REPEAT - Advocates Across Canada Launch Call for National Long-Term Care Standards

OTTAWA, March 22, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Health care advocates including thousands of families; residents and their substitute decision makers; care workers, professionals, nurses and their unions have come together to release a legal opinion on what national standards for long-term care should be.

For decades, health care advocates have called for a more robust and effective federal role to ensure that we meet the needs of the elderly as Canada's population ages. COVID-19 has laid bare the endemic and longstanding failure of many long-term care homes to provide residents with a safe and healthful environment, and with essential and high-quality care.

While some provinces, notably those in Atlantic Canada, acted quickly to protect the vulnerable in congregate care settings, other provinces have failed to do so. Canadians have been horrified by accounts from the military, families, residents and staff, of the horrendous circumstances in which thousands of seniors were forced to live, and far too often, die. These systemic failures have prompted calls from across Canada for the federal government to increase funding and establish national standards for long-term care.

Federal political parties have responded by making commitments to national standards, but what they would contain is not clear.

For more information: Steven Staples 343-777-6283; Catherine Parkes 416-523-1733;
Chris Parsons 902-880-8628; Mary Boyd 902-892-9074; Natalie Mehra 416-230-6402;
Brianne Goertzen 431-337-2527; Sandra Azocar 780-906-6884; Mary Clarke, 709-687-1960.