Personal Care Home Owners Association president says AG report hitting staff, residents hard

The president of the Personal Care Home Owners Association says a recent auditor general report on the industry in Newfoundland and Labrador is "somewhat accurate," but also that residents in his homes were "taken aback" by the findings.

Last week, Auditor General Denise Hanrahan released a report that revealed details of a death as a result of errors, allegations of sexual and verbal abuse and improperly administered medicine — among other findings — within personal care homes in the province.

Shaun Lane, who owns three personal care homes and is the president of Personal Care Home Owners Association of Newfoundland and Labrador, says he was shocked by some of the findings since there are standards and protocols in place.

"We're dealing with thousands of residents, thousands of staff. You know, I'm surprised that certain things weren't reported," Lane, who has been in the industry for 20 years, told CBC Radio's On The Go.

PC health critic Barry Petten has called for a police investigation into some of the findings. On Friday, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services CEO Pat Parfrey said police have been involved in personal care home complaints in the past year.

"These complaints filed from personal care homes have gone to the police. I'm not able to give you any facts about this because it's private and confidential," said Parfrey.

The health authority has policies on how it contacts police, he said, and then police take over the investigation.

As an industry, Lane says personal care homes need government oversight, regulations and inspections as they are dealing with a vulnerable sector of the population.

"For all of us to be kind of judged together with maybe some that are not getting it right — that was a part of what a lot of people felt," he said of Hanrahan's report, adding it has been hard on staff, and residents assure they feel safe.

"Some of our staff were really feeling bad because they worked very hard. Like to work in a personal care home, you need to be a special kind of person."

Lane says he's heard from personal care home owners who have met with the families of residents and they're finding the report hard to comprehend.

Lane says the next steps will need to be taken with the personal care home owners in partnership with the Department of Health and Community Services and the health authority.

He says there was a "glowing" report in 2018 from the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Health Information, which found people were overwhelmingly happy with their services.

"Then you look at the auditor general's report and you see that there's like these two really different angles of this," said Lane.