Werner Gumprich is shopping for a retirement home

Between living in your own home and requiring a nursing home there's a murky area of seniors' homes called "retirement homes." They're meant for seniors who need just a little help with meals and maybe some personal care.

But in Canada, retirement homes are poorly regulated and in some of them, life for elderly, vulnerable people has become a nightmare. But there are things you can do to avoid bad retirement homes.

At 82, Werner Gumprich is shopping for a retirement home. He's about to become one of the tens of thousands of Canadians living in one. But he must choose carefully.

Other seniors have found poor care, neglect - even abuse - in places that promised they were good homes.

Tens of thousands of Canadians live in retirement homes

In Quebec, public hearings are being held into abuse in retirement homes and nursing homes.

The Quebec Human Rights Commission has been told of excessive use of drugs to make old people compliant and of restraints used to confine them when they are not.

In a home in Toronto, three caregivers were charged with stealing thousands of dollars from the seniors' bank accounts.

In Gander Bay, Newfoundland, there's a different problem: elderly people who find they lack the basic protection that most tenants have, after a new seniors' complex fails for financial reasons. The residents are threatened with sudden eviction.

Such problems shouldn't surprise us. Seniors in retirement homes across Canada have very little protection.

Nick Boychuk says life was hell in a Toronto retirement home called Bloor West Village

Three provinces -Ontario, Alberta and Quebec- with 70 per cent of the country's population, essentially have no regulations governing retirement homes.

In other provinces, the regulations are often inadequate and frequently poorly enforced. Neglect and abuse has been going on for years.

Consider the story of 70-year-old Nick Boychuk. He says life was hell in a Toronto retirement home called Bloor West Village.

"People used to get beaten up and sometimes I was thinking, 'When is he going to jump at me and do the same to me or other people.'"

"Frequently, I heard the screams of beaten people but I was afraid to leave my room," Teofil Skupien told a Polish newspaper

Teofil Skupien, 81, lived in the same home as Boychuk.

Skupien claimed he was severely beaten by one of the men who worked at Bloor West Village.

He suffered a badly bruised face and some broken ribs.

Skupien wrote about his ordeal in the local Polish newspaper.

"Frequently, I heard the screams of beaten people but I was afraid to leave my room."

After many complaints to various government agencies, criminal charges were laid.

After many complaints, criminal charges were laid against one of the owners of the Bloor West Village facility

Ramnarine Khelawon, one of the owners of Bloor West Village, is charged with numerous counts of serious assaults on residents.

In a retirement home nine years ago, professor of social work Ernie Lightman conducted a one-man inquiry for the Ontario government into the state of retirement homes in the province.

"I went in expecting some awful stuff. I found stuff far worse than I expected. I was deeply depressed at the end of it."

But his recommendations for protecting seniors were largely ignored by the government.

"There's a law of the jungle that operates here," says Ernie Lightman of retirement home regulations in Ontario

"There's a law of the jungle that operates here. There are no inspectors, there's no licensing. An operator can do anything he can get away with.

"I attended an inquest where there were 30 or 40 very vulnerable adults, very frail seniors in a home in a small town in Ontario. There was at night one teenaged staff person on duty.

"This kid fell asleep. One of the residents, who had some form of dementia, managed to open a fire door, walked out in the cold in her nightgown and froze to death.

"They were not required to have any staff people. They could close up the place and go home at 5:00 and they would be breaking no law."

In the fall of 2000, the Toronto Star newspaper reported shocking conditions in the retirement homes of Canada's biggest city. The mayor, Mel Lastman, felt he had to do something about the problem.

Workers answering the phones at the City of Toronto office

The City of Toronto set up a temporary telephone hotline to hear complaints about retirement homes.

But the program is due to end this month because there aren't enough inspectors.

"Since October 1999, when the hotline started up, we have received up to 620 calls," says inspector Jim Chan.

"The types of concerns and complaints coming in relate to sanitation, lack of personal care services, a few calls relating to physical or verbal abuse."

Inspector Jim Chan says Toronto has received a few calls relating to physical or verbal abuse

But the inspectors are acting in a regulatory vacuum. They have very limited powers to correct anything.

