Dr. Emer Begley:

I believe a lot of it is crisis decision-making. On a Friday, somebody needs to go into some type of residential facility. Private providers are stepping in and the person potentially ends up hundreds of kilometres away from their homeplace. Initially, the placement may be a temporary measure but it ends up being a permanent one. There is a lack of long-term planning. The rates of increase in funding for private providers of residential care has been huge over the last number of years.