MPP visits Garden Terrace, hands out awards, discusses Better Seniors’ Care campaign

‘It was heartwarming to meet residents and such dedicated staff,’ tweets Merrilee Fullerton

Kanata-Carleton MPP Merrilee Fullerton was at Garden Terrace Nov. 8 to show her support for the Ottawa-area long-term care home, to assist handing out Circle of Radiance awards and to participate in the launch of the Better Seniors’ Care letter-writing campaign at the home.

Garden Terrace administrator Christine Schyf says one of the benefits of having MPP Fullerton at the home is the fact that she is also minister of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Garden Terrace, like other Ontario long-term care homes, understands the need for attracting more recruits to the sector to address increasing demands, she says.

“We were able to speak with MPP Fullerton about the challenges in long-term care,” Christine tells The OMNIway.

Christine and MPP Fullerton talked about the challenges of keeping personal support workers in the long-term care sector. They also discussed OMNI Health Care’s bursary program and the launch of the 2018-19 Better Seniors’ Care campaign.

Better Seniors’ Care is an annual campaign created by the Ontario Long Term Care Association (OLTCA) to advocate for improvements in the long-term care sector. Ontarians are being asked by the OLTCA to send letters of support for this year’s campaign to their local MPP ahead of the release of the 2019-20 provincial budget in the spring.

The top priorities for this year’s campaign are:

– Securing necessary funding to hire more staff
– Rebuilding and modernizing homes
– Reducing government paperwork so people working in long-term care homes can spend more time with residents

MPP Fullerton also helped hand out awards to Garden Terrace’s 2018 Everyday Hero, Inspired Leadership and Lifetime Achievement recipients (stories about Garden Terrace’s Circle of Radiance award recipients will follow in the coming days).

Following her visit, the MPP tweeted about her day at Garden Terrace.

“Pleased to recognize and celebrate the Every Day Heroes at Garden Terrace in #Kanata today,” she wrote. “Congratulations to the recipients who contribute so much! It was heartwarming to meet residents and such dedicated staff.”

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