Parkview Place closure sparks home care discussion

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This article was published 12/08/2021 (1534 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The impending closure of a long-term care home that was the site of one of Winnipeg’s largest COVID-19 outbreaks should trigger broader change to help seniors stay in their own homes as long as they can, advocates say.

The Long Term and Continuing Care Association of Manitoba says it is getting involved in transition plans to help find new homes for the approximately 160 current residents of Parkview Place.

“This is going to be very hard for them,” executive director Jan Legeros said Thursday.

The downtown Winnipeg facility is slated to close next year because it “cannot simply be renovated to meet today’s long-term care standards,” Ontario-based Revera Inc., the for-profit company that has operated the home since 1961, announced this week.

There are already about 300 people waiting for admission to a personal care home in Winnipeg, in addition to 40 hospital patients, Legeros said.

However, the loss of the 277-bed facility is a chance to modernize long-term care, she said, explaining the design of such homes should have evolved 30 years ago as residents got older, increasingly suffered from dementia, and had more complex needs.

“I’m hoping this will spark some change.”

Dr. Samir Sinha, director of health policy research for Ryerson University’s National Institute on Ageing, is part of the team working on creating new national standards for Canada’s long-term care system. The standards are expected to be finalized next fall.

Sinha said many of the issues at Parkview Place that led to widespread infections during the COVID-19 pandemic — including crowded quarters and lack of staff — are common systemic problems brought on by chronic underfunding of long-term care homes and management companies’ razor-thin profit margins to keep them running.

About five per cent of Manitoba’s COVID-19 care home deaths were at Parkview Place. There were a total of 165 cases among residents and staff, and 29 residents died, according to data tracked by the institute.

Sinha, who is from Winnipeg, said redeveloping Parkview Place would require significant government funding. Instead, he said it would be better to invest in more intensive home care services.

“The closing of Parkview Place can be a bit of a blessing,” if it’s used as an opportunity to support elderly people to stay in their homes, he said.

Former Parkview Place resident Jeffrey Carter said the lack of staff was the biggest problem he noted during the past year. Carter said he moved out because he wasn’t getting proper care, and complained about a lack of cleanliness and infestations of cockroaches and mice — issues noted in inspection reports of the facility.

Carter said he’s glad the place is closing, but hopes all the residents can find new homes. “There’s not a heck of a lot of places that have open doors right now.”

There will be roughly 200 employees out of work when the care home closes. CUPE health-care co-ordinator Shannon McAteer said many will likely leave before the facility is slated to shut down next August.

“These are the employees that stepped up during COVID… and this is the thanks they get.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay