"A disturbing number of Albertans are expressing major concerns right now over the way their elderly family members are being treated," says Andre Mamprin, director of The Banff Centre for Management’s Executive Leadership program. "A sense of frustration and disempowerment arises when people feel cut off from the impersonal institutions that many long term care organizations have become."

Mamprin is referring to the swathe of complaints that have been voiced, particularly during this election period, about the quality of care that the elderly are receiving in long term care facilities across Alberta. These complaints include several accounts of elderly people being diapered unnecessarily and against their consent; over-medicating of people under long term care; and other behaviours within such organizations that jeopardize the dignity of Alberta elderly.

The question Mamprin asks is, why are upper-level managers so utterly oblivious to the dissatisfaction of families whose loved ones are under the care of their organizations? Part of the solution, he says, is for management of long term care organizations to become more engaged with these families at a grass-roots level. Mamprin is actively engaged in bettering this situation of disempowerment for Canadians under long term care. He is currently coordinating a symposium designed to create alternatives to the current model, to be held by the Banff Centre for Management in January, 2001. This symposium will bring together leaders in health care, home care nurses, acute care doctors, church groups, community government leaders and members of such philanthropic organizations as The Salvation Army. "Everyone has a stake in the future of long term care," says Mamprin, "and Canadians are demanding that we address the problem now."