The Agenda - Challenges for Cultural Long-Term Care VIDEO
27 Jun 2024 EWR Online
Allan Meiusi (Ehatare), Aleksandra Grzeszczuk (Copernicus Lodge, Polish retirement home), Steven Harrison (AdvantAge Ontario) and Samir Sinha (Sinai Health) participated in TVO's The Agenda with Steve Paikin panel discussion on not-for-profit cultural long-term care homes.
Estonians played an important roll in creating cultural care homes from the beginning as reported in Vaba Eestlane in 1965. As far back as 59 years, and with the benefit of great community leaders like Robert Kreem and others, cultural communities (Estonian, Finnish, Polish, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Italian, francophone and indigenous amongst many more) went to Queen's Park and spoke to the legislature about how ethnic communities can contribute to the province and take care of their own in this very special area. 59 years later, we're still advocating the same.
These past few years have been very difficult on Ehatare's ability to admit our cherished community members into our retirement home because of Bill-7 and the crisis that hospitals, the healthcare system in general, are facing. Now Ehatare and other cultural homes are raising attention on this subject. Undoubtedly, cultural homes play a significant role elevating the quality of life for our seniors, especially those facing cognitive challenges. This TVO exposure and the appointment of a new minister who is a proud and active member of her own cultural community (Polish) may provide an opening to return to prior practices.
