Ottawa auditor talks gap in long-term care home assault reporting

By OttawaMatters Staff

A delay in the reporting of an attempted sexual assault is among the findings in an investigation into one of the city's long-term care homes.

During a meeting with the city's audit committee Monday, Ottawa's Auditor General Ken Hughes explained that when a resident-on-resident sexual abuse happened more than a year ago, the home's staff did not tell police or Ontario's Ministry of Health until the next morning.

He found that staff did not report it right away because there was no obvious physical injury, and that policies were unclear or contradicted each other.

“Until those [policy] changes were made, and until staff were informed of those changes, it's quite possible that there were other incidents that went unreported,” Hughes added.

He said that as of Monday, his office is not assured that if a similar incident happened again, it would be reported properly.

But the city said there has been extensive staff training on what to do in these cases since the incident in the report. The resident who committed the abuse has also been moved to an all male unit.

Top Stories

Top Stories

Most Watched Today