Today's letters: On palliative care; community generosity; and diabetes

We must demand proper palliative care

Re: ‘I am tired of screaming for help’: A local family’s struggle to care for a loved one with ALS at home, Sept. 26.

I read with dismay the story of the family in Smiths Falls who were unable to get adequate help from the Ontario health system in caring for their loved one with ALS at home.

I have read countless articles citing doctors and others in the medical field calling for more palliative care facilities to care for people like Mr. Rodney. I was therefore absolutely outraged to read that someone in the home-care system had suggested to Mrs. Rodney that the reason there were not more placements capable of caring for people like her husband with complex care needs was that medically assisted death is now legal and not many people got to the point he was at. As she said, “It basically says my husband should have died by now because our health-care system can’t take care of him.”

What does this say about our society, when we would rather expect someone to ask for assisted death than provide the necessary facilities to care for him in a dignified manner?

I encourage all Ontarians to lobby their politicians for more palliative care facilities. Things are only going to get worse, as the government is proposing further widening the ways people can ask for MAiD because they do not see any way out of their present circumstances.

Mary Scobie, Arnprior

Kudos to this generous group

From House to Home Ottawa is an organization that collects donated furniture and household stuff and gives it to refugees and other newly arrived displaced persons. My wife and I are guarantors for a Ukrainian family of six who just arrived. Prior to their arrival we found them a place to rent and House to Home provided everything for free: bedroom and living room furniture, lamps, rugs, kitchen needs, TV, microwave, sheets, towels etc.

Kudos to Suzi who operates House to Home and all the volunteers who work with her, and the Ottawa-area folks who donated the stuff.  We are overwhelmed with the kindness of Canadians in general and these folks in particular. It’s refreshing in these days of stress and universal angst.

Doug and Natalia Rubbra, Ottawa

Get facts right about Type 1 diabetes

Re: Canada’s journalists need to reclaim their calling, Sept. 22.

While I agree with Andrew MacDougall’s point about journalism, I take issue with his analogy that serving up what the numbers say the people want to read “is like a parent giving a child sugary cereal all of the time because they prefer it to Shredded Wheat. Keep doing it and Junior will need medication for diabetes.”

Type 1 diabetes (the most likely kind “Junior” would have) is not caused by eating too much sugar. It is an auto-immune disease resulting from the body attacking the pancreas and destroying its ability to produce insulin. There is no cure.

I have explained this misconception to countless people over the decade since my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. A quick fact-check would have prevented the perpetuation of this misinformation, even if it was only meant tongue-in-cheek.

Jennifer Yates, Ottawa