"Why society's most valuable workers are invisible"/ "She begged for help as husband struggled: Why home care is failing thousands while companies profit"

Oct. 31, 2016 "Why society's most valuable workers are invisible": Today I found this article by Erin Anderssen in the Globe and Mail.  It is a good article about how being a caregiver, especially at retirement homes are really hard.  It is a few dollars above min. wage, (outside of the public system) but they should be getting paid more.  I wish I could copy and paste the article here, but I am unable to.

It did say maybe robots will be the ones changing seniors diapers.

Apr. 23, 2019: I found the article:

Economists have, traditionally, paid little attention to women such as Shireen Luchuk.

A health-care assistant in a Vancouver long-term care residence, she trades in diapers and puréed food for those members of society no longer contributing to the GDP. 

She produces care, a good that's hard to measure on a ledger. She thinks about cutting her patients' buttered toast the way she would for her own aging parents, and giving a bath tenderly so she doesn't break brittle bones. She often stays past her shift to change one more urine-soaked diaper because otherwise, she says, "I can't sleep at night."

Last week, a resident grabbed her arm so tightly that another care worker had to help free her. She's been bitten, kicked and punched. 

She continues to provide a stranger's love to people who can't say sorry. This past Monday, as happens sometimes, she did this for 16 straight hours because of a staff shortage.

But let's not be too hard on those economists. The rest of us don't pay that much attention to workers like Shireen Luchuk either – not, at least, until our families need her. 

And not until someone like Elizabeth Tracey Mae Wettlaufer is charged with murdering eight residents in an Ontario nursing home. 

Then we have lots of questions: 

Who is overseeing the care of our seniors? 

Are our mothers and fathers safe? 

Will we be safe, when we end up there?

The question we might try asking is this: If the care that Shireen Luchuk offers is so valuable, why don't we treat it that way?

Dr. Janice Keefe, a professor of family and gerontology at Mount Saint Vincent University and director of the Nova Scotia Centre on Aging, says "the emotion attached to these jobs removes the value."

Caregiving, says Keefe, is seen "as an extension of women's unpaid labour in the home." 

Those jobs are still overwhelmingly filled by women. And, while times are changing, the work they do is still mostly for women –

 whether it's the widows needing care who are more likely to outlive their husbands, 

the working moms who need child care 

or the adult daughters who are still most likely to carry the burden of aging parents.

Yet it's as if society wants to believe that professional caregivers should do their work out of love and obligation – as if care would be tainted by higher pay and better benefits. 

That's an argument you never hear for lawyers and accountants. It's certainly not one that Adam Smith, the founding father of political economy, made for the butcher or the baker.

In last year's book, Who Cooked Adam Smith's Dinner?, Swedish writer Katrine Marçal argued that the market, as Smith and his fellow economists conceived it, fails to accept an essential reality: "People are born small, and die fragile." 

Smith described an economy based on self-interest – the baker makes his bread as tasty as he can, not because he loves bread, but because he has an interest in people buying it. 

That way he can go to the butcher, and buy meat himself. But Smith missed something important. It wasn't the butcher who actually put the dinner on his table each night, as Marçal points out. It was his devoted mother, who ran Smith's household for him until the day she died.

Today, she'd likely be busy with her own job. But care – the invisible labour that made life possible for the butcher and the baker (and the lawyer and the accountant) – still has to be provided by someone. 

Society would like that someone to be increasingly qualified, regulated and dedicated, all for what's often exhausting, even dangerous, shift work, a few dollars above minimum wage. 

One side effect of low-paying, low-status work is that it tends to come with less oversight, and lower skills and standards. That's hardly a safe bar for seniors in residential long-term care, let alone those hoping to spend their last days being tended to in the privacy of their homes. We get the care we pay for.

It's not much better on the other end of the life cycle, where staff at daycares also receive low wages for long days, leading to high turnover. 

"I am worth more than $12 an hour," says Regan Breadmore, a trained early-childhood educator with 20 years experience. 

But when her daycare closed, and she went looking for work, that's the pay she was offered. She has now, at 43, returned to school to start a new career. "I loved looking after the kids. It's a really important job – you are leaving your infants with us, we are getting your children ready to go to school," she says. But if her daughter wanted to follow in her footsteps, "I would tell her no, just because of the lack of respect."

It's not hard to see where this is going. Young, educated women are not going to aspire to jobs with poor compensation and even less prestige. Young men aren't yet racing to fill them. Families are smaller. Everyone is working. 

