Anti-Fugue System in RPA | Hundreds of non -compliant households

More than half of the newly newly subject to seniors (RPA) residences for a regulation forcing them to install an anti-Fugue system still have not, according to the Quebec grouping of seniors for seniors (RQRA).

This regulation comes into force at the very moment when the police have just revealed the identity of Sylvie St-Denis, sixties suffering from Alzheimer’s who had run away from her Terrebonne residence and who died in mid-June in a woody ¹.

Some 55 % of RPAs who have category 3 customers-semi-autonomous elders who need medical support-still do not have safety systems at the doors, according to data analyzed by the RQRA. Clearly, 587 out of 1060 residences have not yet installed and 473 have them.

In principle, these residences had until Tuesday, July 15, to put these measures in place, whatever the state of health of their residents, according to the regulations on the certification of private elders.

Health Quebec data indicates that 50 RPA category 3 have not installed such systems, while 178 have them, underlines the spokesperson Catherine Brousseau. However, these figures seem to cover only the residences which currently welcome elders at risk of wandering.

Only a quarter (22 %) of category 3 RPA is currently hosting users at risk of wandering, explains Hans Brouillette, director of government relations at the RQRA.

However, the number of cases of wandering evolves frequently – and quickly – in a residence, recognizes Mr. Brouillette. “It can vary from month to month,” says Brouillette. If there are any, they are waiting to be relocated [en CHSLD]but they can’t stay [en RPA]. »

Technically, RPAs are not intended to accommodate customers at risk of wandering, because they constitute a “domicile”, and not a “health care environment”, specifies Mr. Brouillette.

They do it all the same, as places in the public health network are limited and the waiting lists in CHSLD are long.

This regulation, which forced RPAs to establish security measures, was already in place since 2023 for category 4 units, which host customers in greater loss of autonomy. However, according to Health Quebec, 57 RPAs in category 4 have still not installed such security devices, while 219 are equipped with it.

RPAs not necessarily adapted

The new regulation is imprecise, says Hans Brouillette. “It doesn’t look like imposing something badly defined. It’s like saying: “Do something, and we’ll see if it is suitable or not”, “he laments.

Thus, he illustrates, the RPA set up safety systems at the doors without being able to rule if this concerns seniors from their establishment.

« [Comme RPA]I have no right which is given to me by the government to establish that a person does wandering, suffers from cognitive problems … And at the same time, I must apply an output control! “Explains Mr. Brouillette, who sees it as an important inconsistency.

In addition to denouncing the vagueness around the safety devices, he adds that the costs would be higher than expected. It would cost the RPA 40 million to install such devices in their buildings, says Mr. Brouillette.

“We don’t want to relive the 2.0 jets,” says Mr. Brouillette. After the Isle-Verte tragedy, Quebec had indeed imposed on the RPA to install nozzles. Residences had struggled to comply with this regulation which brought up significant costs. Hundreds of them had closed their doors.

The regulations on security measures could also be modified soon, maintains Mr. Brouillette: a regulatory revision project is underway for the entire, since it would be “inapplicable” in a concrete way.

He claims that several people from the cabinet of the Minister responsible for the seniors, Sonia Bélanger, have verbally stressed that there would not be, for the moment, an opinion of non-compliance issued at the place of the RPA not having installed the security systems. Health Quebec, however, told us by email that “notices of non-compliance may be issued in the event of non-compliance with a regulation”.

Seniors who flee

On Wednesday, police revealed the identity of a sexagenarian found dead in mid-June in a Bois de Terrebonne. Sylvie St-Denis, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, diabetes and dementia, was housed at the Mille-Îles pavilion, an RPA composed of two secure wings.

“Obviously, this residence is not provided with a security system [suffisant] For people with Alzheimer’s. We therefore welcome people in places that are not suitable, ”denounces Paul Brunet, Chairman of the Council for the Protection of Patients (CPM).

This is not the first time that a elder has hosted in Fugue residence and has experienced a fatal destiny. In December 2022, a lady from Acton Vale had run away from her residence early in the morning and was found lifeless in a river three days later. His relatives claimed that she co-managed cyclically, according to a coroner report obtained by The press.

In December 2020, a 94-year-old woman from Rivière-du-Loup died of hypothermia after running away from her residence overnight. The Coroner’s report indicates that the lady suffered from cognitive disorders and that all the doors of her residence were locked using a code that “almost everyone knew obviously including M.^me X ».

With the collaboration of William Thériault and Jean-Hugues Roy, The press

1. Read “Terrebonne: a woman with Alzheimer’s found found dead in wooded grounds”