Minna Mettinen-Kekalianen: good news

It's been widely reported, including here and here here, that Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen's home care will resume this coming Monday (February 2, 2009).

Here is an excerpt from this article in the Sudbury Star by Carol Mulligan:

Starting Monday, a Sudbury woman suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease will begin receiving the home nursing care she needs.

The North East Community Care Access Centre will resume providing nursing and personal support to Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen, 42.

Mettinen-Kekalainen has been involved in a public battle with the North East CCAC about her home care. The woman, who has an autism spectrum disorder called Asperger syndrome, has not received help at home from the agency for months after nurses caring for her complained about her behaviour.

Nickel Belt MPP France Gelinas said Tuesday nurses have been lined up to care for Mettinen-Kekalainen starting Feb. 2.

Like others with Asperger's, Mettinen-Kekalainen experiences some difficulty with interpersonal communication, and her power of attorney, Jason Bushie, has said that can lead to misunderstandings with her caregivers and others.

Gelinas, the New Democrats' Health critic, got involved in Mettinen-Kekalainen's case last week. Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci's constituency staff had been working on the case for weeks. Gelinas said it was a case of "all hands on deck" being able to resolve the dispute between the woman and the agency.

See also Stephen Drake's post here.

Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen: an update

Good news - The Sudbury Star (January 28) reports that Canadian MPP France Gelinas, who has been advocating for Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen, is optimistic she will get the home care she needs.

Here is an excerpt from the article:

For the last three weeks, Mettinen-Kekalainen has taken her fight with the CCAC public in media interviews -- even going as far as staging a brief hunger strike to protest the fact she has not been receiving home care.

The CCAC has been unable to say much about the case because of privacy and confidentiality laws, but Mettinen- Kekalainen has been vocal about being asked to sign an agreement with the agency not to threaten or harass home-care workers who visit her.

Mettinen-Kekalainen has said the CCAC interpreted her threat to report nurses for not following her doctor's orders to the Ontario College of Nurses as harassing and abusive behaviour.

When the woman refused to sign the agreement, services were withdrawn, she said, although the CCAC has said it does not deny services to anyone who needs them.

Gelinas became involved in Mettinen-Kekalainen's case after Sudbury Star stories about how the woman was living alone, being fed through a gastric tube inserted in her stomach and not being bathed regularly or having her adult diapers changed.

Mettinen-Kekalainen has been termed a palliative patient by her family physician and she is confined to a wheelchair and hospital bed in her home -- often on life-supporting oxygen.

The article in full is here.

See also Stephen Drake's post here.

Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen: recent developments

Yesterday (Monday), Steven Drake over at Not Dead Yet posted several new developments in the situation of Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen and noted that "things are looking up and Minna (and maybe others) can get the support she needs and is currently doing without". Here is the introduction to his post:

First, over the weekend, Minna's denial of in-home support went from a regional story to a national one in Canada. The Canadian Press picked up her story and it is now being disseminated all over Canada. This is a link to the story on Metronews.ca.

Encouragingly, this story focuses on the consequences of Minna's withdrawal of personal care, and on the determination of MPP France Gelinas, quoted in Friday's blog entry, to see this through and also to determine how many other people are being affected similarly.

His post in full is here ...

Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen: an update

To read Stephen Drake's update on Minna Mettinen-Kekalainen, posted at Not Dead Yet on Friday, see here.

From Sunday's The Sudbury Star:

Social work students' protest pushes for home care for Canadian woman with ALS, Asperger's

Social work students from Laurentian University are demanding immediate action to resolve the case of a Sudbury woman suffering from ALS who says she is being denied home care.

About a dozen students staged a day-long protest downtown Jan. 23 to draw attention to the story of a woman they say has fallen through the cracks of a health-care system that is broken.

They admitted they don't have all the facts in the dispute between Minna Mettinen- Kekalainen (pictured) and the North East Community Care Access Centre, and protest leader Steve Murray said he recognized the agency couldn't speak about the case because of confidentiality laws."

We are not here to make anyone or any agency seem like a bad guy," said Murray, speaking through a megaphone in front of Sudbury MPP Rick Bartolucci's constituency office just before noon.

"But we are here to ensure that this issue does not get swept under the rug."

Murray said the purpose of their demonstration was twofold -- to get Mettinen- Kekalainen the services she needs and isn't receiving, and to call for collaboration to find out what happened in this case and to ensure it never happens again.

"Our message to both the government and the agencies involved here is that this situation is completely unacceptable," said Murray.

To read the story in full, see here.