Time passes in many forms: When it comes to home care, Ontario government changes recently introduced swiftly are showing no benefit to the desperate public for whom they're intended, even as months pass.

Each day, they bring hardship instead.

Since I began writing about this near-hidden aspect of health care, the crisis in people's   homes has worsened. Many contact me, others I heard speak out at a meeting last week of Communities for Home Health Care, a coalition of ethnic and religious communities advocating for home care improvements. Family caregivers, especially senior spouses, are exhausted; people trying to live on their own after illness can no longer manage.

Examples: Mary is the caregiver for her elderly father whom she can't leave alone., An osteoporosis patient herself, her doctor ordered her to walk 45 minutes daily. She also wanted to visit her mother who was in a nursing home. Her local community care access centre (CCAC) would not provide a worker for even one hour a week of respite care.

Another woman's husband had a stroke and couldn't speak or care for himself; she broke her ankle while pushing his wheelchair. The personal care worker who was to relieve her to give him showers, lunch, washroom assistance, was cut from six hours to three, once a week. 

This government originally created the CCACs to logically co-ordinate placement and home care services under one roof. It boosted the budget but not enough to cover closing hospital beds, sending people home sooner and sicker, nursing home waiting lists, and the growing numbers of frail elderly.

When the CCACs complained of lack of funds, the government struck back with "re- structuring.' New legislation replacing the boards and CEOs with government appointees was passed within weeks, regulations toughened and care provider agencies reselected through a formalized bidding process that made sense for purchasing machinery but has little relevance to human need.