GORE BAY—The Manitoulin Lodge Nursing Home in Gore Bay has again taken first place in a campaign contest put on by the Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLCTA), thanks in large part to local residents, family and friends’ support. The campaign is designed to indicate to the provincial government that long term care homes need to be funded better.
“We have a very, very supportive community,” stated Lee Turley, administrator of the Lodge this past Monday. “We finished in first place province-wide among long-term care homes in the 1-79 beds category.”
Mr. Turley explained that local residents, family, friends and supporters of the Lodge posted 949 letters, calls or tweets to Algoma-Manitoulin MPP Michael Mantha calling for better seniors care in the province. “For all long-term care homes in the province, a total of 25,850 letters, calls or tweets had been sent in and, of that, as of last week’s total Jarlette Health Services (nursing homes) made up over 12,000 of that total.”
Local residents wrote their signatures on a petition or went online to sign the petition for better seniors’ care and indicated they were supporting the Manitoulin Lodge.
In an OLTCA form ‘Action for Seniors’ it states, “Ontario’s long-term care homes are finding themselves increasingly constrained by a system designed for yesterday. It is leaving them ill-equipped to meet the growing needs and numbers of today’s seniors.”
The campaign’s “main objectives are to rebuild and modernize homes, to increase access to behavior support Ontario teams and support smaller homes and create better staffing solutions,” continued Mr. Turley.
This is the second consecutive year the Manitoulin Lodge has won this OLTCA sponsored contest. With this year’s first place finish, “our Residents Council will be awarded $700 from the OLTCA for an item or service to enhance the quality of life for our residents,” said Mr. Turley.
