This week’s announcement by the provincial government mandating immunization policies for long-term care (LTC) homes has come as a welcome surprise to many with a loved one currently living in one of Ontario’s 626 LTC facilities.
Patricia Tomasi’s mother, Raine, has been living at a long-term care facility in Maple since September 2019, requiring around-the-clock care for multiple sclerosis.
Tomasi, who serves as her mother’s primary caregiver, told BarrieToday she had been getting extremely concerned following conversations with some staff members who informed her they would not be getting the vaccine because they were either afraid of getting it or they simply didn’t believe in vaccines.
“Alarm bells were going off in my head because all this time I thought (the reason) not every staff member was vaccinated was because maybe they couldn’t get the time off work… but that eventually most of them would be vaccinated to match the 98 per cent of residents who have been fully vaccinated since mid-February,” she said.
“Then when I had those conversations with staff… I became really concerned. That’s when I approached the home asking how many of the staff are vaccinated," Tomasi added.
Her alarm quickly changed to anger and frustration when she was told only 60 per cent of staff had been vaccinated. At that time, she added, her mother’s home was going into another COVID outbreak — not because a resident had COVID but because staff were getting it in the community.
“Any time a staff member has COVID, the entire home goes into lockdown, which means residents are isolated in their rooms," Tomasi said. "This has been going on and off since the pandemic started. We’ve been telling my mom to just hang in there and she was doing her best to hang in there."
Tomasi's concern was that this would become to a “never-ending loop” of outbreaks resulting in residents not being able to have a life again if staff, who were refusing to get vaccinated, were continuing to bring the virus into the home.
Monday’s announcement was surprising but welcome news to her family, she said.
“I honestly thought maybe they would try and loosen some restrictions for residents. … I thought they would never make it mandatory like they’re doing in Italy and in some long-term care homes in the UK," Tomasi said. "I was pleasantly surprised.”
This new mandate will focus on educating staff and monitoring staff immunization rates, making Ontario the first province in Canada to make it mandatory for homes to have COVID-19 immunization policies for staff and to set out the minimum requirements that need to be included in these policies.
“Widespread vaccination within long-term care homes is the best way to protect residents, staff and their families,” said Minister of Long-Term Care Dr. Merrilee Fullerton. “We want to build on the success of our long-term care vaccination campaign to date. That’s why we’re leading the way with new measures to promote full immunization among long-term care staff.”
Under the immunization policies each staff member must do one of the following:
- Provide proof of vaccination of each dose;
- Provide a documented medical reason for not being vaccinated; or
- Participate in an educational program about the benefits of vaccination and the risks of not being vaccinated.
LTC homes will be required to track and report on the implementation of their policies, including overall staff immunization rates. However, the immunization status of individual staff members will not be shared with the province.
By encouraging more workers to get vaccinated, the likelihood of infections and outbreaks is reduced — which allows for additional easing of restrictions in homes and more opportunities for residents to enjoy activities that support their wellbeing and quality of life.
As of May 30, it was estimated that 97 per cent of long-term care residents in Ontario are fully immunized and more than 89 per cent of staff have received at least their first dose, with approximately 66 per cent being fully immunized.
According to a statement from the Ontario Long Term Care Association: "The vast majority of long-term care staff have embraced vaccination to protect their residents. For those without medical issues who are still reluctant, a mandatory education program will be helpful to correct misinformation and alleviate their concerns."
Retirement and LTC homes were the hardest-hit segments of society and well over half of the deaths that occurred in the province were from outbreaks there, Simcoe-Muskoka medical officer of health Dr. Charles Gardner acknowledged during a weekly media briefing on Tuesday.
Given the province now has what he called a “highly effective vaccine” and have managed to get a high coverage rate of vaccination in LTC facilities for both residents and staff, Gardner said he's supportive of the province moving in the direction of requiring a policy for vaccination for those facilities.
“The value of vaccination and the need for vaccination was clearly demonstrated with that history," he said. "Clearly, we need to decide to question the policy for vaccination in a variety of locations, but certainly that would be the location of greatest concern and one that you’d want to be moving on first.”
Tomasi said after bringing her concerns to the attention of officials at her mother’s home last week, they opted to implement their own vaccination and education clinic — even before the province’s announcement.
“Some encouraging news I see out of it is my mom’s home started doing this last week… and now because of that went from 60 per cent of staff being vaccinated to 73 per cent fully vaccinated staff members and 81 per cent have had their first dose," she said.
Tomasi is hopeful the new mandate will encourage LTC staff provincewide to get vaccinated, but added she’s still unsure what the ultimate repercussions could or would be if they don’t.
“Maybe the next step will be that they're not able to work in the long-term care home if they don’t have a valid reason for not being vaccinated," she said. "In my mind, it should be 100 per cent compliance, but if it gets close to that I will be happy.
"If not, and homes continue to be in outbreaks because staff refuse to get vaccinated, then more will need to be done. These poor seniors need to have a life again.”
