More on the Closure of Extendicare

Ms Pastoor: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Minister of Health and Wellness stated on May 20 of ’08 in this Legislature that “obviously, we need more long-term care facilities,” which gave me great hope. However, two days ago in Lethbridge families were told that the long-term care facility operated by Extendicare would be closed by July 1 of 2009.
To the Minister of Health and Wellness: why is the minister allowing this situation in Lethbridge, where Extendicare is closing 120 long-term care facility beds in spite of his statement that long-term care facilities are needed in the province?

Mr. Liepert: Well, Mr. Speaker, the member is correct that the facility in Lethbridge, which is quite aged, is going to close. However, what the hon. member did not mention is the fact that there is a replacement centre going up. It’s a designated assisted living centre. As a matter of fact, the former Chinook health region has one of the leading models on how we can have seniors live in facilities that are not always long-term care.

Ms Pastoor: Definitions are clearly needed to be understood in this province. DAL is not long-term care. Is this what the minister was referring to on May 20 in ’08, when he said that “we need to look at removing barriers that exist today for private operators to also participate in the delivery of long-term care?”
Does the minister want to shut down the pre-existing facilities in order to create more demand for profit long-term care?

Mr. Liepert: Mr. Speaker, I know where this member is coming from. This member believes in a philosophy that as soon as you can, you stick a senior citizen into long-term care in an area that they don’t necessary feel the most comfortable in. It’s a philosophical difference. What we are going to do in this province is provide facilities, a variety of facilities, where our seniors can live in dignity where they want to live, not where the opposition wants them to be.

Ms Pastoor: Absolutely, totally wrong. You’re not getting it.
When long-term care was deregulated – housing and care are two different things. I’m talking about care. What is the minister’s response to the residents of the current long-term care facility who were assessed as needing care beyond the level that can be delivered by a designated assisted living facility that won’t even be completed by the time the long-term care facility closes?

Mr. Liepert: Mr. Speaker, this member can get all worked up into a sweat about it, but there are other long-term care facilities in
Lethbridge, so the health region has said that they will ensure that these particular patients are looked after. There are many facilities in southern Alberta that can accommodate the needs of these citizens.

Alberta Hansard, October 22, page #1473

Long Term Plans for Long Term Care

For the past few years the regional health authorities have been pursuing a policy of converting Long Term Care (LTC) facilities into Designated Assisted Living (DAL) facilities in our region. The latest measure is the announced closing of Extendicare's LTC facility on the northside of Lethbridge and the building of a new DAL facility on the southside, down by Superstore.

What are the implications of this policy?

1. LTC facilities have RNs, LPNs, a Director of Care, social workers, dieticians, physical/occupational therapists, rec therapists, and Personal Care Aides (PCAs) - DALs have PCAs and may have an LPN.

2. In LTC residents meds, incontinence products etc are covered. In DAL the resident or their family pay for them.

The rationale offered for the policy is that not all seniors need a nursing home level of care so the building of DAL facilities offers a medium step between a lodge and LTC. Fine. But once Extendicare closes its LTC the only nursing home left in the city will be Edith Cavell. I've spent a lot of time in nursing homes and I don't believe that there is any way that one 80 bed facility can handle the nursing care needs of seniors in our community. This isn't about creating more options. This is about slashing the cost of caring for seniors with significant nursing needs and transferring those costs onto the families. This is about warehousing seniors. I find it an appalling policy.

The more immediate issue is the decision to close Extendicare in July and farm 120 residents out to the existing DALs in the region until a new DAL facility is built. So people will not only lose their home they will be separated from the other residents and from the staff who are like their family. They may find themselves placed in Taber or the Pass and their families will not be able to visit as often. It may mean they will see much less of their husbands or wives. It is a horrible decision with grave implications. My letter to the editor appeared in the paper this morning. You can read it here.

Great News

Last Monday was a brutal day. Families were told at Extendicare that the Lethbridge facility would be closed next July although they haven't even started building the new facility. This means residents will be separated not only from their home but also from their friends to be farmed out across the health region.

