Dorothea Lorenz is the vice-president of the Ontario Association of Residents’ Councils.
Chester Village resident elected to Ontario Association of Residents’ Councils board
Dorothea Lorenz enjoys staying active, learning about provincial issues
Monday January 4, 2010 -- Jennifer Higgs
Dorothea Lorenz was recently elected vice-president on the board of the Ontario Association of Residents’ Councils (OARC) and says with discussions surrounding Bill 140 it was the right time to get involved.

Lorenz came to Canada from Berlin, Germany, in 1963. She worked as a nursing assistant, with a surgeon and then with a periodonist and attended night school to become a dental assistant.

She was involved in the Ontario Dental Assistants Association, and served as the president of the Toronto chapter. Lorenz became more involved at the national level and was vice-president of the Canadian Dental Assistant Association for a period of time.

Now a resident at Chester Village, a long-term care home in Toronto, Lorenz has served a term as president on the home’s residents’ council.

“She is very sharp and active and has enjoyed volunteering her whole life,” says Cynthia Diotte, the home’s administrator.

Lorenz discovered through reading an OARC newsletter there was no board representative from the home. She applied for the board and was elected as vice-president.

Diotte says Lorenz is the first resident from the home to be involved with the OARC board, which will benefit other residents through the information she brings back as well as forwarding some of the issues that residents may have to the provincial level.

“Having a voice in our home and allowing her to speak for everybody at an Ontario level, seeing changes and just getting some actions done . . . that’s what we’re hoping she will be able to do for us as well as for all of long-term care,” says Diotte.

Lorenz says she enjoys being involved with the home’s residents’ council and by going to the provincial level receives more information about what other homes are doing.

The nine board members always exchange what’s going on in their own homes, which represents different regions of the province, she says.

“Everybody brings something else to the table and that makes it very interesting,” she says.

She says she got involved at the right time because the association is providing its feedback to the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care on the compliance transformation project regarding Bill 140.

Bill 140 is the province’s Long-Term Care Homes Act.

The ministry is engaging in public consultations of the proposed draft regulations. Its compliance transformation project aims to deliver the mandate of heightened accountability through inspections and licensing.

At the OARC September meeting members discussed Part 1 of the proposal initial draft regulation and has a meeting planned with the ministry in March to go over Part 2.

Lorenz says they talked about the kinds of inspection questions being asked and how to proceed if something needs to be addressed, adding OARC members inquired about some of the questions if they needed clarification.

She says because OARC members are long-term care home residents they are glad to be able to help all the province’s residents.

“I thought that was just the right moment I got in because the information was marvelous,” she tells the
Morning Report.

OARC usually meets three times a year, but as they are involved with the proposed draft regulations consultation process will be meeting four times this year.

Lorenz says she has the personal goal to learn more about OARC and its happenings, as well as write articles.

To learn more about OARC, visit this link.

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