Disabled Sudbury woman to get home care restored
Updated: Wed Jan. 28 2009 6:16:56 PM

The Canadian Press

TORONTO — A woman in Sudbury, Ont., suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease who has been without home care for more than two months will soon receive the treatment she needs.

Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen, 42, has been relying on friends and family to help her, but needs the professional help of a home-care nurse to change her adult diaper and feeding tube and to bathe her.

She also has Asperger syndrome, an autism spectrum disorder, which can make her behave erratically, so home-care nurses refused to deal with her, the woman's advocates say.

When she was still receiving care, the nurses deemed her behaviour to be part of an unsafe work environment, so they refused to provide her with care, said Ontario NDP health critic France Gelinas.

The two other contracted, for-profit nursing agencies in the area also would not provide Mettinen-Kekalainen with home care, Gelinas said.

In Ontario, community care access centres assess a client's home-care needs and contract for-profit nursing agencies to provide the services.

Gelinas stepped in and spoke with the North East Community Care Access Centre on Mettinen-Kekalainen's behalf. After a lengthy conference call this week, she said a solution was reached.

Mettinen-Kekalainen, the centre and one of the agencies that had been refusing care came to an agreement they were all satisfied with, Gelinas said.

"They basically bent over backward to try to find a creative, innovative solution," she said.

Care for Mettinen-Kekalainen will resume Monday.

Now that the matter is settled, Ontario needs to take a hard look at its home-care system, Gelinas said.

"In the short-term I wanted to get Minna some care," she said.

"We've achieved that goal and that was the prime motivator, but you have to look back and learn from those tragic incidents as to how do you change things so it never happens again."

Former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris brought in competitive bidding for home care in the 1990s in an effort to reduce the cost for taxpayers, Gelinas said.

Before that, the Victorian Order of Nurses and other charitable organizations had government funding and provided excellent home care, Gelinas said. Now, the for-profit companies Gelinas is aware of pay low wages and have no benefits or pension plans, which does little to attract top-quality nurses, she said.

"There has to be policy change in the way home-care services are delivered in this province," Gelinas said.

"Otherwise there will be more and more Minnas out there, and this is not acceptable."

http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/loc...TorontoNewHome

Home care reinstated for woman with Lou Gehrig's
Posted By CAROL MULLIGAN, SUN MEDIA, THE SUDBURY STAR, AND FILES FROM THE CANADIAN PRESS
Posted 42 mins ago


Starting Monday, a Sudbury woman suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease will begin receiving the home nursing care she needs.

The North East Community Care Access Centre will resume providing nursing and personal support to Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen, 42.

Mettinen-Kekalainen has been involved in a very public battle with the North East CCAC about her home care.

The woman, who has an autism spectrum disorder called Asperger syndrome, has not received any help at home from the agency for months after nurses caring for her complained about her behaviour toward them.

Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas said on Tuesday that nurses have been lined up to care for Mettinen-Kekalainen beginning on Feb. 2.

Like others with Asperger's, Mettinen-Kekalainen experiences some difficulty with interpersonal communication, and her power of attorney, Jason Bushie, has said that can lead to misunderstandings with her caregivers and others.

Gelinas, the New Democrats' Health critic, got involved in Mettinen-Kekalaine's case last week. Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci's constituency staff had been working on the case for weeks.

Gelinas said it was a case of "all hands on deck" being able to resolve the dispute between the woman and the agency.

"I'm not the Lone Ranger" riding in to the rescue, she said. "They basically bent over backward to try to find a creative, innovative solution."

The MPP said the North East CCAC worked hard as well to come to an agreement with Mettinen-Kekalainen, and Gelinas said she was confident the agency was "trying hard" to get the woman the help she needs.

Mettinen-Kekalainen was posting a video journey of her battle with the CCAC on YouTube.

She also started a hunger fast, refusing to take the liquid food supplement she receives through a gastric feeding tube inserted surgically into her stomach.

Mettinen-Kekalainen, a former adaptive rower and skydiver, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis three years ago and has been termed palliative by her family physician.

In Ontario, community care access centres assess a client's home-care needs and contract for-profit nursing agencies to provide the services. Now that the matter is settled, Ontario needs to take a hard look at its home-care system, Gelinas said.

"In the short term, I wanted to get Minna some care," she said. "We've achieved that goal and that was the prime motivator, but you have to look back and learn from those tragic incidents as to how do you change things so it never happens again. There has to be policy change in the way home-care services are delivered in this province."

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