options the Ontario Government has in preventing the hospitalization and institutionalization of thousands of vulnerable Ontarians.
It demonstrates irrefutably the failure of Ontario's long-term care policy and its dehumanization of persons with disabilities - old and young.
The Board of Seniors for Social Action Ontario is making this brief available today to our members.
Please feel free to widely distribute this information.
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Bulletin - May 6, 2024
ACTION ALERT
IT'S TIME TO WRITE
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On May 4, 2024 the Toronto Star published this letter to the editor from a resident in one of Doug Ford's newly built long-term care institutions in Owen Sound. Hers is a poignant call to action for all of us.
It proves that this is not about new buildings, it is about the need to keep people at home and in their own communities if they require residential care.
Institutions cannot be fixed. The Inspection Branch is helpless against the corporate power of the long-term care industry.
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Bulletin - April 15, 2024
THE LAUNCH OF
“IT’S TIME FOR CHANGE CORPS”
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If you and any group with which you are affiliated have been successful in advancing Aging in Place initiatives in your area, we want to hear from you. Tell us what you are up to!
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Please e-mail us and tell us what area you are from and what you have been able to achieve at in your area at seniorsactionontario@gmail.com
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Information Bulletin - March 27, 2024
OUR ADVOCACY IS PAYING OFF – $2 BILLION MORE FOR HOME CARE IN THE ONTARIO BUDGET
Several months ago Seniors for Social Action Ontario (SSAO) filed a comprehensive Freedom of Information (FOI) Request asking the Ministry of Health questions about funding for Home Care. The results of that FOI can be found here, reported in our last Information Bulletin.
Information Bulletin - March 26, 2024
PROGRAM OF ALL INCLUSIVE CARE OF THE ELDERLY (PACE) EXPANSION IN ONTARIO
Seniors for Social Action Ontario has been actively working towards the expansion of PACE as part of Home Care Modernization across the province. The Ministry of Health has adopted Home Care Modernization as one of its priorities, and this has been conveyed to local Ontario Health Teams.
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Municipalities and regions now have an opportunity to work with their local Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) to make PACE a reality in community housing and seniors buildings in their areas. For funding to flow from Ontario Health, there needs to be local demand for this program, so approaching your local Councils about PACE, and spearheading similar motions to the one below to your Regional Councils and MPPs will be critical.
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Information Bulletin - March 25, 2024
THIS IS WHY YOU CAN’T GET HOME CARE
After three deadline extensions, four months of waiting, and finally an appeal with the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Commission sending the Ministry of Health a Notice of Inquiry, the Ministry finally gave up the information requested by Seniors for Social Action Ontario – all 7 pages of it.
We have long wondered why people seem unable to get anywhere near the number of hours of in-home support they require – causing them to be forced into long-term care institutions in huge numbers. The results of our Freedom of Information request on Home Care tell the story.
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PROVINCIAL ADVOCACY BULLETIN
OPEN LETTER TO MARIT STYLES, LEADER OF THE ONTARIO NDP - OFFICIAL OPPOSITION
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NURSING HOMES ARE NOT HOMES!
March 21, 2024
I was appalled to read about the Ford government counting 10,000 new institution “beds” as if they were “homes” in order to boost statistics about building new housing in Ontario.
Housing Critic Jessica Bell agreed with the Conservatives’ misleading use of data (D’Mello & Callan, 2024).
Now we learn that you also “agreed with (Housing Minister) Calandra that a long-term care bed should count as a home” (Callan & D’Mello, 2024).
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PROVINCIAL ADVOCACY BULLETIN
OPEN LETTER TO PREMIER FORD, COPIED TO THE MINISTERS OF HEALTH AND LONG-TERM CARE, ONTARIO HEALTH, AND THEIR STAFF
March 15, 2024
Please forward this letter to your MPP's and any other groups
with which you are affiliated.
Good morning Premier Ford,
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Today the Toronto Star reported that nursing homes are closing in favor of condos. Seniors for Social Action Ontario is cheering this news, not just because we informed your government a couple of years ago that this would happen, but because your government's emphasis on institutionalizing old people rather than helping them to age in place is cruel, archaic, and dehumanizing, especially when you could, and should be funding alternatives to these institutions and stop wasting Ontarian's tax dollars on nursing home corporations and bricks and mortar initiatives that only please developers.