A call to the hotline led Marketplace to a sad story of neglect: the Magdalena's Rest Home in Toronto.

At one point in 1999, the house was ridiculously overcrowded, with even the living room and dining room jammed packed with beds.

A total of 17 elderly people lived there.

Yvonne Neti still works at the home and says conditions were awful.

"It was filthy. The food, most of the time the food was expired," says Yvonne Neti of the Magdalena Rest Home

"It was filthy. The food, most of the time the food was expired."

Owners of the home obtained food donations from the Salvation Army - food they fed to elderly people who were paying them between $850 and $1400 a month for room and board at Magdalena's Rest Home.

And there wasn't enough staff to look after the residents. At night there was only one person on duty to care for 17 frail people.

"We come in the morning, when we start at 9:00," says Neti. "Sometimes a few of the residents are soiled in the clothes, bed wet.

MORE: What to do if you have a complaint about a home »

After charges were laid, Magdalena Rest Home Inc. was repossessed by the bank and cleaned up

"There's one lady we have, she's a person doesn't like to have wet clothes on. Sometime we come and meet her naked, without no clothes on. And this in winter time."

The city laid charges against Magdalena Rest Home Inc., claiming it was filthy.

The owners of the house abandoned the property four months ago. The bank repossessed it and cleaned it up.

Mila Krytiuk owns a well-run retirement home, called Golden Orchards. That's where Nick Boychuk now lives, after leaving the abuse at Bloor West Village.

"It's obvious we do need more regulation," says Mila Krytiuk

Boychuk says Golden Orchards is like heaven. But Krytiuk believes we shouldn't rely on the goodwill of the people who run retirement homes.

Krytiuk says homes should be carefully regulated and inspected.

"I think that if you take a look at what's happening right now, with so many seniors being placed in abusive situations, it's obvious we do need more regulation."

It's interesting that government licenses, inspects and makes sure there's a high standard in day care centres. But not at the other end of life.

"Maybe it's a function of our view of elders as being disposable," says Ernie Lightman.

"We warehouse them, we put them out of public eye and then it's just not our problem anymore. It's a devaluing of seniors by virtue of our not caring enough to offer them serious protections."

Brenda Elliott

Brenda Elliott is a member of the Ontario government. She's just reported to cabinet on conditions faced by Ontario's elderly. But will there be regulation of Ontario's retirement homes?

"It was not communicated to us that there was a wish for rest and retirement homes to be heavily regulated," Elliott says.

So with governments passing the buck, what can you do to avoid problem homes? If you're looking for a retirement home where you or a relative will live you must do an extremely thorough check of any home you're considering.

• Get as much information as you can. Visit the home, make an unannounced visit at night and see if there's anybody there. See how many staff there are, see if the staff are awake. Ask about the services that are provided.
  
  
• Ask if they give you a written contract, what does that written contract cover? What does it not cover? What do they charge for the extras? Is there a written list that you can walk away with that says a tray in bed is so many dollars, or assistance with a bath is so many dollars? It's those extras that can often be most problematic.
  
  
• Retirement home owner Mila Krytiuk recommends that you view the home, arrive at meal time, inspect the meals and, most of all, discuss with the other seniors living there how they feel about the home. How do they find the food, how do they find the medical care, the personal hygiene?
  
  

• If you're looking for a retirement home, get as much information as you can about the facility

  Professor Ernie Lightman says you should look at the nature of the home: is it run by a for-profit or not-for-profit? If it's run by a not-for-profit, your chances are better, but there are no guarantees. Look for a not-for-profit or a church-based home first before going to the for-profit sector, because they're not answering to stockholders. They don't have a need to maximize their profits.

This is a marketplace, Lightman says. Potential residents are buying a commodity that in some ways is no different than buying a car or buying a new shirt. Let the buyer beware.

"We look at many countries that have much lower standards and we shake our heads at it," says Mila Krytiuk. "And then this happens to seniors here in Canada. Something's got be changed."

NEXT: Choosing a home: Things to consider »

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