Posts tagged spr2
Huffington Post–April 21, 2020
Huffington Post–April 21, 2020

Canadians share why they did or didn’t remove a parent from a care home

By Al Donato

Dr. Samir Sinha sympathizes with Canadians wracked with worry. He told HuffPost Canada that those who have experienced a COVID-19 death are “just in agony over feeling helpless about how they couldn’t help their loved ones.”For Sinha, it is important to recognize that care home residents have rights and should feel empowered to choose to leave if they want to.“If a resident says, ‘Thank you for trying to make this as safe as possible, but I’d rather go and live with my loved ones,’ we have to respect their decision,” he said. “We shouldn’t be paternalistic to families and say, ‘No, you have to stay here.’” With no easy answers, making the tough call requires informed choices by the senior or their legal substitute decision-maker, which are usually their adult children.

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Huffington PostHyallan Baespr2
CBC News–April 20, 2020
CBC News–April 20, 2020

What it's like moving a loved one to a COVID-19 field hospital

"[Saad] kindly walked me through what they were thinking," Sinha said. "[Saad] assured me that they had actually been consulting with geriatricians like myself and helped clarify things that made me feel that this field hospital would be taking into account the needs of some of the frail, vulnerable people living in our long-term care homes.

Sinha said he's "confident that my concerns have been heard and I'm confident that my concerns are being well thought of."

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CBC NewsHyallan Baespr2
Canadian Healthcare Network–April 19, 2020
Canadian Healthcare Network–April 19, 2020

Long-term care becomes ground zero in the COVID-19 pandemic

By Tristan Bronca

Dr. Sinha explains how Canada got caught on its back foot, the systemic vulnerabilities that gave rise to this problem, policies to get these homes back on track, and why the level of community transmission is linked to long-term care settings.

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Hyallan Baespr2
QP Briefing–April 17, 2020
QP Briefing–April 17, 2020

How Ontario’s plan to stop Nursing home staff from spreading COVID-19 falls short of B.C’s

By Jessica Smith Cross

"Right now as more and more homes go into outbreak every single day, my only concerns is, will homes have the bandwidth and the capacity to make the arrangements they need so we can effectively limit the introduction and spread of COVID-19," said Sinha. "My only concern is that maybe a week from now, we truly haven't been able to limit staff movement between homes, which would remain then a vulnerability for COVID-19 to be spread between homes and get into homes as well."

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Ottawa Matters–April 17, 2020
Ottawa Matters–April 17, 2020

Ottawa researchers helping retirement, long-term care residents decide if they should leave during COVID-19

By Mike Vlasveld

Researchers from The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), the University of Ottawa, the Champlain Local Health Integration Network and the National Institute of Ageing have helped develop two decision aids: one focused on retirement and assisted living homes, and another on long-term care and nursing homes. "The creation of these decision aids comes at a very critical point in this pandemic for nursing and retirement homes residents and their families," said Dr. Samir Sinha.

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Hyallan Baespr2
Canada 2020–April 17, 2020
Canada 2020–April 17, 2020

The 2O2O Network Podcast with Jodi Butts

NIA Director of Health Policy Research, Dr Samir Sinha, joined Jodi Butts and the 2020 Network to talk about how we can better support and protect our seniors living in long-term care and retirement homes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Hyallan Baespr2
CBC Radio–April 17, 2020
CBC Radio–April 17, 2020

All in a Day with Alan Neal

Some families are considering temporarily moving their loved ones out of retirement or long-term care homes. Dr. Dawn Stacey joined the show to talk about tools developed by the Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa University, the Champlain LHIN and the National Institute on Ageing to help families weigh their options.

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CBC RadioHyallan Baespr2
Toronto Star–April 16, 2020
Toronto Star–April 16, 2020

It will take nearly a week to roll out Ontario’s emergency order for curbing COVID-19 deaths in seniors homes. Doctors say that’s risky

By Kenyon Wallace

NIA Director of Health Policy Research, Dr. Samir Sinha, said he assumed when the government brought in the emergency order that it would be effective immediately. “Every day is crucial. We’re losing lives every single day,” he said, noting that British Columbia, which saw the first case of community transmission in Canada in early March, restricted long-term-care workers to one facility two weeks ago. That province has since made personal support workers provincial employees, thereby allowing them to collect full-time wages while working at one long-term-care home. Such a move has provided stability in a profession characterized by low pay and a lack of benefits, necessitating many personal support workers to work at multiple facilities to make ends meet, Sinha said.

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The StarHyallan Baespr2
CBC Radio–April 16, 2020
CBC Radio–April 16, 2020

Ontario Today with Rita Celli

NIA Executive Director, Michael Nicin, joined Rita Celli to react to Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s announcement on long-term care in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Listen in at 1:07– episode ‘Teens and kids making a difference during the pandemic.’