Unlike Adam Smith, we can't all count on mom (or a daughter, or son) to be around to take care of us. 

Who is going to fill the gaps to provide loving labour to all those baby boomers about to age out of the economy?

Right now, the solution is immigrant women, who, especially outside of the public system, can be paid a few dollars above minimum wage. That's not giving care fair value. 

It's transferring it to an underclass of working-poor women. And it doesn't ensure a skilled, caregiving workforce – all the while, as nurses and care assistants will point out, the care itself is becoming more complex, with dementia, mental illness and other ailments.

Ideally, in the future, we'll all live blissfully into old age. But you might need your diaper changed by a stranger some day. Maybe robots can do the job by then. 

Rest assured, you'll still want someone like Shireen Luchuk to greet you by name in the morning, to pay attention to whether you finish your mashed-up carrots. When she's holding your hand, she will seem like the economy's most valuable worker. Let's hope enough people like her still want the job.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/why-are-caregivers-societys-most-valuable-workers-so-invisible/article32550697/

 

2 years ago

Good post..http://zellmeonline.com

 

 

2 years ago

Terrific, timely article. 

Well done Mrs. Erin Anderssen for comping and writing, 

thank you to Professor Janice Keefe for devoting her career to researching these issues 

and ESPECIALLY thank you to Shireen Luchuk and the rest of the Care Aides(PSW/RCA) in Long-term Care doing the BEST they can among a system that is often stacked against them. Thank you.

 

 

2 years ago

I missed this when it was first published...but, reading it now, I want to say thank you Ms. Anderssen.

Mar. 18, 2022 "She begged for help as husband struggled: Why home care is failing thousands while companies profit": Today I found this article by Erica Johnson on CBC news: 

Willie Foreman promised her husband, Robert, that she would look after him at home after he suffered a debilitating stroke and became paralyzed, leaving him unable to dress, toilet or feed himself.

But that became impossible, she said, after the publicly funded home care company that was supposed to help her husband of 50 years — Paramed, owned by long-term care conglomerate Extendicare — was so unreliable she was forced to put him in hospital, where he waited months for a bed in a nursing home.

"I begged [Paramed] to send somebody," said Foreman, in London, Ont. "It was terribly frustrating."

Nearly one million Canadians rely on some sort of home care support, but a Marketplace investigation has found a shroud of secrecy around companies' use of public funds.

Interviews with industry insiders and documents obtained by Marketplace reveal a system with so few checks and balances that it's leading to missed home visits, downloading of care and front-line workers so poorly paid they are leaving the sector in droves.

"We don't publicly report or collect home care data in the way we do for long-term care," said Tamara Daly, a political economist and health services researcher at the York University in Toronto. 

"That is a massive problem." 

Across the country, home care is publicly funded, but how it's delivered varies widely. 

B.C., Saskatchewan and the territories deliver public home care themselves. 

All other provinces also contract private companies.

Ontario issues thousands of contracts to home care providers to deliver services to about 700,000 people — some companies are not-for-profit, but the majority and biggest players are largely for-profit companies.

Those contracts fall under a provision of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act that shields them from public scrutiny.

"These companies have no pressure to be transparent, so we really can't say that the money is going for good care," said Daly. "We publicly fund this. We're entitled to know this information."

Missed visits

After Robert Foreman, 73, was sent home from hospital in 2015, Paramed was contracted to send two personal support workers (PSWs) to provide care, twice a day for 45 minutes. 

But his wife said that at least twice a week, that didn't happen — only one PSW showed up or no one came at all.

"I was beyond being able to know what to do anymore," she said.

So how often do home care companies miss appointments the government pays them to deliver?

A privacy officer for Ontario's Home and Community Support Services said that information wasn't easily available — 14 health regions would take months and likely charge fees for collecting that data and even then, in order to release the names of the private home care companies involved, she would have to get permission from those companies.

An auditor general's report released in December 2021 also said the Ontario government had "little information" on the frequency of missed home care visits, as private companies aren't required to report how often that happens. 

"It's wrong," said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition and a longtime advocate for public health care. "There is no public interest justification in keeping secret [what's in] commercial contracts with public money."

Personal support workers double-booked

Marketplace spoke to a number of PSWs who said they know why some clients' visits are missed — the companies they work for schedule appointments back-to-back with no travel time between and sometimes double-book appointments with clients or schedule overlapping appointments.

