Welcome to ottawacaregiver.com, the site where caregivers can find useful and practical information on long-term care, nursing homes and in-home care.
The site is home to the 2023 revised edition of There’s No Place Like Home, a publication aimed at supporting caregivers with loved ones in long-term care facilities.
Thank you for your interest in our information.
By Lise Cloutier-Steele
THERE’S NO PLACE LIKE HOME
Revised Edition
A guide to help caregivers manage
the long-term care experience
In the 2023 revised edition of There’s No Place Like Home, Lise Cloutier-Steele writes about the conditions in care facilities. She shares her experience as her late father’s guardian and advocate while he resided in a long-term care facility for a period of over three years. The book moves from personal stories to practical and helpful information for caregivers with a loved one in care.
Seniors must push to fix long-term care once and for all / Opinion Editorial
Lise Cloutier-Steele says no one wants to spend their later years in an institution. Seniors need a plan that will allow them to age in place with dignity.
Lise Cloutier-Steele
The following article was published on June 24, 2024, in the Ottawa Citizen‘s online edition and in the print edition of the Vancouver Sun. On June 25, 2024, a more detailed version of the article was published on the website of Concerned Friends of Ontario Citizens in Long-Term Care Facilities, www.concernedfriends.ca, and it was posted here: https://www.concernedfriends.ca/2024/06/planning-for-the-long-term/ as well as on the organization’s Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn social media accounts.
I am 71 years old, and like many seniors in my age group, I sometimes wonder what my exit from life will look like. Despite my daily efforts to eat well, exercise and maintain an active lifestyle, anything could happen. After all, illness does not discriminate.
Recently, I watched a beautiful movie starring James Cromwell and Geneviève Bujold, whose outstanding performances moved me to tears a few times. It’s the true story of a farmer caregiving for his wife when she begins to suffer from dementia. The husband had a great plan to build a smaller home to make everyday living easier for him and his wife, and despite the many problems he faced with his project, it all worked out in the end.
I couldn’t help but think that this is how I hope things will work out for my husband and me, and there’s no reason why we couldn’t enjoy a similar happy outcome, one that would allow us to retain our independence and dignity right up to the end. But for that to happen, planning for any eventuality is key.
There have been times when I’ve told my husband that if he became ill, and couldn’t care for himself, a long-term care facility would be out of the question. I always add: “That would be over my dead body!” Of course, that assumes I would be available and able to coordinate home care for him, and advocate on his behalf. If that were not the case, health care system authorities would likely have him committed to a care facility in no time.
If I became widowed, and could no longer care for myself, the same could happen to me.
I know I would be devastated if I ended up in a facility where basic care and safety could not be guaranteed, as my late father was when he realized there would be no turning back to the life he once knew. Although his tears made me feel guilty and sad, I couldn’t blame him, and knowing what I know now about long-term care, he had good reason to cry.
The recently released documentary film Stolen Time is yet another compelling call for justice for residents in care. The film follows elder rights lawyer Melissa Miller as she takes on the corporate for-profit/nursing-home industry, which is notorious for its lack of transparency and accountability.
The film should prompt all Canadian seniors to do what they can to push the political will to effect change in long-term care once and for all. An important first step, as suggested Ms. Miller in a television interview, would be to take the profit out of care.
No one wants to spend their later years in an institution, and so more than ever, seniors need a plan for their golden years that would allow them to age in place with dignity. It could include a variety of options such as a granny suite, co-habitation, provisions for in-home care if needed, or a retirement residence where assisted-living services are available.
My husband and I live in a senior community, where folks tend to look out for one another, and this bodes well for us to remain independent. Should one of us be left behind, neighbours would always provide a human connection. I guess this part of our plan to age in place has worked out well.
It’s the possibility of a non-optional long-term care outcome for either one of us that I continue to struggle with. Yet, it’s not like I wouldn’t know what to do given my previous caregiving experiences.
In the meantime, home is home, where we plan to make the best of each day going forward for as long as we possibly can. If a health challenge becomes part of our life together, then we would face it with a strategy that has worked well for us up until now: common sense with a mix of love and kindness.
Meet the Author
Lise Cloutier-Steele
Lise Cloutier-Steele is the author of Living and Learning with a Child who Stutters, and the recipient of a Canada 125 Award in recognition of a significant contribution to the community and to Canada for her volunteer efforts to help children who stutter and their parents.
She is also the author of the Canadian and U.S. editions of Misinformed Consent – Women’s Stories about Unnecessary Hysterectomy. In September 2004 and 2005, she appeared on the CBC’s The Nature of Things with David Suzuki. The CBC documentary film was based on Misinformed Consent and featured interviews with the medical experts who supported the book project.
lise@ottawacaregiver.com
“Everyone must keep in mind that someday we, ourselves, and/or our spouses may require care, even at the level of Lise’s father. I do hope, like the couple featured on the cover, that in my most senior years I will be able to get out for a walk in natural areas. The likelihood of continued quality of life will be greatly increased if appropriate care is available to me, if required. With sound planning and management, there is no reason why we cannot have affordable, adequate care for all of our elderly citizens. Good care is actually less expensive, at least in the long run, because it prevents expensive crises. Also, good care early enough can help prevent the need for more expensive care later.”
― Bruce F. Simpson, senior partner, Barnes, Sammon LLP, Ottawa, Ontario
Visitors: 33,074