Villa des Brises Gatineau

by Trevor Greenway
Local Journalism Initiative
It’s been more than five months since Aline Besner died while under the care of an elder home in Gatineau, and her Masham family still has no answers about the circumstances surrounding her death.
Besner’s son, Guy Maisonneuve, and his wife, Shelley, have been anxiously awaiting a coroner’s report and said they’ve been left in the dark about how their mother and mother-in-law died. The Masham couple have a running clock for how long they’ve been waiting for answers. It was 144 days when the Low Down visited their Masham home on Sept. 12.
“We feel just utterly abandoned,” said Guy. “We haven’t heard from anybody,” added Shelley, explaining that they have now filed a complaint with the ombudsman because of the multiple delays in their file.
Besner died on April 14 after her cries for help three days earlier were ignored by staff at the Résidence Villa des Brises care home, according to several other patients who were staying at the facility.
Doctors at the Hull Hospital later discovered bed sores all over Besner’s torso, neck and back and immediately filed a complaint against the care home, which triggered a coroner’s investigation.
Following Besner’s death, the Maisonneuves have been trying to wade through mounds of government red tape and said that over the past five months, nobody from the Centre intégré de santé et des services sociaux de l’Outaouais (CISSSO), the health minister’s office, their own MNA Robert Bussière or even the care home itself, has attempted to reach out to the grieving family. They have sent multiple letters and emails to the ministry and to Bussière’s office, but said their pleas for answers have been ignored.
“It’s excruciating,” added Shelley. “But I get the funny feeling that everybody’s under a gag order – ‘Don’t talk to the families because you could say something,’” she suggested. “It is mentally and physically exhausting to have to chase this down,” she added about getting answers to her family’s inquiries.
The Maisonneuves said they’re also shocked and appalled that nobody from the ministry, the CISSSO or MNA Bussière have reached out to them following Besner’s death – no sympathy calls, no apologies and no commitments from political leaders to bring about change.
Their heartbreaking letter sent Aug. 21 to Bussière, Minister Dubé and Premier François Legault details the grief the family has endured since Besner’s death.
“Not only am I now faced with the grief of losing my mother, but I also have the added stress of dealing with a coroner examining the cause and circumstances of my mother’s death,” wrote Guy. “My mother has now been dead for 130 days, and we still haven’t received a response to our complaint from the Office of the Service Quality and Complaints Commissioner, the first step in the complaint process that your office directed us to.”
This was the second letter the family has sent since March 17 – the first one was sent before Besner died asking for help to get her out of the care home. That first letter coldly referred them to a complicated, multi-step complaints process, and the latest one was ignored.
The Maisonneuves have a thick binder on a table full of documents, witness statements and other information they’ve compiled for their case. And despite sometimes feeling overwhelmed or deflated, Guy said he won’t give up until he gets the answers he and his family need to fully grieve their 95-year-old “Grandmama.”
“It feels intentional; it feels like they’re trying to wear us down,” said Guy. When asked if it was working, he replied, “there’s no goddamn way.”
“The memory is so, so fresh, and I’m constantly reminded of it,” he added, referring to the horror he and his family endured when discovering the state of his mother’s body – and after learning that her screams three nights earlier went ignored. “I just have to conjure my mother. And that’s my motivation.”
Care home routinely ignoring patients
Low resident Steve Connolly was another patient at the home and documented the daily neglect he and other patients witnessed at Villa des Brises. His 44-page diary shown to the Low Down describes orderlies at the home routinely ignoring patient alarms, neglecting patient needs and one instance where Besner’s calls for help were ignored, and Connolly found her lying on the floor alone, helpless.
According to CISSSO, which jointly manages Villa des Brises’s second floor as a post-acute and overflow ward for those needing rehab or a transfer to a long-term care home, an “improvement plan” has been initiated at the care home since Besner’s death. CISSSO spokesperson Camille Brochu-Lafrance told the Low Down in June that the health organization has a full-time manager at the home to “report discrepancies” if any are found.
“The CISSS de l’Outaouais takes each of these events seriously, and they were investigated with the support of the Nursing Directorate (DSI) and the Quality, Performance Evaluation and Ethics Directorate (DQEPE),” wrote Brochu-Lafrance. “In accordance with our anti-abuse policy, as soon as there is suspicion of neglect or abuse, a report is made and safety nets are immediately established in collaboration with the residence. A complete analysis of each situation is then made with a view to correction or improvement.”
Health Minister Dubé and MNA Bussière did not respond to the Low Down’s queries regarding Besner’s death. CAQ spokesperson Léa Fortin told the Low Down that, because Villa des Brises is in the Hull sector, it is under the responsibility of Hull MNA Suzanne Tremblay. However it’s important to note that Guy and Shelley Maisonneuve both live in Masham and are constituents of Bussière.
Following our interviews with the family, Bussière’s office finally responded to the Maisonneuve’s on Sept. 16. Pascale Labelle, Bussiere’s political attaché emailed to “offer you and your family my deepest sympathies following the death of your mother.”
“Once again, Mr. Maisonneuve, I would like to apologize for the situation. Mr. Bussière has immense respect for the citizens of the riding he represents. It is very important to him that citizens who contact the office are satisfied, receive the necessary support, are directed to the right resources, are accompanied if necessary, etc. Regardless of age, social status, culture or other, all citizens are important and deserve respect.”
However, the family still has not received a call, email or letter from Bussière himself.