SYNOPSIS
HOME CARE MODERNIZATION ZOOM SESSION
January 23, 2024
With Rhonda McMichael, Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Partnerships Division, Ministry of Health
and
Amy Olmstead, Director, Home and Community Care Branch, Ministry of Health
For years, Home Care has functioned largely independently of the larger health care system. It has also gone through several iterations – Community Care Access Centres (CCACs), Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), and Home and Community Care Support Services (HCCSS). It is against this backdrop that Home Care Modernization is occurring.
Submission Concerning Bill 135,
The Convenient Care At Home Act, 2023
This Submission concerning Bill 135, the Convenient Care At Home Act, 2023 is here to facilitate your ability to make yours or your organization's own submissions to the Standing Committee.
The deadline for submissions is November 15, 2023 so time is of the essence.
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The criteria for doing so can be found here should you wish to appear before the Committee or file a Submission: https://www.ola.org/en/get-involved/participate-committees
Submissions can be sent to:
Procedural Services Branch
Whitney Block
Room 1405
99 Wellesley St. W
Toronto, ON M7A 1A2
Telephone: 416-325-3500
Fax: 416-325-3505
and submitted online using the Online Submissions form: https://www.ola.org/en/apply-committees
The more who make submissions aligned with the content of Seniors for Social Action's submission, the more likely the Committee will pay attention to our recommendations.
Thank you for supporting our work.
Information Bulletin - October 30, 2023
PROPOSED BILL 135 AMENDING THE
CONVENIENT CARE AT HOME ACT
The Government of Ontario has introduced legislation amalgamating the 14 area Home and Community Care Support Services (HCCSS) organizations as a Crown agent under amendments to this Act. The amalgamated organization will be called The Service Organization and be known as Ontario Health at Home.
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Advocacy Bulletin - October 23, 2023
HOME AND COMMUNITY CARE SUPPORT SERVICES (HCCSS) RETURNS FUNDS TO MINISTRY OF HEALTH AS CLIENTS UNABLE TO ACCESS ADEQUATE HOME CARE
​In filing a Freedom of Information request, Seniors for Social Action Ontario has learned that at least seven HCCSS offices have returned millions of dollars to the Ministry of Health as of March 31, 2022.
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SYSTEMIC AND INTERNALIZED AGEISM
ABANDONMENT, REJECTION, STIGMATIZATION, SEGREGATION, EXCLUSION, AND BEING IGNORED
Ageism has become an epidemic in Canada and it is having an extremely debilitating effect on the mental and physical health of older adults.
This Brief to Federal and Provincial Ministers responsible for aging policies reflects the voices of elders themselves. It is Seniors for Social Action Ontario's hope that the policy makers will finally listen.
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Action Alert- August 18, 2023
Tell Parliament: We Need Accessible Housing NOW!
It’s time to rally behind a cause that affects us all - the ACCESSIBLE housing crisis.
Please sign this petition to the House of Commons. And please share widely across Canada.
The Accessible Housing Network is calling for the National Building Code to be changed to make Universal Design mandatory in all new apartments and condos, so anyone can live there, regardless of age or disability.
Thank-you for your support!
https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-4543
Information Bulletin - August 8, 2023
AGING AT HOME INITIATIVES ARE FINALLY EXPANDING!
For three years now Seniors for Social Action Ontario (SSAO) has been advocating for PACE (Program of All Inclusive Care of the Elderly) and Hub and Spoke models, both of which take care to elders, rather than elders being uprooted and institutionalized to receive care (CBC The National, 2022).
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Important Bulletin - July 24, 2023
PLEASE COMPLETE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SURVEY
Once again the Federal government is heading in the wrong direction in its survey questions. PLEASE COMPLETE THIS SURVEY AND SET THEM STRAIGHT! The more who do, the more they will have to listen.
The link is provided here:
Consultation Online Questionnaire: Safe Long-Term Care Act (qualtrics.com)
Bulletin - July 3, 2023
ARE WE SEEING BRASS KNUCKLE CAPITALISM
BY THE FORD GOVERNMENT?
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Ordinary citizens and municipally elected officials in ordinary towns are starting to get sick of the Ford government’s favoritism of long-term care companies with terrible track records like Southbridge and are fighting back (Davis, 2023). This government is giving more beds and 30-year licenses to print money to some of the worst corporations in Ontario (Oved et al, 2022).
INFORMATION BULLETIN
May 28, 2023
EMAIL/LETTER TO THE MINISTER OF HEALTH
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Subject: Hospital at Home
Date: Sun, 28 May 2023 08:45:10 -0400
From: Seniors Ontario <seniorsactionontario@gmail.com>
To: sylvia.jones@ontario.ca
CC: Vijay.Chauhan@ontario.ca, chris.dacunha@ontario.ca, martha.greenberg@ontario.ca
Dear Ms Jones,
I am writing to ask whether or not the Ministry of Health is considering launching a Hospital at Home program?
