Expanding Innovative Pilot Project will Enhance the Safety and Wellbeing of Residents with Complex Responsive Behaviours
TORONTO — The Ontario government is further expanding its support for the most vulnerable long-term care residents by investing $9 million more for the continued operation of 62 beds in three existing Behavioural Specialized Units and for the addition of up to 82 new specialized spaces in targeted regions across the province this year. This is an extension of a successful pilot project started in 2019, when 62 new specialized beds for residents with complex responsive behaviours were established in three homes in Whitby, Mississauga, and St. Catharines. There are another nine Behavioural Specialized Units in Ontario that are funded by Ontario Health.
This investment responds to an identified need for more beds for residents with complex responsive behaviours throughout the province.
“Investing in Behavioural Specialized Units is another example of our government delivering on our promise to provide innovative models of care that focus on the needs of our residents,” said Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, Minister of Long-Term Care. “This investment is part of our commitment to modernize the long-term care sector and will ensure our most vulnerable residents enjoy the level of care, comfort and safety they deserve.”
Behavioural Specialized Units (BSUs) provide specialized care to individuals with responsive behaviours that cannot be effectively supported in their current environment and for whom all other applicable services (e.g. regular long-term care beds, community supports) have been fully explored. Specialized care in a BSU is required due to the frequency, severity and/or level of risk that the responsive behaviours pose towards themselves, co-residents, visitors and/or staff members. A BSU offers specialized and increased staffing, a tailored environment, focussed behavioural assessment and enhanced care planning.
In addition to improving quality of life and enhancing safety for residents through this innovative model of care, the investment will also support the easing of hospital capacity pressures by helping patients with more complex responsive behaviours move from hospitals to long-term care homes faster.
This investment is part of the province’s commitment to create a 21st century long-term care sector that is truly resident-centred and that provides the highest quality of care for our most vulnerable people, where and when they need it.
Quick Facts
- Specialized Units provide long-term care home residents with accommodation, care, services, programs, and goods and are designated under the Long-Term Care Homes Act, 2007. The designation of Specialized Unit provides Ontario Health with the flexibility to address the needs of specialized populations whose needs cannot otherwise be met.
- Behavioural Specialized Units (BSUs) are a type of Specialized Unit that delivers high support, specialized care for residents with complex responsive behaviours.
- In the context of dementia and other geriatric mental health conditions, “responsive behaviours” is a term used to describe how a person’s words and actions are a form of meaningful communication, often of unmet needs. These behaviours are the result of changes in the brain that may be affecting mood, judgement, perception, and memory and/or external changes in the person’s environment. Responsive behaviours can be verbal (e.g., crying, grunting, yelling, cursing, threatening) or physical (e.g. collecting items, fidgeting, pacing, banging, grabbing, spitting, kicking, hitting).
- There are currently 12 BSUs at long-term care homes provincewide, including the following three, funded by the Ontario Government in 2019 as part of a pilot project to improve access to long-term care for individuals with responsive behaviours: Fairview Lodge (Whitby), Cooksville Care Centre (Mississauga) and Linhaven (St. Catharines).
- This investment is part of the Government of Ontario’s Long-Term Care Modernization Plan.
- The province is also investing $2.68 billion for the delivery of 30,000 new long-term care spaces over ten years. Ontario now has 20,257 new and 15,918 redevelopment spaces in the development pipeline.
SOURCE Province of Ontario
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