"Probably once a week I'll look at my schedule and it'll be overlapped or double-booked," said a PSW who has worked for Paramed for more than five years. CBC is not revealing his name to protect his employment. 

"They can make double what they make in an hour sometimes … and they're shorting the client." 

'They still get their money'

Allegations of public dollars sometimes going to home care companies for services that aren't delivered is a well-known secret, according to Mehra.

"Home care companies get contracts for … visits that they do not fulfil, yet they still get their money," she said. "Nobody is held accountable for that in any way."

Marketplace put the allegations to Paramed and requested an interview, but the company declined to comment, saying the industry's association, Home Care Ontario, would address our findings. 

Home Care Ontario declined an interview request and issued a statement from CEO Sue VanderBent that didn't address concerns about billing for missed visits.

VanderBent did say the industry was "in crisis," pointing out that health-care professionals are paid more to work in other parts of the system.

"As a result, staff have left home care by the thousands during the pandemic," she wrote, and called on the provincial government for more funding to pay workers better wages.

'I was in sheer and utter shock'

Maxine McLean said she didn't get anywhere near the home care promised for her ailing husband.

Mike McLean, 76, was losing a battle with blood cancer and was sent home from an Ottawa hospital in February 2020 for palliative home care to be provided by Bayshore Home Health — another giant home care provider. 

But McLean said in the six weeks leading up to her husband's death, much of the care that Bayshore promised was downloaded onto the family — and twice, nurses didn't come for more than a week, including in the eight days prior to her husband's death.

Perhaps most traumatizing, she said, was Bayshore's expectation that her daughter — a nurse — would have to personally administer medication to ease her father's transition to death.

"She's crying," said McLean. "She says, 'Mom, I just can't.' I was in sheer and utter shock."

Marketplace repeatedly requested an interview with Bayshore but never heard back. Finally, the company's lawyer said Home Care Ontario would speak for them, too.

The statement from Home Care Ontario did not address the McLeans' concerns. 

Mehra, the health-care advocate, said she's not surprised by the McLeans' devastating experience.

"People [leaving hospital] are promised the sun and the moon," she said. "And they get home and no home care materializes. " 

PSWs barely paid more than minimum wage

Besides secret contracts between government and home care providers, Mehra blames the profit element involved in the industry.

"The for-profits have to make room for profit," she said, adding that they do that by generally paying their front-line workers less money than not-for-profit counterparts. 

Ontario PSWs working in home care start at $16.50 an hour. 

In Saskatchewan, where the government delivers home care, the collective agreement with the union representing PSWs shows they make about $7 more an hour.

On top of low wages, PSWs told Marketplace that companies only pay them for the time spent with clients. 

There is no compensation for 

their travel time

or the time spent each day contacting clients to let them know they're on their way — 

which can add several hours a day of unpaid work.

"These home care companies are claiming the problems are due to the pandemic — 'It's not our fault, people didn't call into work,'" said health researcher Daly. 

"What the corporations are doing is placing the burden of care on these poorly paid workers." 

Ontario Premier Doug Ford declined an interview request, as did Health Minister Christine Elliott. 

At an unrelated news conference two weeks ago, Elliott told a Marketplace producer that all players — for-profit home care companies and not-for-profit — are "important." 

A statement from the Ontario Ministry of Health said it's investing more money in home care and is "committed to ensuring that Ontarians have access to the home care services they need."

Meantime, Foreman said not a day goes by that she doesn't feel she failed her husband, for being unable to care for him at home.

"I feel pretty guilty," she said. "But I just can't do it anymore."

She begged for help as husband struggled: Why home care is failing thousands while companies profit | CBC News

MARCH 18, 2022

I am set to graduate very soon from the Government Sponsored PSW Program and am looking at doing Community Work. I did my work experience in Long Term Care. I would prefer to work in a facility however, there is a system and will have to work in community, I am sure to make hours. I entered the PSW program hoping to be part of the solution. It's all corporate regardless if it is not for profit or private. Hopefully with Market Place highlighting, these issue will be corrected.

Long Term Care is heavily regulated by the Province of Ontario. There should be know reason for double bookings and missed appointments. Surely, there are enough PSW's to go around.

• Reply by Mic Mellosz.

  MARCH 3, 2023

  Good luck! Perhaps after getting your feet wet, you can start an ethical company.

