'Granny dumping' troubles Ontario doctor who sees it most over the holidays
CBC
An Ontario emergency room doctor is drawing attention to what's seen as a troubling trend known as "granny dumping," calling it a cry for help from families struggling to care for elderly relatives.
"Granny dumping is an international ER [emergency room] event where on the days just before Christmas, one's inconvenient elder arrives in the ER with a packed suitcase for a brief stay over the holiday season," Dr. Alan Drummond said in a social media post.
"It's nothing new," the physician, who practises in Perth County, told CBC News in a subsequent interview.
He said health-care workers see it more frequently around the holidays, a time of high stress when families can have trouble coping with the complexities of caring for a person with medical needs.
"Just before Christmas, we end up with little old ladies brought to emerge," he said. "Families can't cope. Usually there's a suitcase by the bedside grandly announcing their intention — that they're not taking granny home."
While Jane Meadus doesn't like the term granny dumping, calling it pejorative, she sympathizes with hospital staff on the receiving end of a difficult family situation.
The lawyer with the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly said her organization also gets calls for help, and not because families are looking for a way out of caring for an aging person.
"They're not doing it because they want to take a trip to Florida, although we hear that does happen. It's because they [family members] have just burned out."
According to Meadus, 40,000 Ontarians are waiting to get into a care facility.
What frustrates both Meadus and Drummond is the situation was predicted decades ago, given the aging baby boomer demographic.
"We don't seem to have an elder-care strategy," said Drummond. "This problem is just a sad comment on where we're at as a society and a sad comment about how little we value our elders."
"There's been poor planning all along," said Meadus. "Where I live, retirement homes are going up like gangbusters because people who are entitled to long-term care are now paying privately."
But private care is not an option for many low-income seniors, especially if they have dementia.
"To care for someone who has dementia, for example, is probably going to cost you eight [$8,000] to $10,000 a year," said Meadus. "That's why people end up in emergency rooms. There is no option and families have totally burned out."
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