Byline: Dale Brazao, Moira Welsh; 2010-10-01; Toronto Star; pages A1
Report: Retirement Home Investigation - Dale Brazao, Moira Welsh - Toronto Star
Tags: lived in, posed as, retirement home, undercover
"The 82-year-old man, in diapers and suffering advanced dementia, slid off his chair and crashed to the floor of the Toronto retirement home. No staffer came to help. An undercover Toronto Star reporter helped Sam up and waited. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen minutes. At twenty minutes, a tired, overworked staffer appeared. "Sam does not belong here," she said. That was our first night inside InTouch Retirement Living in Toronto's west end. Over the next week, the Star witnessed profound neglect in a place where more than half of the 18 residents should be in a nursing home receiving higher quality, regulated medical care. People left in urine- and feces-filled diapers for hours. Washrooms had no toilet paper so residents, some suffering from dementia, wiped themselves with their hands or a fliimsy communal towel ...