My opinion: This article reminds me of this comment because Marketplace is exposing how Extendicare and Bayshore Home Health are bad companies:

"#MeToo movement becomes #WeToo in in victim-blaming Japan"/ "Outrage as women in Japan told not wear glasses in the workplace"

Aug. 17, 2020 Saying: I found this on Facebook:

"You never look good when you are trying to make someone else look bad."- Unknown

Cham: Sometimes people need to be exposed for who they are hahah or maybe I should stop being petty

Tracy Au: There's a difference between trying to make someone look bad, and exposing them for who they are. It's like those #MeToo accusers and victims, they are plainly telling everybody about the perpetrators. They're not trying to make them look bad.

https://badcb.blogspot.com/2020/08/job-articles-wetoo-gender-gap-done.html

The other 2 blog posts of the week: 

"December is high season for layoffs, even though employers would be wise to wait"/ "These were the biggest employment law trends of 2022"

https://badcb.blogspot.com/2023/11/december-is-high-season-for-layoffs.html

"In return to office, Microsoft puts its focus on the workers staying home"/ "Hating hybrid work? Here's how to make it a little less painful"

https://badcb.blogspot.com/2023/11/in-return-to-office-microsoft-puts-its.html

Tues. Oct. 31, 2023 "Immigrants are leaving Canada at faster pace, study shows": Today I found this article by Randy Thanthong-Knight on BNN Bloomberg: 

The lack of enthusiasm for staying in Canada, which led to onward migration by some newcomers, is also behind a sharp drop in immigrants choosing to become Canadians, according to Bernhard. The proportion of permanent residents who took up citizenship within 10 years of arrival dropped by 40 per cent between 2001 and 2021.

“If Canada can’t reverse these issues and can’t provide these vital services and affordability, immigrants will leave,” Bernhard said. “We need to be working harder to make sure that they’re happy here, so that they contribute here, become Canadians and contribute to our shared success. We need to realize that on balance, immigrants may owe Canada less than Canada owes immigrants.”

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/immigrants-are-leaving-canada-at-faster-pace-study-shows-1.1991965

Wed. Nov. 1, 2023 "‘Talk about tone deaf’: PM Trudeau's Halloween post, son's 'beheaded' costume draw backlash in light of Gaza carnage": Today I found this article by Joy Joshi on Yahoo:

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is under fire after posting a picture of himself with son Hadrien, who was dressed in a headless boy costume, while trick-or-treating for Halloween.

“Hadrien seems to have misplaced something… but that’s not going to stop him from trick-or-treating. Happy Halloween, everyone – have fun out there!” read the prime minister’s post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The post features three images, all featuring his nine-year-old son, Hadrien, wearing a costume which appears to include a robe with an opening for a face and plastic harness to seemingly hold the headless neck and shoulders, creating an illusion of a severed head.

The comments sections on Trudeau’s Halloween posts across different social media platforms reveal significant criticism with several Canadians disapproving of the pictures shared by him given the current sensitive nature of the Israel-Hamas war, during which alleged reports of beheaded babies were vastly disputed online.

14829 votes:

How do you feel about Trudeau's Halloween post and his son's costume?

59% of users agree with you!

A. It's insensitive 35%

B. I am in the middle 2%

C. I don't think it's an issue. 59%

D. I don't have an opinion. 4%

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/trudeau-halloween-costume-hadrien-backlash-134923429.html

My opinion: It's not offensive.  Halloween has gory and scary costumes.  What would be offensive?  Dressing up as Hitler or a Nazi soldier.

Sat. Oct. 28, 2023 Departure: I finished watching season 3 (6 eps) this week.  The first season was about investigating a plane crash.  The second season is about a train crash.  The third season is about a ship sinking.

The show is average.  There is a good mystery.  There isn't a lot of action.  It's not really violent.  A couple people do get killed, but it's not every episode.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9252156/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_depar

Mon. Oct.. 30, 2023 I fixed my flip phone: I dropped my flip phone and then I put it together.  I then spent 15 min. trying to set the date and time.  I could take the bus to the Rogers at City Centre and get them to do it and then take the bus home.  That could add up to 1 hr.  I then Google "How do I set the time and date on my flip phone" and then I followed the instructions.  I had to reboot it and then it was fixed.

I was happy about that small thing, because I saved 1 hr and I solved my own problem. 

Tues. Oct. 31, 2023 Teleport: I attended a job interview on this platform, which is like Zoom.  Yesterday I struggled to set it up and I emailed the company I was interviewing at for help.  Today I called them and after about 5 min. we started the interview.  

That's good.  That's why I wrote about fixing my flip phone.  The interview was average.

https://goteleport.com/

Office job interview: I went to another interview in the afternoon.  This was in the west end.  This was average.  