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CBC RadioHyallan Baespr2
QP Briefing–April 15, 2020
QP Briefing–April 15, 2020

Ford vows to overhaul long-term care after the pandemic to fix the ‘cracks and holes’ in the system

By Jessica Smith Cross and Sneh Duggal

Dr. Samir Sinha said that both long-term care homes and retirement homes have systemic vulnerabilities to infections that include housing older, frailer populations in close quarters. The staffing issue that the government is seeking to curb with an emergency order — staff moving between multiple homes, and potentially bringing infections with them — was a vulnerability before the pandemic, and will remain one afterwards.

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Toronto Star–April 15, 2020
Toronto Star–April 15, 2020

‘Everyone knew this could happen:’ The deadly spread of COVID-19 through Canada’s seniors’ homes

By Moira Welsh

Quality data is key to prevention, said Dr. Samir Sinha. His staff (at the National Institute on Ageing) have been trying to cobble together details of outbreaks and deaths in Ontario’s 630 long-term-care and 775 retirement homes. “It’s important so we can have an accurate picture on how the situation is unfolding,” Sinha said. “If we don’t understand these things or have the level of knowledge we need, we are likely to repeat mistakes when we have the next pandemic and make assumptions on data that was not correct.”

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The StarHyallan Baespr2
CBC The National–April 14, 2020
CBC The National–April 14, 2020

Long-term care homes ground zero for COVID-19

NIA Director of Health Policy Research, Dr. Samir Sinha joined the National for a special show on the impact of COVID-19 on long-term care hoes in Canada and say,” If you have a loved one in care, reach out to them. If you are anxious, they are anxious too. Give them a call or video chat and see what you could do to make them feel less anxious.”

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CBC The NationalHyallan Baespr2
CBC News–April 14, 2020
CBC News–April 14, 2020

Advocates wonder why long-term care COVID warnings were ignored

By Jonathan Gatehouse

Dr. Samir Sinha, NIA Director of Health Policy Research says, “the coronavirus outbreak seems to be exposing "unique systemic vulnerabilities" within Canada's long-term care system — an underfunded patchwork of public and private homes, all governed by rules and regulations that differ from province to province. Testing for the virus among residents and staff remains sporadic, while long-term care workers have limited access to personal protection equipment (PPE), and less training on how to properly use it.”

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CBC NewsHyallan Baespr2
CTV News–April 14, 2020
CTV News–April 14, 2020

Dr. Samir Sinha joined the CTV evening news to discuss COVID-19 in long-term care and retirement homes as another outbreak is reported. He says, “We need to stop people from working in multiple homes –the way we can do that is offer people full time work where full time work is available and give them benefits like sick days. If we stabilize the work force- we’ll realize that years of chronic under funding in the sector has created vulnerability, and we’re now seeing its ugly toll.”

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CTV NewsHyallan Baespr2
Toronto Star –April 14, 2020
Toronto Star –April 14, 2020

We don’t have a COVID-19 epidemic: deaths in long-term care show we have two

By Kate Allen and Jennifer Yang

Ontario is in the midst of two parallel COVID-19 epidemics, health experts say: one in the community at large, where there are encouraging signs that physical distancing is working, and one in seniors homes, an ongoing “disaster” whose true scope we are only beginning to see.

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The StarHyallan Baespr2
Toronto Star –April 14, 2020
Toronto Star –April 14, 2020

Telling the truth during a pandemic has its consequences

By Samir Sinha –Opinion piece

"When people look to doctors like me for advice, they often ask what I would do if it were me and my family member going through the same thing. I could not have in good conscience looked someone in the eye and said anything other than what I said to Picard — that if it were my mother in a care home not complying with evidence-based infection control practices, I would take them out. Of course, I knew that this wasn’t a practical or even possible option for the majority of families with loved ones in care. But I said it to underscore the urgency of the issue and advocate for immediate action. Every care home in Canada needs to ensure it is doing what it should, and not give their residents, their families, and their staff a false sense of security. The good news is that the article immediately drew the attention and razor sharp focus of decision makers that I work with at the provincial and federal levels. Within a week, new directives were being released in Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, while the Public Health Agency of Canada even stepped in to launch new federal guidelines encouraging the widespread implementation of our iron ring formula across the country."

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The StarHyallan Baespr2
CBC News–April 12, 2020
CBC News–April 12, 2020

Coronavirus: What's happening in Canada and the world on April 12

These outbreaks are a "sad shame, occurring in homes with the "most vulnerable individuals in our society" who need expert care, said Dr. Samir Sinha. COVID-19 can get into long-term care homes and spread partly because of staff can't always get a full-time position and have to work at more than one facility, he told CBC News on Sunday. It's asking a lot of these workers to be at risk for COVID-19 themselves, he said. "When you're working for minimum wage, when you don't have sick benefits, to a certain extent you can appreciate why some workers didn't want to put themselves in the line of fire."

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CBC NewsHyallan Baespr2
Global News –April 12, 2020
Global News –April 12, 2020

Quebec coroner investigates Montreal care home deaths

Dr. Samir Sinha joined Global News to talk about concerns surrounding staffing levels at long-term care homes in Canada, as more facilities report COVID-19 outbreaks among residents and workers in the wake of 31 deaths at a Montreal seniors’ home.

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Global NewsHyallan Baespr2