The Act and Beyond: The role of Family Council in ensuring high-quality care
by Family Councils Ontario
The Preamble of the Long-Term Care Homes Act outlines the purpose and underlying philosophy of the legislation. It includes language on “resident-centred care,” “collaboration and mutual respect amongst residents, their families and friends” and more, “public accountability and transparency,” and “quality accommodation that provides a safe, comfortable, home-like environment and supports a high quality of life for all residents of long-term care homes.” This language reinforces the value of high-quality care and the important role of families ensuring safe, resident-centred Long-Term Care Homes.
Family Councils play an essential role in ensuring safe, high quality care in Long-Term Care Homes. The legislation outlines several powers of a Family Council, including the power to “Advise the licensee of any concerns or recommendations the Council has about the operation of the home” (2007, c. 8, s. 60 (1)). This is an important power of a Family Council as it confers legal power to the Council to raise concerns. Further, “If the Family Council has advised the licensee of concerns or recommendations under either paragraph 8 or 9 of subsection (1), the licensee shall, within 10 days of receiving the advice, respond to the Family Council in writing (2007, c. 8, s. 60 (2)).” Not only does a Council have the power to raise concerns, but those concerns must be responded to. The role of Family Councils in raising and addressing concerns and bringing forward recommendations to improve quality cannot be overstated with regards to ensuring safe, resident-centred, high-quality care.
Beyond the Powers of a Family Council, the Act also outlines other areas of Home operations in which the Council must be involved. The Home must collaborate with the Family Council on the development and revision of the Home’s Mission Statement (2007, c. 8, s. 4 (3)(4)), a statement that outlines the core purpose and focus of the Home. Involving Family Council in developing, carrying out and acting on the results of the annual satisfaction survey supports ongoing quality improvement (2007, c. 8, s. 85 (1)(2)(3)) and ongoing culture change to fully-realized resident-centred care. These are important mechanisms for supporting high-quality care. They serve as the foundation and evaluation for developing safe, high-quality Long-Term Care Homes that meet the needs of residents and support the role of families. A solid foundation of collaboration with residents and families will go a long way towards quality care.
Inspections are one more part of the full picture of Long-Term Care. There is more to Long-Term Care quality than just inspection or reports. Quality in Long-Term Care is also about how a Home feels, how much joy, love, and community happen in the Home. Family Councils provide important input during the Resident Quality Inspection through an interview or questionnaire. This is an important role for Family Councils to be aware of and understand as it provides information directly to compliance officers. Inspections and reports tell you if the Home complies with the Act and regulation. The results of inspections are important to be aware of and understand, as are the ways a Home will correct any instances of non-compliance. If your loved one’s Home is found to be in non-compliance, review the Inspection Report & Summary (which must be provided to the Family Council, as per the Act) and discuss these documents with your Home Administrator. As even the perceived-to-be-the-best Homes will have instances of non-compliance, we strongly encourage you to have a conversation between your Council and Administrator to discuss the results of the inspection. Communicating openly and transparently is another important factor for high-quality, resident-centred care.
Families and Family Councils are essential public eyes in Long-Term Care and one of the most important things you can do to help ensure safe, high-quality Long-Term Care is to cultivate an effective Family Council. Family involvement in Long-Term Care matters so consider the roles your Council has to play in the development and maintenance of safe, high-quality, resident-centred care.