West Edmonton mall: Afterwards I went here for a bit.  I checked out:

Room + Spaces: They replaced Bed, Bath, and Beyond.  They sell the home decor and dishware.  They have a section of toys by Toys R' Us.  They sell cards, and gift cards.  This was average.

Think A: They sell stuffed animals, hair products, stationary, etc.  I do like the slogan "Enjoy Your Life."

https://thinka.ca/

CoCo: This is a bubble tea place, and they added that game.  It's where you get stuffed animals with a claw.

I then bumped into Arrol from the 1st Restaurant Job.

Halloween: When I was at the mall, I saw a lot of decorations and people in costumes. 

There were trick-or-treaters and they rang my doorbell about 8 times.  We gave out small bags of potato chips.

The weather was 7 degrees and all the snow melted.

Jessica: I was on Facebook and I saw that her 2 yr old daughter's costume was a Pokemon master where she is holding that Pokemon ball.  Aww...

Thurs. Nov. 2, 2023 Medical office job interview: I went and read the business news first.  I was to prime myself and prepare for the interview.

I went to one this morning.  This was average.  There is a lot of medical terminology to learn.

Sun. Oct. 29, 2023 Summon Your Soulmate: I found this free webinar on Meetup:

This workshop will be facilitated by my special guest, Bari Lyman. I am excited to be partnering with Bari to bring you this valuable content. She is the creator of the Meet to Marry™ method and has helped countless singles find their soulmate. She has been featured in The New York Times, Match.com, JDate, & SELF.

Wholeness

Connection

Intimacy

1. Get vulnerable

You may think you're being vulnerable by sharing your vision with dates.   

True vulnerability is an embodiment within yourself knowing you can trust and receive love

If you're stuck in a pattern either of being alone or taking breaks from bad dating, you're not embodying true vulnerability.

Believing that you're worthy and your love life mirrors that belief and congruence.

Becoming integrated, your head and heart will be aligned and you'll be congruent to the kind of healthy love you want.

2. Stop repelling love

Our past and our blind spots

We attract what's familiar to us, even if it's bad. 

Therapy is focused on the past: analyze the past

Intellectual understanding

Find your person in the future focused

Be your true authentic self to find your true authentic partner

How you see yourself 

How you present yourself

Align yourself with what you want mentally, emotionally, energetically 

If you don't change, you're going to attract the same

You'll feel confident and clear

Living your truth separate from the past and be a magnet to your dream partner

3. Get future focused

High self- worth

You may think you know what you need and want in a relationship.  You don't.

You're attracting dates who are a mirror to what you feel you deserve.

By becoming future focused, 

and understanding your true needs

separate from the past,

you'll invite the right dates as a creator of your future

4. Be an empowered dater with a plan

Align

invest

be with

Inviting the right people

Empowered dater is fun, effective, and inspired

5. Invest in having a real plan to find your soulmate

meettomarry.com/stepintolove

Love is available.

Anything is possible.

You don't get a partner to fix you or save you.

A man said: I chat with someone for awhile, and then they ask me what I have and to send something to the, like scammers.

A woman said: I get scammers. 

 Thurs. Nov. 2, 2023 Anna Goldfarb:

Friends

1. Desire

2. Diligence

3. Delight

The "about": why you seek each other.

Ask: How can I help you?

You can go grocery shopping together.

You can exercise together.

Social identity support: see your friend in all race, gender, they belong to.

Robin Dunbar: A British anthropologist.

He says 3- 5 people as friends is all you need.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robin_Dunbar

Bath tub: 1 or 2 people you are really close to.  It's usually your partner and/ or friend.

Jacuzzi: 3- 5 close friends

Pool: 15 people- you would be sad if he or she died or not in your life.

Bonfire: 50 people

Strategy: When you make friends it's like shopping at the grocery store and you bring a list.

If something is bad in your life, you put more effort.

When you contact people you haven't heard from in awhile, explain why you're reaching out.

It could be small like just to talk, or catch up. 

https://annagoldfarb.com/

https://www.meetup.com/meetup-live/events/296911274/?rv=co2&_xtd=gatlbWFpbF9jbGlja9oAJGI2MGUxNzRlLTkxZGYtNDE2NC05ZThmLWY1MmQ2N2ZlNzQ3MA%253D%253D&utm_campaign=rsvp-confirmation-social&utm_medium=email&utm_source=join_rsvp_info