Ontario’s Health Ministry to hire 700 new healthcare workers
Ontario is bringing in more help for aggressive and “difficult” patients with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other neurological disorders. The Ontario Behavioural Support Systems Project is designed to keep people out of long-term care facilities and reduce medication and restraint use for patients already in institutions, Health Minister Deb Matthews says. The program, which is unique to Canada, will begin with four pilot projects this month and be implemented across the province within a year. Dementia patients often end up in institutions because family and healthcare workers don’t know how to handle them. The province will hire 700 new healthcare workers who will be trained in how to recognize and address behavioural issues in dementia patients.