Long-Term Care

They deserve better.

Appalling conditions, overworked staff, rampant profiteering, devastating loss of life. Canada’s long-term care is in crisis. Frontline health care workers have been sounding the alarm on conditions for years, but governments have failed to take responsibility and act.

Approximately 80% of deaths in Canada due to COVID-19 have taken place in long-term care facilities. The situation is urgent: of 14 countries surveyed during the current pandemic, Canada had the highest proportion of deaths among seniors. Canada also has one of the highest infection rates for COVID-19 among health care workers, many of whom are staff in long-term care.

The refusal to take responsibility for the crisis in long-term care has gone on for far too long and its true cost is measured in lives lost. Vulnerable nursing home residents, and the workers who are struggling to care for them, are suffering. They deserve better.

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is calling on the federal government to immediately take the following actions:

• Regulate long-term care in Canada according to the principles of the Canada Health Act;
• Eliminate for-profit business from the long-term care sector;
• Require appropriate staffing and health & safety protections for workers;
• Match wages and benefits for long-term care workers to the value of the work they perform; and
• Target and increase federal funding to provincial/territorial governments for long-term care, community, home and residential care to meet the needs of our aging and chronically ill population.

Don’t look away, conditions will only get worse if we don’t call for action. Take action for better long-term care.