Item - 2019.EC10.8

The Economic and Community Development Committee recommends that:

1.  City Council increase the direct care staffing levels from 3.5 to 4 hours of care per resident per day to address the rising acuity and complex care needs of long-term care home residents, including training, technical and physical environment enhancements, with funding allocation to be subject to annual review and consideration through the budget process.

2.  City Council, authorize the General Manager, Seniors Services and Long-Term Care to implement and fully evaluate an emotion-centred approach to care pilot at Lakeshore Lodge, with funding to be considered as part of the 2020 budget process.

3.  City Council request the provincial government to invest additional funding, 80 per cent cost-shared, to increase the level of care hours from 3.5 to 4 hours per resident per day to adequately care for vulnerable individuals living in the City of Toronto's long-term care homes.

4.  City Council request the provincial government to fully fund the construction costs of building new long-term care beds, approved by City Council, in response to the recent provincial commitment to expand the number of long-term care beds across Ontario.

5.  City Council direct CreateTO to work with Seniors Services and Long-Term Care to assess the feasibility and financial impacts of including long-term care beds as part of the redevelopment goals of the Six Points development of Etobicoke as a mixed use transit-oriented community, and request the General Manager, Seniors Services and Long-Term Care to report to Economic and Community Development Committee on the outcome of this work.

The Interim General Manager, Seniors Services and Long-term Care gave a presentation on Seniors Services and Long-Term Care Implementation Plan and Update.

This report provides a consolidated response to a number of Council directives including a proposed new emotion-centred approach to care in the City's 10 long-term care (LTC) homes.

In addition, this report provides detailed information and updates on key initiatives related to priorities and strategic integration of City services for seniors including technological advancement, modernization and re-designing physical environments for Seniors Services and Long-Term Care (SSLTC) as well as progress to date on the Toronto Seniors Strategy Version 2.0.

To improve care and service delivery for residents living in the City of Toronto's LTC homes, SSLTC is implementing a comprehensive approach to advance the following:

-  Improve outcomes for residents and their families

-  Increase staffing levels to provide more direct care and meet the increasingly complex care needs of residents

-  Foster a collaborative team and learning environment

-  Redesign the physical space to be less institutional, more home-like and comfortable.
 

This report responds to Council direction to develop an emotion-centred approach to care while maintaining clinical excellence. This approach puts emphasis on the emotional needs of residents and supports positive relationships between them, staff, volunteers, family and other care partners in the home. In order to build and sustain quality relationships, the skills of awareness and recognition of our emotions in ourselves and in others are required. These skills lead to the ability to meet the emotional needs of others, through expressing empathy, support and connection. When we feel connected, our emotional needs are met; when our emotional needs are met, we can face life and enjoy it. This is the essence of emotion-centred care.

Long-term care homes are not exclusively medical and nursing care institutions, they are social organizations where people who need care can continue to live their lives to the fullest. For the resident to experience long-term care as their home, meeting only care and medical needs is not enough. Residents also have social, emotional and psychological needs that staff support.

Feeling "at home" also requires a sense of community, which is created from the collective involvement of everyone in the long-term care home – residents and families, staff, volunteers and community members, who all contribute to the community of care. 

This is the plan to achieve it.