The Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services endorsed the requested expenditure for $7,100.00 from the Divisional Education Donations Account, to be allocated as follows:

1.         $1,500.00 for education at Carefree Lodge.

2.         $2,800.00 for education at Bendale Acres.
 

3.         $2,800.00 for education at Castleview Wychwood Towers.

The Long-Term Care Homes and Services Division has a variety of donation accounts, including a divisional Education Donations account.  Divisional practice is for any expenditure request from this Education Donations Account to have the support of the General Manager and the Advisory Committee on Long‑Term Care Homes and Services.

Over the last three years, the division has undertaken quality work to create LGBT-inclusiveness.  Working with a LGBT Steering Committee, the Division created and launched a “toolkit” to guide the provision of LGBT-positive care and service in long-term care.  In researching LGBT issues, the Division learned that a vast majority of LGBT persons over the age of 65 years lived most of their lives in an environment of discrimination, sometimes fearing for their own personal safety.  Most LGBT seniors were already adults prior to the gay liberation movement of the 1970s and for many, it was impossible to be openly gay and feel safe.  Staff also learned that there are limited LGBT-positive healthcare services available in Canada, resulting in many LGBT seniors feeling unsafe in disclosing their sexual identity or orientation to mainstream providers due to long-standing fear of discrimination.  This negatively impacted healthy aging and individuals’ sense of personal well-being.

During and following development of the “toolkit”, Fudger House, Kipling Acres and True Davidson Acres embraced LGBT‑inclusiveness, implementing education and strategies from the toolkit.  This report details the desire of the Division to further extend LGBT-inclusiveness awareness, education and care/service provision in three additional homes.  Carefree Lodge, Bendale Acres and Castleview Wychwood Towers have asked to be included in this work.  This report requests approval to utilize the divisional Education Donations Account to support this educational endeavour.

The Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services received the item for information.

At the January 12, 2009 meeting of the LGBT Diversity Initiative Steering Committee, one of the final tasks of the committee was to discuss possible approaches in measuring the success of the initiative within participating homes.  Following significant discussion that was facilitated by the General Manager, the committee suggested measurement of results through a periodic qualitative audit of LGBT inclusiveness, as a first step.  It was recognized that the content of the audit should be grounded in and built on the contents of the LGBT Toolkit itself.

The committee, the General Manager and the Quality Improvement Adviser provided advice regarding the design and content of the audit.  In May 2009, the audit was forwarded to the three participating homes (namely Fudger House, Kipling Acres and True Davidson Acres) with a request that each home administer the audit, providing feedback to the Resident-Client Advocate for collation, review and analysis within the division.

This report provides a high-level overview of the findings, including strengths and opportunities arising from application of the LGBT Inclusiveness Audit across the Division.

The Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services received the item for information.

On November 3, 2009, the Long-Term Care Homes and Services Division began holding on-site H1N1 vaccination clinics for staff, in the ten homes and at Metro Hall.  In total, the Division held over 100 hours of staff vaccination clinics.  These clinics allowed homes’ and community programs’ staff to access their priority sequence to the H1N1 vaccine Arepanrix without the long line-ups encountered at many Toronto Public Health (TPH) clinics throughout the city.  The H1N1 staff vaccination clinics were staffed by paramedics from Toronto Emergency Medical Services (EMS) along with a St. Elizabeth’s Health Care nurse and the Infection Prevention and Control (IPAC) Nurse Manager in each home.  The final worksite clinic was held November 27, 2009.  At this time, the homes’ staff vaccination rate for pH1N1 is on average 60 percent.

Staff were reminded of the importance of receiving the H1N1 influenza vaccination.  Influenza remains one of the most serious illnesses that can affect seniors with compromised health conditions.  Infection control specialists are clear that the best way to offer protection from serious complications of the flu for individuals, their families and the division’s residents and clients is through immunization.  The H1N1 flu virus that has emerged this year is no different, in that those with compromised health conditions are more at risk of complications from the H1N1 flu.