Then a hearing was held concerning the rezoning necessary to move the Native Women's Transition Home into the old Netherlands Reformed Church. It was tough to sit and listen to people raising their concerns about the home moving into their neighbourhood and then have one of the women from the Transition board cry asking the neighbours to please just accept them.

But today was a good day. The City Council voted unanimously to approve the rezoning so the Transition Home now has a new permanent site!

Now we have to do what we can to convince the powers that be to postpone the closing of Extendicare until the new facility is built.

Your result for Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz...

You Are a Doris!

You are a Doris -- "I must help others."

Dorises are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people's needs.

How to Get Along with Me

• * Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.


• * Share fun times with me.


• * Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.


• * Let me know that I am important and special to you.


• * Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.

In Intimate Relationships

• * Reassure me that I am interesting to you.


• * Reassure me often that you love me.


• * Tell me I'm attractive and that you're glad to be seen with me.

What I Like About Being a Doris

• * being able to relate easily to people and to make friends


• * knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better


• * being generous, caring, and warm


• * being sensitive to and perceptive about others' feelings


• * being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor

What's Hard About Being a Doris

• * not being able to say no


• * having low self-esteem


• * feeling drained from overdoing for others


• * not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish


• * criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should


• * being upset that others don't tune in to me as much as I tume in to them


• * working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings

Dorises as Children Often

• * are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism


• * try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding


• * are outwardly compliant


• * are popular or try to be popular with other children


• * act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention


• * are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Dorises), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Dorises)

Dorises as Parents

• * are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren't)


• * are often playful with their children


• * wonder: "Am I doing it right?" "Am I giving enough?" "Have I caused irreparable damage?"


• * can become fiercely protective

Take Are You a Jackie or a Marilyn? Or Someone Else? Mad Men-era Female Icon Quiz at HelloQuizzy

thanks to Crimson Rambler

Glorious Concert

At yesterday's convocation at the University of Lethbridge Ben Heppner was given an honourary degree and then today he gave a concert to raise money for music scholarships. It was a glorious concert! There were four standing ovations including one in the middle of the concert. He was incredible.

The heart of the concert for me were two operatic pieces. The first was from Massanet's opera Le Cid. It is this beautiful prayer - the lines that especially moved me were "O sovereign, O judge, O father, always hidden, ever present, I loved you in times of good fortune and I bless you in times of sadness!" The piece that did me in though was the next aria from Andrea Chenier by Umberto Giordano. It is an indictment of French nobility who turn their backs on the plight of the poor and the final line is, "love is a gift divine, do not despise it, the moving spirit of the universe is love!" Dad was very present to me while Dr. Heppner sang that piece. I wish it had gone on a lot longer.

Today I was very proud to be associated with the university.

The Lord's Prayer

I love the Speaking to the Soul site over at Episcopal Cafe and read it most mornings as part of my morning prayer. Today's was really delightful:

Daily Reading for October 16 • Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley, Bishops, 1555, and Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1556

But one word is left, which we must needs consider; Noster, ‘our.’ He saith not ‘my,’ but ‘our.’ Wherefore saith he ‘our’? This word ‘our’ teacheth us to consider that the Father of heaven is a common Father; as well my neighbour’s Father as mine; as well the poor man’s Father as the rich: so that he is not a peculiar Father, but a Father to the whole church and congregation, to all the faithful. Be they never so poor, so vile, so foul and despised, yet he is their Father as well as mine: and therefore I should not despise them, but consider that God is their Father as well as mine. Here may we perceive what communion is between us; so that when I pray, I pray not for myself alone, but for all the rest: again, when they pray, they pray not for themselves only, but for me: for Christ hath so framed this prayer, that I must needs include my neighbour in it. Therefore all those which pray this prayer, they pray as well for me as for themselves; which is a great comfort to every faithful heart, when he considereth that all the church prayeth for him. For amongst such a great number there be some which be good, and whose prayer God will hear. . . . So that it is a great comfort unto us to know that all good and faithful persons pray for us.

From Hugh Latimer’s “First Sermon on the Lord’s Prayer,” in The Works of Hugh Latimer, ed. G. E. Corrie (Parker Society, 1844).

The Blessing of the Animals

Yesterday at Ascension we blessed the animals!