As you may know Spain, the United States, Israel, France, Australia, Singapore, and the U.K have all embraced this concept as part of an international community of Hospital at Home practitioners.
With the ongoing pressure on emergency rooms and hospitals, this would seem to be a worthwhile, cost-effective, and patient-centered approach.
Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Yours truly,
Patricia Spindel, Chair, Seniors for Social Action (Ontario)
https://www.seniorsactionontario.com/
ACTION ALERT!
BILL 101 - AN ADVOCATE FOR OLDER ADULTS ACT
May 18, 2023
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Lise Vaugeois of the NDP has introduced a Private Members' Bill that requires the support of Seniors for Social Action Ontario members.
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"The Bill enacts the Advocate for Older Adults Act, 2023, which establishes an Advocate for Older Adults who is an independent officer of the Legislative Assembly. The functions of the Advocate for Older Adults include advocating in the interests of older adults and family members of older adults who act as caregivers. In addition, the Advocate for Older Adults is required to advise, in an independent manner, the Minister, public officials and persons who fund or deliver services for older adults on systemic challenges faced by older adults, policies and practices to address existing systemic challenges and other matters that may come to the attention of the Advocate for Older Adults.
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The Advocate for Older Adults may make reports to the public and is required to prepare an annual report on the activities of the Advocate. The reports may include recommendations relevant to preventing and mitigating the systemic challenges faced by older adults. In order to assist the Advocate for Older Adults, the Advocate may establish an advisory council. The Advocate for Older Adults also has authority to require the provision of information in specified circumstances. The Act also provides that no person shall face reprisals for having assisted the Advocate for Older Adults. Other administrative matters are provided for." https://www.ola.org/en/legislative-business/bills/parliament-43/session-1/bill-101
Please e-mail your MPP indicating your support for this Bill. Your MPP's e-mail address can be found here if you click on their names: https://www.ola.org/en/members/current
ACTION ALERT!
HOME CARE EMERGENCY!
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Time to contact your MPPs!
February 18, 2023
The Ontario government is clearly backtracking on its election promise to invest $1 Billion in Home Care. This report from the Ottawa Citizen tells the story: Home-care agencies cut services in wait for promised Ontario funding | Ottawa Citizen
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Struggling home- and community-care agencies forced to cut services as they wait for promised provincial funding
SSAO has almost a thousand members on its Distribution List and many of you belong to other organizations. If we all e-mail our MPPs IN UNISON in the next three days, expressing our outrage at the government withholding Home Care funding from non-profit community agencies we can pressure the government and Opposition to take up this issue.
Please do it today! You can opt to send this message by copying and pasting it into an e-mail:
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I am outraged to read that Home Care funding is being withheld after the promise was made in the last election that the PC government would invest an additional $1 Billion in Home Care.
I want to know what you are doing as my MPP to raise this issue with the government.
I will not accept a form letter response. I want to know what specific actions you will personally take to address this important issue.
I look forward to your response by Thursday, February 23, 2023.
(Name, address, phone number, e-mail address)
PLEASE ACT NOW!
You can find your MPPs contact information here: https://www.ola.org/en/members/current (Click on their names to find their e-mail addresses).
Please copy seniorsactionontario@gmail.com up front in your e-mail. They need to know that you are a member.
ACTION ALERT!
PLEASE WRITE TO YOUR
CONSERVATIVE MPP'S
January 19, 2023
The letter can be amended to send to Opposition MPP's as well.
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SSAO is providing a template letter for you to send to your Conservative MPP's over your signature. Please consider sending it today. MPP's are in their offices on Fridays. Thank you for assisting us in our systemic advocacy campaign to get this government and the Opposition parties to change direction.
Your MPP's e-mail address can be found here by clicking on their name: https://www.ola.org/en/members/current
INFORMATION BULLETIN
August 25, 2022
AN OPEN LETTER TO THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF THE ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
Dear Ms DeGuire,
For too long, ageism has been seen as a lesser form of discrimination. Society’s grandparents and great grandparents have been pushed to the margins of society and shown, in word and deed, that they do not matter. The strong message – they are old and will die soon anyway – ever present.
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Older adults are the only group in society besides prisoners who are still mass institutionalized in a socially acceptable act of systemic marginalization........
INFORMATION BULLETIN
August 23, 2022
SENIORS FOR SOCIAL ACTION ONTARIO SENDS OPEN LETTER TO THE MINISTERS OF HEALTH, LONG-TERM CARE, AND
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF ONTARIO.
