Barker, 66, died Feb. 12 at the Mount Hope Center for Long-Term Care, where she had lived for nearly a decade. According to family members, London police showed up at the former home of one of Barker’s children about three weeks later to inform them of her death. “This should not have happened. It makes me so angry that she died alone and her body was left in the morgue for a month. There is no excuse for that,” said her sister, Donna Barker, from her home in Havelock, Ont. According to Barker’s long-term care records provided to CBC News by the family, Barker’s condition deteriorated sharply on Feb. 9 after drowning during lunch. He died on February 12, but the family says he was not notified until March 8. In a statement to CBC News, St. Joseph’s Healthcare London, which oversees the Mount Hope Center for Long-Term Care, said it could not comment on individual issues due to privacy law, but said it was following all appropriate procedures for notifying substitute decision-makers and proxies when a resident dies. . In this case, Barker’s decision-maker was the Public Trustee and the Ontario Trustee’s office, representing its wishes and best interests under the Health Consent Act (HCCA). Because of the secrecy rules, she said she could not talk about her role as a substitute for decision-making. Donna Barker, 63, wants to know that it took almost a month for staff to notify family members that her sister, Melanie Barker, had died at her long-term care home. (Joe Fiorino / CBC) However, the office has also acted as custodian of Barker’s estate since May 2010, making financial decisions on its behalf, as well as the nearly 4,550 Ontario residents whose family members cannot be involved. In a written response, the Ontario Attorney General’s Office said the Office of the Attorney General and Commissioner “is making reasonable efforts to locate the family” in its role as custodian, but has no mandate to seek family members.

The records show a lack of contact information for the family

However, long-term care experts say that both the care home and the Office of the Public Guardian and Trustee should have family information on file. Toronto-based lawyer Jane Meadus, who specializes in long-term care, said it was the home’s responsibility to maintain the family’s contact information and inform them of Barker’s death. “The house should have done it,” Meadus said. “There are definitely requirements for the home to communicate with the family.” Barker’s long-term care records reveal that as early as September, a social worker made notes in her file, noting that there was no funeral plan in place and that there was no contact with the family.
“The health of the resident has deteriorated and at the moment the funeral arrangements are not mentioned”, the notes state. “Keep investigating by contacting the family to identify a funeral home for the resident when needed.” On February 11, the day before she died, a social worker wrote that an “exhaustive search” had been completed for her family. According to records, because staff were unable to contact their relatives, the house would have to “follow the policy of unsolicited residents at the time of death”. Melanie Barker appears in a photo around the age of 12, according to her sister, Donna Barker. (Katie Nicholson / CBC) Two names of family members appear on the Barker entry sheet. A phone number is listed for one of them and the file indicates that the staff had contact information for the other family member. Barker’s long-term care documents state that staff had previously “contacted those numbers, who were no longer on duty”. Family members wonder how strong these efforts were. “How much effort did they really put in?” said Donna Barker. “How hard would it be to get on Facebook or even Google? Can you find someone if you really try?” A quick web search using Google and Facebook found both family members listed in the graph within minutes. And yet, as soon as the care home hired the London police almost a month later as part of the search for the missing bodies, if there is no known relative, a family member was located through a previous address in the archive. The house has not given an explanation for what happened between Barker’s death and the notice. Donna Barker does not have regular access to a car and as COVID-19 restrictions were eased, she planned to visit her sister when she learned of her death. She said that if she had known that her sister was dying, she would have found a way to London. “No matter how bad her life was, she needed to know they loved her, not just abandoned her,” he said. “To find out a month later – it really, really makes me angry that there was no contact because I gave them my number,” Barker said. “I even saw the woman write it in her file.”

A life of struggle

Melanie Barker’s life was a life of trauma and struggles, according to her sister.
“We were abused a lot as children,” said Donna Barker. “Physically, emotionally, sexually… And Melanie suffered, I think, the worst thing about it because she would retire.” She remembers her sister smart and beautiful. Shelley Silverthorn said she would be there for her mother, Melanie Barker, if the caregiver contacted her and told her she was dying. (Joe Fiorino / CBC) Barker married at 17 and had three children. She and her husband divorced in 1994, and Barker enrolled at Western University in London, OD, where he earned a degree in sociology. She started a new relationship and had two more children.
When the relationship ended, her sister said she had a mental health crisis and ended up in psychiatric care before a physical illness forced her into long-term care.

The daughter called home in December

Melanie Barker’s eldest daughter, Shelley Silverthorn, has fond memories of her childhood in Gravenhurst, Ont. She says her mother abused her verbally and physically, but also took her to Toronto to watch a musical. “It was really religious,” said Silverworth, who remembers her mother shouting Christian music at home on Sundays. “I think she was just trying to find something to hold on to that she could believe in to explain why her father did what she did to her and I think that was the mechanism for her to deal with it.” Silverworth had her own struggles: with addiction and the law. She estimates that the last time she visited her mother was in 2016. “Cleaning was difficult for me because that is part of the reason I did not go to see my mom. I was not even able to take care of myself,” he said. In December 2021, Silverthorn said she called the care home to check on her mother and gave them her number.
Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, says that in his practice, staff often conduct thorough examinations of family members, even calling janitors and pharmacists. (Yanjun Li / CBC) Silverthorn’s name and number appear on her mother’s long-term care documents, but there is no mention of her family relationship. Silverthorn said her number worked when her mother died and she did not receive a call from the care home. “I think he would like us all there in the end,” he said. “She may not have been the best mother in our lives, but she loved us; and she deserved it.”

“Tragedy of mistakes”

Experts in long-term and palliative care question whether the home and office of the Public Guardian and Commissioner did due diligence to keep records of family contacts. “It’s a tragedy, really,” said Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto. “What bothers me is that efforts were made, there was information here [on Barker’s chart]. “ Lawyer Jane Meadus says it was the long-term carer’s responsibility to contact the family about Melanie Barker’s death. (Joe Fiorino / CBC) At his own practice, Sinha said his teammates often find that they search for closest relatives, property searches, go through medical records and contact anyone who reports – even pharmacists or concierges at last known addresses. “The house can say, well, the documentation says that people did an exhaustive search and followed the right checkpoints,” Xinha said. “I would ask you to disagree and say if it is not substantiated, then it was not necessarily done. I would like to know more about what this exhausting search entailed?” Shinha said he was sad that Barker’s family members were not given the opportunity to reconcile or say goodbye, but suspected that chronic underfunding of the long-term care system and poor staff had played a role. “Unfortunately, I feel like there are probably a lot more people out there like Melanie Barker.” Both Sinha and Meadus question whether the Public Guardian and Trustee’s office could have done more to help the care home with possible family contact details. “It is unfortunate that the Public Guard and the Administrator may not have made more effort.” said Meadus.

Policies and procedures reviewed

St Joseph’s said that the contact details of the family in a resident’s chart are updated as required and if he or she perceives incorrect information, he or she asks the decision maker or resident to provide updated information.
If there are any significant changes in a resident’s health, including if the resident becomes seriously ill, the deputy decision-maker or his / her attorney shall be notified. St Joseph’s said it is consistently reviewing its policies and procedures and looking for opportunities to improve its care and services. CLOCKS The family wants to know why they were not informed of the woman’s death in the long-term care home:

She died in a nursing home, no one told her family for almost a month

It took almost a month for her family to be notified of her death after Melanie Barker died alone in a long-term care home in London. CBC’s Katie Nicholson helps …