Supporting the elderly during breakdowns, is it still effective?

Are the resources sufficient to ensure the safety of the unindependent elderly during prolonged power outages? According to one of the citizens, who spent the past days worrying about his grandmother’s safety, the answer is no. However, the Laval authorities claim that they have taken measures to ensure the safety of their citizens.

Kevin L’Esperance, a doctoral student in public health at the University of Montreal, visited his grandmother on Friday afternoon. “When I went down, there was no electricity or heat in his building for two days,” he says. She was lying in her bed and I thought she was dead. »

Mr. L’Esperance’s grandmother has lived in the same low-rent tenements in the Chomedy district of Laval for 50 years. You suffer from dementia attacks. A nurse from CLSC Ruisseau-Papineau visits him every day to give him his medication.

“There were no CLSC-level resources, no way of finding a place she could sleep” during the power outage, laments Mr. L’Esperance, who finds his grandmother wrapped in a heavy winter coat at home. “She requires a medical team to take care of her every day, so I can’t just take her home.”

He also claims that “nobody really asked the question” within CLSC as to whether his grandmother “would be okay during the power outage”. “Friday, there was no way to get to the people responsible for his file,” he says, since most of the CLSC staff went on Easter vacation.

CISSS de Laval’s head of public relations, Pierre-Yves Séguin, replies that his organization has been proactive during the crisis. “From the beginning, we have had calls with home care patients to make sure they are doing well. For those who are weak, they have been sent back to the CISSS de Laval institutions.”

Residents’ shelters

While Mr. L’Esperance’s grandmother was able to count on daily visits from the CLSC nurse, not all residents of the building are entitled to the same follow-up. “I went to get food for three or four of his neighbors because all their food was gone because of the collapse,” he says. Power finally resumed Saturday morning. But some residents did not finish their sentences, according to Mr. L’Esperance.

“One of the things that shocked me is that many of them found themselves without a phone, which is a huge concern. Most of them had landlines, but a tree fell on the line outside.”

In the city of Laval, it is indicated that “several municipal buildings have been provided to accommodate citizens who particularly want to heat and charge their electronic devices” for the citizens. Two shelters (Régent-Martimbeau Community Center and Axion 50+) have opened since. [vendredi] to 10 p.m [samedi] It was available to citizens wishing to spend the night there,” Nasreen Sassi, a public affairs advisor, adds via email.

And she adds, “The number of employees has been increased in 311 and 911 to be able to respond to citizens as quickly as possible.”

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