Sick seniors sent home too soon, groups claim

Hotline set up in August has taken over 700 calls

Louisa Taylor, The Ottawa Citizen

A hotline collecting stories about seniors being pushed out of hospital while still acutely ill has attracted more than 700 calls, and the groups behind the initiative (The Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists and The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions) say they’re hearing confirmation that Ontario seniors are being shortchanged when it comes to health care in hospitals and in the community.

$3.8M to help care for dementia patients funding to pay for 48 health-care workers

Pauline Tam, The Ottawa Citizen

Eastern Ontario is getting $3.8M in provincial funding to hire 48 more health-care workers as part of a program to provide better care for aggressive and “difficult” patients with dementia and other neurological disorders.

Former Carleton Lodge worker convicted on assault charge

Woman who was charged pinned the wrists of a dementia patient after he allegedly jabbed her with a pen and punched her in the face

Messenger Editorial, Year in review

A former Carleton Lodge employee was convicted on one charge of assault but acquitted on a second charge of assault causing bodily harm.

Nursing home violence on the rise: Dementia seen as contributing factor

Andrew Duffy, The Ottawa Citizen

A 2005 inquest into a double murder at the Casa Verde Nursing Home in Toronto produced 85 recommendations. The inquest called for better behavioural assessments, specialized units for aggressive residents, more nursing care, training and funding. Health care unions have argued that the level of violence is exacerbated by chronic understaffing and insufficient training.

Woman killed at Barrhaven care home: 82-year-old the year’s 11th homicide victim

Zev Singer and Meghan Hurley, The Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa police major crime officers are investigating the Boxing Day stabbing death of an 82-year-old woman at a long-term care home in Barrhaven. While officials at Longfields Manor are not commenting, sources say the woman was killed with a hunting knife.