Ontario woman with ALS says she’s being denied home care
January 23rd, 2009
Stories in the Sudbury [Ontario] Star are here and here and here:
Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen, a 42-year-old Ontario woman who has ALS, says she is being denied home care by a government-funded contractor and as a consequence is being forced to live in conditions that are inhumane.
Mettinen-Kekalainen, who also has Asperger’s syndrome, began a hunger strike last week to garner publicity for her battle. She says she is being denied nursing care because she threatened to report nurses who weren’t following her doctor’s orders.
Richar Joly, the executive director of the North East Community Care Access Centre, has said his organization has a duty to ensure its workers are not subjected to harassment and abuse by clients.
France Gelinas, a member of Ontario’s provincial parliament, said she would investigate and press for a resolution of the dispute. Gelinas has been a harsh critic of for-profit nursing agencies being hired by community care access centers across Ontario. Private agencies, she said, …
“have refused care to a whole bunch of people and now they feel entitled to do that …
“How can they do this? It feels like if a client is difficult, and if there is no money in it, they say, ‘The heck with her.’”
See also:
- Students demonstrate for women who needs home care — Sudbury Star (video)
- Op-ed: ALS sufferer’s plight is shameful — by Carol Mulligan in the Sudbury Star
(Photo from the Sudbury Star)
Our RSS Feed