First, over the weekend, Minna’s denial of in-home support went from a regional story to a national one in Canada. The Canadian Press picked up her story and it is now being disseminated all over Canada. This is a link to the story on Metronews.ca.
Encouragingly, this story focuses on the consequences of Minna’s withdrawal of personal care, and on the determination of MPP France Gelinas, quoted in Friday’s blog entry, to see this through and also to determine how many other people are being affected similarly:
She hopes for a speedy resolution so Mettinen-Kekalainen can live out her life in dignity, but Gelinas said Mettinen-Kekalainen’s plight is symptomatic of a broken system.
Former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris brought in competitive bidding for home care in the 1990s in an effort to reduce the cost for taxpayers, Gelinas said.
Before, the Victorian Order of Nurses and other charitable organizations had government funding and provided excellent home care, Gelinas said. Now, the for-profit companies Gelinas is aware of pay low wages, no benefits and no pension plans, which does not attract top quality nurses, she said.
“Our home care system is broken,” Gelinas said. “And why is it broken? Because of the bidding system. This is not the way to provide care.”
I received email this morning from Minna and it looks like she’s reaching out to a disability rights lawyer who expressed interest in getting involved in some way.
And, oddly, I received email from Judy Wasylycia-Leis, and MP and self-described “NDP Health Critic.” Odd, because she thanks me for contacting her when I cannot for the life of me figure out when or how I did so.
No matter. What’s really important is the part of her email where she says that she has alerted others in government. Specifically, she writes that she has contacted Glenn Thibeualt, who she informs me, is Tudbury’s MP.
At the risk of sounding uncharacteristacally optimistic, things are looking up and Minna (and maybe others) can get the support she needs and is currently doing without.
Please refer to past posts on ways to keep up vigilance and pressure. –Stephen Drake