Every year, nearly all Canadian families are directly impacted, to some degree, by mental illness, such as Alzheimer’s

Backgrounder
Every year, nearly all Canadian families are directly impacted, to some degree, by mental illness, such as Alzheimer’s.
It is the provincial government’s responsibility to implement specialized long-term care services in French. These services have to be equitable and accessible, and have to meet the specific needs of the francophone population.
It is also the government’s responsibility to offer long-term community services such as a specialized Day Program for those suffering from an Alzheimer’s like dementia.
Whatever their needs…

Seniors should have equitable access to specialized services and care in their language
Research shows that only one third of Canadians living with a mental health problem or mental illnesses actually get access to adequate services¹.
A full range of highly specialized, intensive and front-line services are neither accessible nor equitable.
People will not receive care if there are no services available, or if those that exist are inappropriate. Lengthy wait lists for just about every type of service bear witness to the acute shortages of appropriate services and the serious lack of long-term care and mental health service providers that underpin them.
Statistics Canada 2006 Census of Population counted 58,590 persons in the Greater Toronto Area whose mother tongue is French on a possibility of 5,072,075 persons, i.e. 1.16%.² Since this total doesn’t take into consideration the thousands of immigrants or others whose second language is French, we can easily assumed that the number of Francophones could double.
In the Greater Toronto Area, the distribution of beds available varies based on the locality.³

	Facilities	Number of beds			Community
		Total	Private	Non for Profit
Toronto Centre	25	3 944	1 312	2 632	Polish, Greek, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean
East York	6	674	352	322	Finnish
Etobicoke	18	2 999	1 724	1 275	Slovenian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian
North York	14	3 221	1 338	1 883	Italian, Jewish
Scarborough	22	4 395	2 313	2 082	Estonian, Greek, Chinese, Japanese

Based on the Website (www.gtalongtermcarehomes.ca), the distribution of beds based on the community is as followed:

Toronto Centre

Community	Facility	Number of Beds	Type of Facility
Polish	Copernicus Lodge	228	Non For Profit
	White Eagle	56	Private
Greek	Helenic	81	Non For Profit
Portuguese	Maynard	77	Private
Chinese	Mon Sheong	105	Non For Profit
Korean	Rose of Sharon*	60	Private

*Opening soon
East York

Community	Facility	Number of Beds	Type of Facility
Finnish	Suomi-Koti	34	Private

Etobicoke York

Community	Facility	Number of Beds	Type of Facility
Slovenian	Dom Lipa	66	Non For Profit
Lithuanian	Labdara lithuanian	90	Non For Profit
Ukrainian	Ukrainian Canadian Care	120	Non For Profit

North York

Community	Facility	Number of Beds	Type of Facility
Jewish	Baycrest	472	Non For Profit
Italian	Villa Colombo	391	Non For Profit

Scarborough

Community	Facility	Number of Beds	Type of Facility
Estonian	Ehatare	32	Non For Profit
Greek	Hellenic	128	Non For Profit
Chinese	Mon Sheong	160	Non For Profit
Chinese/Japanese	Yee Hong Finch	250	Non For Profit
Chinese	Yee Hong McNicoll	155	Non For Profit
Francophone	Pavillon Omer Deslauriers (Bendale Acres)	39	Non For Profit

The provincial government has to take its responsibilities and to take into account the growing needs of the aging francophone population in the GTA. As part of the 2008 budget, the government committed itself to increase its total investment for LTC homes to $3.1 billion in 2008-09, an increase of 10.6 per cent over the 2007 budget.

The government also committed itself to redeveloping 35,000 older LTC beds over the next 10 years to ensure equitable access to quality LTC homes, making language an admission criterion.

We want the appropriate funding required to open 50 basic and specialized long-term care beds for chronic diseases, HIV/Aids, palliative care, dementia, etc.
We want the implementation of a long-term care Unit in the Greater Toronto area for Francophones who demonstrate a high level of risk to self and/or others and who have needs for care that exceed what is currently available in the community. The Unit would provide individualized care.
We want not only the accessibility for Francophone Seniors to specialized long-term care in their community or as close as possible to their homes but that they may also die with dignity in French.
Solution
Granting to CAH…

… a part of the billions allocated to the long-term care

Allowing CAH…

… to increase its range of services offered to the Elderly

Trusting CAH…

… to successfully meet the long-term care challenge by building on its success of the last 30 years!

1 Statistics Canada. (2003). Canadian Community Health Survey: Mental health and well-being. The Daily. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/dailyquotidien/030903/dq030903a-eng.htm

2 http://www40.statcan.gc.ca/l01/cst01/demo12c-eng.htm, visited on March 12, 2009

3 www.gtalongtermcarehomes.ca, visited on March 12, 2009