THIS LETTER HAS ALSO BEEN COPIED TO THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA AND TO THE CHIEF COMMISSIONER OF THE ONTARIO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
In a strongly worded letter released yesterday, Seniors for Social Action Ontario has advised the Ontario government that Bill 7 violates older adults' fundamental human and constitutional rights. Citing Superior and Supreme Court Decisions in Canada, as well as provisions of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to which Canada is a signatory, SSAO took issue with the Ontario government's plan to allow older adults and people with disabilities to be arbitrarily admitted to long-term care facilities without their consent and to share their personal health information with those facilities, also without their consent.
Citing a range of alternative actions that the Ontario government could have taken to support older adults and people with disabilities in their own homes and communities, we call on the provincial government to immediately withdraw Bill 7.
Please feel free to share this letter with your MPPs, your federal MPs, and any groups of which you are a member, as well as on social media. This letter needs to be widely distributed.
As always thank you for your support of our advocacy initiatives.
JOINT PUBLIC STATEMENT CALLING FOR
END TO PROFIT IN LONG TERM CARE
Issued by:
Concerned Friends of Ontario Citizens in Care Facilities
Seniors for Social Action Ontario
Ontario Society of Senior Citizens’ Organizations
November 3, 2020
A DIGNIFIED OLD AGE: CARE IN THE COMMUNITY
Fall 2020 Ontario Pre-Budget Submission
October 6, 2020
PUBLIC STATEMENT THANKING OTTAWA’S AND DURHAM REGION’S MEDICAL OFFICERS OF HEALTH
September 24, 2020
PROVINCIAL SENIORS ADVOCACY ORGANIZATION CALLS FOR ONTARIO’S AUDITOR GENERAL TO CONDUCT A VALUE-FOR-MONEY AUDIT INTO LONG-TERM CARE HOMES
May 22, 2020
PROVINCIAL SENIORS ADVOCACY ORGANIZATION
CALLS FOR AN INDEPENDENT PUBLIC INQUIRY
May 19, 2020
"An institution is neither a home nor a place of care. An institution is a closed system where problems of human deprivation and indignity are quietly managed, where societal failings are hidden, and where people, individually or, as we now know, by tens of thousands, can die without
triggering alarm."
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Dr. Catherine Frazee
Professor Emerita, Ryerson,
former Chief Commissioner of the
Ontario Human Rights Commission
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"Without legal avenues to challenge their situation, persons with disabilities deprived of their liberty become invisible and forgotten by the wider community. Indeed, due to the mistaken belief that those practices are well intentioned and beneficial, their situation and well-being is hardly monitored by national preventive mechanisms or human rights institutions."
Office of the High Commissioner,
United Nations
Rest in Peace Sparky (Terri) Johnson
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SSAO is devastated at the tragic loss of another of our core members - Sparky (Terri) Johnson. Sparky was a kind, compassionate woman for whom the fight for social justice for older adults in long-term care facilities was her life's work. She was determined to advocate for alternatives to these institutions, and to stop the neglect and abuse occurring in them. Her dedication will be forever remembered by all of us.
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Sparky, an Indigenous woman, had strong spiritual beliefs about her path in life that required defense of those who suffered. A stroke survivor herself, she was a role model for many.
Sparky was the victim of a homicide and was found in North Pickering. Her room mate has confessed to her murder. It is heartbreaking that she died so tragically.
Rest In Peace Don Weitz, 1930 - 2021
We are all saddened today as we mourn the loss of another co-founder of Seniors For Social Action Ontario (SSAO), Don Weitz.
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Don was a long time activist for the rights of psychiatric survivors, and was often seen at demonstrations protesting everything from racism to supporting the Mother's Day March for people with developmental disabilities.
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He was an eloquent writer and street poet as well as a significant support to many people struggling with homelessness, addiction, and mental health issues.
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With SSAO he offered an important voice concerning the over use of psychotropic medications in long term care facilities, and the treatment of individuals with psychiatric disabilities living there. He was a strong advocate against institutionalization because of his first hand knowledge of institutional abuses and his own mistreatment.
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Don's was not an easy life. His own personal experience of tragedy, discrimination, and oppression may have overwhelmed someone with a lesser spirit, but Don pressed on, speaking out about the things that mattered to his last days.
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His strong, unwavering voice and kind heart will be greatly missed by those of us who knew him for decades.
Rest in peace, Don. Yours was a meaningful life well lived.
