​Long-Term Care Alliance: solution or just another voice for more money?

Long-term care is in a larger crisis than most would acknowledge.  When you are trying to help elders in getting the level of care they need, then you see it up close and personal; or if you are assisting a patient of any age in getting emergency care, you see the reality up close.  Many of the serious pressure points in the health system can be traced back to the log-jam created by the thousands of seniors who get into health crisis then end up in acute care beds or, worse still, on stretchers in corridors for days, weeks and months in hospitals.

As these columns have outlined many times in the last 5 years, dealing with the issues that need to be fixed in order to create the system that our society needs and deserves is not a simple task.  If the understanding of policy decision-makers is not complete, as it often is not, much energy and investment can be directed unintentionally to the wrong places with little or no impact.

An acute and detailed understanding of the system is absolutely required at the tables in which planning and strategy takes place.  Public servants, great and dedicated as they are, will not come to the table fully equipped unless they have had training and experience in administering services and programs inside the system.  Managing a government division or a section or, even, an entire department, does not afford the level of practical knowledge that is essential to getting systems fixed.

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