On November 10th, the Province announced the release of H1N1 vaccine for seniors over 65 years of age living in long-term care homes.  Based on date of receipt of the vaccine in the various homes (November 23rd to 27th timeframe), resident vaccinations were staggered across the division.  All homes have started to vaccinate residents, and will continue to do so until all residents providing consent have received their vaccination.

The Long-Term Care Homes and Services Division and the Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services jointly agreed to implement a revised process in quality management reporting, whereby the Quality Advisor would provide qualitative reports on quality work, in addition to the statistical reports received in relation to satisfaction.  This is the second such report submitted to the Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services in 2009.  This report will focus on the various collaboratives that the Division has been involved in to improve, expand and/or enhance the quality of care and service for residents, clients, families and/or staff and volunteers while improving the utilization of healthcare resources.  This is consistent with the Division’s integrated quality management framework which aligns mission, values, strategic planning, with the management of quality, risk, safety, ethics and utilization of resources.  The goals of the Division’s collaborative work are:

1.         To enhance community engagement, while responding to the City’s diversity and respecting the values and traditions of stakeholder groups.

2.         To create collaborative working environments with internal and external stakeholders.

3.         To enhance satisfaction of residents, clients, families, staff and volunteers, while achieving positive results related to quality and safety.

The benefits of collaboratives are many, including the ability to bring subject matter experts together to address opportunities for improvement.  This report highlights some key collaboratives that the Division has participated in, with a goal of improving healthcare outcomes and processes.

At past meetings of the Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services, members have questioned content, style and grammar of minutes of various Home Advisory Committees.  From time-to-time, there has been a lack of clarity in an issue that was discussed at a Home Advisory Committee.  It is recognized that the issue and decision may be clear to members of the specific Home Advisory Committee but unclear to a third party reader, such as members of the Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services.  From time-to-time, there have also been errors in interpretation, in context of the written minutes and/or in grammar.

At the November 25, 2009 meeting of the Inter-Home Advisory Committee (a networking group of the Chairs/designates of each of the Home Advisory Committees with the General Manager), the Chair of the Inter-Home Advisory Committee, Jan Nowakowski provided feedback from the Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services, noting that there are sometimes factual, spelling and/or grammatical errors in the minutes.  Encouragement was given to verify the accuracy of minutes prior to forwarding them to the General Manager for submission to the Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services.  Discussion focused on strategies to assist in ensuring timely and accurate minutes, prior to them being forwarded.  The General Manager will be discussing the suggested strategies with the Administrators of the various homes and will be revising processes for meeting management in early 2010.

This report provides a summary of the rationale(s) and ideas generated at the Inter-Home Advisory Committee, plus initial analysis by senior management.

The purpose of the following reports is to provide members of the Long-Term Care Homes and Services Advisory Committee with copies of the following meetings for their information:

1.         (November 25, 2009) Minutes of Carefree Lodge Home Advisory Committee
(October 27, 2009)

2.         (November 25, 2009) Minutes of Fudger House Home Advisory Committee
(October 14, 2009)

3.         (November 30, 2009) Minutes of Lakeshore Lodge Home Advisory Committee
(November 26, 2009)

4.         (December 2, 2009) Minutes of Seven Oaks Home Advisory Committee
(September 8, 2009)

5.         (December 2, 2009) Minutes of Seven Oaks Home Advisory Committee
(October 13, 2009)

6.         (November 27, 2009) Minutes of True Davidson Acres Home Advisory Committee
(November 19, 2009)

7.         (December 1, 2009) Minutes of Wesburn Manor Home Advisory Committee
            (September 29, 2009)

8.         (December 1, 2009) Minutes of Wesburn Manor Home Advisory Committee
            (October 27, 2009)

9.         (December 2, 2009) Minutes of Wesburn Manor Home Advisory Committee
            (November 24, 2009)

The Advisory Committee on Long-Term Care Homes and Services approved the Revised 2010 Schedule of Meetings.