Bioethics Matters – March 2016
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CCBI Resources: Our Elderly – Individual Dignity, Common Good, the Future and More
A recent Tweet from Pope Francis said:
The pandemic reminds us there are no differences or borders between those who suffer. We are all frail, all equal, all precious. May we be profoundly shaken: Now is the time to eliminate inequalities and heal the injustice undermining the health of the entire human family!
The pandemic is continuing to take its toll in Canada, the USA and elsewhere. Canadians have been somewhat fortunate, since social distancing seems to have ‘flattened the curve,’ inasmuch as our hospitals have not endured the dreaded ‘surge.’ In that, we are blessed.
Unfortunately, a massive gap in preparations has been experienced in our long term care homes and nursing homes, where our most vulnerable population, the elderly, dwell in large numbers. The death rate is shocking! At least one third of those who have succumbed to COVID-19 lived in those homes. While some are well run and well organized, the overall picture highlights under-staffing, with numerous workers who have not been trained properly and who are part-time, therefore without benefits. Some have to work in two sites to make up for that, and we now know the hazards of infected workers moving from site to site…too late.
Something has to change! When it does, Catholic social teaching can help to point the way: we should focus on the individual dignity of our elderly loved ones AND the common good of all the elderly in our society; focus on subsidiarity, such as more federal /provincial/ charitable support for long term care and nursing homes AND solidarity through a better response from younger generations towards the support of their own elderly relatives and in recognition of what is owed to the more poorly paid health care workers in this sector.
Those should be our long term, constant goals, but here, after a more forward-looking message from Pope Francis, are a few items illustrating the current plight of some of our elderly citizens, plus a push towards Advance Care Planning.
Our Lady, Health of the Sick, pray for us!
Moira McQueen, LLB, MDiv, PhD
Executive Director, Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute
Lecturer, Faculty of Theology
University of St. Michael’s College in the University of Toronto
Pope Francis
Pope Francis shares his vision for Covid-19 aftermath | America Magazine
Pope Francis has presented “a plan for the rising up again” of humanity in the midst of a global crisis that has brought the world’s peoples and the economy to their knees. He shared it in …
CBC News
COVID-19 rips bandage off the open wound that is our nursing home system
The pandemic has exposed the dismaying inadequacies of Canada’s long-term care system for seniors, writes Dr. Amit Arya.
Canadian Healthcare Network
Global News
Coronavirus outbreak: Was the COVID-19 crisis in Canada’s care homes preventable? – YouTube
It is inside long-term care homes that the COVID-19 outbreak is taking hold, and taking lives. Half the deaths from COVID-19 in Canada are in care homes. In the most grim cases, people are left to …
CBC
Advocates wonder why long-term care COVID warnings were ignored | CBC News
A body is removed from a long-term care facility, the Centre d’hebergement de Sainte-Dorothee in Laval, Quebec, on Monday. Almost half of all COVID-19 deaths in Canada have occurred in homes for …
The Globe and Mail
Sandra Martin is author of A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices, which won the B.C. National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction in 2017 and was a finalist for both the Donner Prize in …