Social Development’s website criticized for obsolete info
New Brunswick's Department of Social Development is facing criticism for providing out-of-date information about adult facility care procedures on its website for the past 10 months.
Changes about the required role of special-care home operators were made in September 2013, but the details were never made available online.
“To put families through this kind of process is unacceptable,” said Cecile Cassista, executive director of Coalition for Seniors and Nursing Home Residents’ Rights.
She had been relying on that online information about special-care homes, but found out last week those standards are well out of date.
“I was floored. I did take the initiative and wrote the minister because this is unacceptable. We are providing, and the public is going on the website, wrong information,” she said.
Cassista says she's received more than 14 calls in the past week from families struggling with the dated material on the government's website. She said one family found out their family member was no longer eligible for a care home under the new rules.
Deputy opposition leader Victor Boudreau calls the lapse concerning.
“We think that it’s information that is valuable for families that are looking to place a loved one in a special care home, in a specialized care facility. They rely on this information to be able to make decisions as to where they're going to put their parent for example,” said the Shediac-Cap-Pelé MLA.
Social Development Minister Madeleine Dube says the information is a mistake which will be addressed as soon as possible.
Cassista says she’s been waiting days to see some sort of response.
At the very least she wants the government to remove the link to the wrong information.
