‘It’s just heart-wrenching’: daughter

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This article was published 14/06/2023 (863 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dianne Grey-Wysocki is watching her 92-year-old mother, who lives in a personal-care home without fully functioning air conditioning, suffer both physically and emotionally.

It’s a frightening reality for Lucy Grey and the 87 other residents at Golden Links Lodge this year, as staff have been forced to resort to closing windows, dimming lights and using face cloths and buckets of ice to keep people cool as the temperature frequently rises above 30 C.

“There’s got to be some sort of solution. It’s just heart-wrenching when you go there,” Grey-Wysocki said Tuesday.

Her mother, who has dementia, has been at Golden Links Lodge in south St. Vital since January. Her time there has otherwise been very good, her daughter said.

It came as a shock when she received a memo from Golden Links CEO Marcy-Lynn Larner explaining it was not possible to fix the cooling system or install a new one.

“No one wants their parent to be suffering, and just even knowing that she’s in this care home, and it’s really the only solution we have in the family,” Grey-Wysocki said, her voice shaking with emotion.

“You just feel useless, you feel that you can’t correct the situation for her. And so, it’s really, really hard to leave her at night.”

“You just feel useless, you feel that you can’t correct the situation for her. And so, it’s really, really hard to leave her at night.”

Larner said Golden Links Lodge needs financial help and she put out the memo to make clear staff is doing what they can.

The care home uses a geothermal cooling system installed in the 1980s, but a well wasn’t dug properly and, as a result, the AC functions below capacity.

Last year, the facility spent $45,000 to make “very limited” temporary repairs to the well on the advice of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, Larner said. But when Golden Links applied for reimbursement from Manitoba Health, officials were informed they did not receive prior approval so they would not receive any funds.

Larner said the home doesn’t have the money to make full repairs to the system.

The facility’s electrical system is also outdated, so families can’t pay to install individual window units for their loved ones, she said.

“We’ve increased all the fluids for residents, but at the end of the day, ultimately, it comes down to our residents not being able to regulate just like you and I,” Larner said.

“They’re sitting in the same position for an extended period of time. Rashes and heat sores and those types of things are very real for them, and that creates workflow (demands), that creates more management of the residents and more uncomfortability for the residents. It’s a very layered situation.”

A spokesperson from the province referred to a funding announcement from the provincial and federal government last month that allotted $13.1 million to upgrade ventilation systems in 32 schools and health-care facilities across the province, including about $61,000 to Golden Links.

Larner said she was told the facility can’t access the money now because the funding is meant for new projects and the ongoing issues with the geothermal system are ineligible.

She is working with the WRHA to have the money defined as emergency funding to be used to upgrade the electrical capacity. The geothermal system would take hundreds of thousands of dollars to fully repair.

A new forced-air system could cost up to $1 million to install, she said.

“Since I’ve been here, 61/2, going on seven years, this item has been on our safety and security submission (to the WRHA) every single year; we have been asking for support with this problem every single year. I’m not sure what more we can do.”

A spokesperson from the WRHA said it was aware of cooling-system concerns at Golden Links Lodge.

“All PCH operators are responsible for maintaining a safe and functional operating environment,” the spokesperson said in an email.

Golden Links Lodge faced staff shortages through the pandemic, and was forced to ask for help from the WRHA after half of its residents tested positive for COVID-19 at one point in 2020.

“Quite honestly, coming off of several years of COVID, we’re certainly running very, very, very lean, and that plays a huge part in everything,” Larner said.

Staff are monitoring residents, tracking daily temperatures and providing that information to the WRHA, but Larner said she is worried.

Several residents have been hospitalized recently, and while she can’t be certain the record-setting heat over the past few weeks was responsible, she said Golden Links’ medical director wrote to the WRHA, sounding the alarm.

“As the day is progressing, already in our building, you can feel the temps are rising. It’ll just continue to get warmer and we’re only in June,” Larner said.

“I shudder to think what July and August are going to look like. It’s worrisome.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca