{"id":4880,"date":"2020-05-01T14:21:35","date_gmt":"2020-05-01T14:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.tvndy.ca\/2020\/05\/webcast-archive-covid-19-in-long-term-care\/"},"modified":"2020-11-16T11:27:16","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T16:27:16","slug":"webcast-archive-covid-19-in-long-term-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2020\/05\/webcast-archive-covid-19-in-long-term-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Webcast Archive: COVID-19 in long-term care"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, we will not present our webcast, due to technical problems caused by heavy internet usage. However we are providing the text as a bulletin to offer up-to-date information about assisted suicide, euthanasia and ending-of-life practices for the disability community.<\/p>\n<p><b>COVID-19 IN LONG-TERM CARE<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On March 27, we published a warning and list of <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2020\/03\/webcast-archive-repairing-medical-equipment-in-the-covid-19-pandemic\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recommendations<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jonathan.marchand.71\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jonathan Marchand<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/daniel.pilote\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daniel Pilote<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> about preventing the spread of COVID-19 in Qu\u00e9bec nursing homes.\u00a0 Since then, nearly 1,500 Qu\u00e9becers have died in long-term care.\u00a0 Mr. Marchand has repeated his warnings and recommendations in many media interviews and has posted often on facebook about the failure of current policies that have caused the catastrophe. Yet the Legault government sticks to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/montreal\/covid-19-quebec-april-24-1.5543521\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">its plan<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to build \u201cmore spacious, better-staffed\u201d nursing homes. Once again, policy that affects disabled people is made by non-disabled people who ignore the expertise gained through our experience living under those flawed policies.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qu\u00e9bec\u2019s Public Health <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.inspq.qc.ca\/covid-19\/donnees\/details\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">expertise and reference centre<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> website features a graph, updated daily, showing the place of residence of people who died from COVID. As of April 28, 1,391 people in nursing homes or elderly housing had died, or 80% of the COVID-19 deaths in the province. In Qu\u00e9bec, of 1,742 total deaths, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.quebec.ca\/en\/health\/health-issues\/a-z\/2019-coronavirus\/situation-coronavirus-in-quebec\/#c51883\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">97%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> were of people aged 60 years or older; in Canada it\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/content\/dam\/phac-aspc\/documents\/services\/diseases\/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection\/surv-covid19-epi-update-eng.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">95%<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Qu\u00e9bec also keeps a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/cdn-contenu.quebec.ca\/cdn-contenu\/sante\/documents\/Problemes_de_sante\/covid-19\/Tableau-milieux-de-vie-COVID-19.pdf?1586905858\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">list of nursing homes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> where cases of COVID-19 have been reported, which is updated daily (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ontario.ca\/page\/how-ontario-is-responding-covid-19#section-1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ontario<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> has a similar list).\u00a0 The Qu\u00e9bec document doesn\u2019t include private facilities, give the total number of places with an outbreak, or say how many staff are infected.\u00a0 As of April 28, there are more than 250 facilities on the Qu\u00e9bec list, including 76 places where more than 25% of the residents are infected; in Ontario, 154 long-term care homes were listed as having active COVID-19 cases.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/content\/dam\/phac-aspc\/documents\/services\/diseases\/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection\/surv-covid19-epi-update-eng.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">statistical report<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.canada.ca\/content\/dam\/phac-aspc\/documents\/services\/diseases\/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection\/surv-covid19-epi-update-fra.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">rapport statistique<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) from Public Health Canada doesn\u2019t give much information about where people got the infection. The report only looks at half of confirmed cases, and 3\/4 of cases are classified as \u201cunknown\u201c in the table that lists the source of exposure to the virus.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disabled people aren\u2019t the only folks who are disadvantaged by what\u2019s happening in nursing homes. Women, Immigrants and people of colour make up the majority of personal support workers, kitchen and cleaning staff in healthcare facilities. They earn the lowest wages, and have high rates of infection because they don\u2019t have the protective equipment they need.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/notdeadyet.org\/2020\/04\/anita-cameron-racial-disparities-in-the-age-of-covid-19.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">blog post<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on the Not Dead Yet website, NDY\u2019s director of minority outreach Anita Cameron talks about the different ways immigrants, indigenous, latinx, blacks and other communities of colour are affected by the pandemic in the U.S.\u00a0 \u201cThe Black community, especially, is being ravaged by COVID-19. We are 12 percent of the U.S. population, yet represent 59% of coronavirus deaths to date.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She says the racial inequalities that have always existed in healthcare need to be documented as they apply to COVID-19. She cites <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/04\/coronavirus-exposing-our-racial-divides\/609526\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">articles<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> by journalist Ibram X. Kendi calling for <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/04\/stop-looking-away-race-covid-19-victims\/609250\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">data collection<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and criticizing campaigns to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/ideas\/archive\/2020\/04\/race-and-blame\/609946\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">blame minority communities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> for high infection rates.\u00a0 While Cameron and Kendi provide some statistics on the impact of COVID on people of colour, it\u2019s worth noting that in Canada, the government has said that it <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/toronto\/race-coronavirus-canada-1.5536168\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">does not intend to collect<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> racial and ethnic data on people who are infected.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Anita Cameron points out that since people of colour \u201creceive inferior healthcare compared to Whites, especially in the treatment of diabetes, heart conditions and cancer \u2013 three conditions that make COVID-19 more likely to be fatal \u2013 we are dying at a much higher rate.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">She said the possibility of rationing \u201cis especially frightening for disabled and seniors \u2013 and Blacks and communities of color.\u201d\u00a0 She notes that \u201cThough the [U.S.] Department of Health and Human Services\u2019 Office of Civil Rights has issued guidance against discrimination and bias based on stereotypes of race, age and disability, among others, some of that guidance is not clear, and won\u2019t stop medical personnel steeped in their own biases from doing as they wish.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cCOVID-19 is rampaging through nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, group homes, institutions, jails, prisons, detention centers, all kinds of congregate settings,\u201d said Ms. Cameron. \u201cWe know who are likely to be in such places \u2013 Black and Brown folks. We know who are likely to work there \u2013 Black and Brown people.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIf anything is a wake-up call for people to see what the results of racial bias, discrimination and disparities in healthcare look like, this COVID-19 pandemic is it.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ms. Cameron notes that \u201cof the major organizations working on the issue of medical rationing and discrimination, few, if any, have Black staff or Black management. As yet, none have reached out to Black activists and organizations in a meaningful way.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Still, she says \u201cwe can\u2019t wait around for mainstream organizations to include us.\u201d She praised the mutual aid projects that have appeared, to \u201cmake sure folks in our community eat, have groceries, get information and get emotional support, but we still don\u2019t have the resources that primarily White disabled folks and organizations have access to.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cWe must get the word out even more about how COVID-19 is ravaging the Black community. We must insist that the government keep racial data on who gets it, who dies, at what rate&#8230; We must make sure that disabled aren\u2019t falling victim to medical rationing or mistreatment based on race, age and type of disability. We must insist that our first responders and front line workers are safe.\u201d<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>NO FREE CHOICE: ARIIS KNIGHT<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ariis Knight was a 40-year-old, non-verbal woman with Cerebral Palsy who <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/woman-disability-dies-white-rock-hospital-covid-19-1.5543468\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">died on April 18<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, three days after being admitted to a British Columbia hospital. According to a statement released by the hospital, \u201cmedical staff determined that additional support for communication was not required,\u201d though <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/6866586\/bc-woman-disability-dies-covid-19\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Global news<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> reports she was placed on \u201cend-of-life care\u201d shortly after being admitted to the hospital.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ms. Knight was admitted with congestion and vomiting, but tested negative for the Coronavirus. Though usually staff from the group home where she lived accompanied residents to provide communication support, the hospital did not allow staff to come in to help Ms. Knight.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The media coverage of her death focuses on how \u201csad\u201d it was that she \u201cdied alone,\u201d and whether hospitals should make \u201creasonable exceptions to visitor policies\u201d to allow support staff to be there. For us, this story raises several urgent questions:<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did Ms. Knight receive adequate medical care?\u00a0 What factors led to the decision to only provide \u201cend-of-life\u201d care?\u00a0 Did she consent to this care?\u00a0 Was Ms. Knight informed of, and given any input into, decisions about her care?\u00a0 If she had a substitute decision maker, was that person consulted?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Why was her right to communication access downgraded to an issue related to the hospital\u2019s visitor policy?<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Did she have access to a communication device that would enable her to express ideas beyond \u201cyes or no\u201d answers?\u00a0 Why not?<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n   ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nThis week: Long-term care has become dangerous for disabled residents and the workers who care for them, most of whom are immigrants, women and people of colour; and we look at a death following denial of communication access.\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2020\/05\/webcast-archive-covid-19-in-long-term-care\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Webcast Archive: COVID-19 in long-term care&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/2020\/05\/webcast-archive-covid-19-in-long-term-care\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Webcast Archive: COVID-19 in long-term care&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92],"tags":[354,776,729,95,99,97,62,770,98,101,468,156,373],"class_list":["post-4880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-webcast-archive","tag-autonomy","tag-covid","tag-degenerative","tag-dignity","tag-medical-aid-in-dying","tag-pain","tag-palliative-care","tag-rationing","tag-suffering","tag-suicide","tag-terminal","tag-triage","tag-vulnerable","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4880"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4881,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4880\/revisions\/4881"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4880"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4880"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tvndy.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}