@Bill R Speaking as a front line worker in a county run non profit Long Term Care facility for over 20 yrs, I can tell you first hand that these "miscreants" as you call them, should be put in mental institutions...I agree with you.
However, there are not enough of these institutions available for them...and with the ongoing cut backs in hospitals, there is no room for them there either. LTC homes have become a "dumping ground". This is not about unions crying for more funding because we are to lazy to do the work or because unions want more members...this is real. More people will die or become injured because there simply are not enough staff to properly see to the needs of our residents.
The prov. of Ont. does not have any minimum standards in place, that means it is up to the individual facilities to staff at levels they feel is required, who decides that?? ... not the people who actually do the job, that's for sure.
It's unfortunate that we are in this situation and you may wonder how it got this bad. I'm pretty sure if we were dealing in a sector made up of mostly men this would never have happened. Because we are mostly women who are front line caregivers, we just keep working through every cut back in hours and lay-off trying to "do the best we can" (as advised by management) until there are no more corners to cut!
Obviously your comments are not from experience in a nursing home, if you have ever been in one and paced the hallways looking for a nurse to help your loved one get to bed or to the bathroom, you would realize the crisis we are in. When I am busy helping a resident in their room with the door closed for privacy, there simply is no one to help the other 12-15 or more under my care that day.
So the next time you walk through your local nursing home and hear the poor little old lady calling out for help, please don't blame me for not being there, I am only one person, I am just "doing the best I can...with what I've got!!" Many of us are already skipping our breaks, coming in early and staying late...why? because we really do care about our residents! We do try to distract the violent residents, we know who they are, trust me...however it is impossible to be everywhere. The number of people with inappropriate behaviors in our facility is immense, but for some reason is treated like our dirty little secret, the days of the image of a nursing home being all about playing bingo and singing around the piano are long gone! Now is the time for all of us to take a stand and say...ENOUGH! The residents in Long Term Care in Ontario deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. We need help, we need hands, we need to make a change and stop wasting time pointing fingers in blame.