Workers in Seniors' Care Speak OutWorkers in long-term care and seniors' residences are speaking out about the fights they are waging to defend their rights and those of the seniors they care for. They are standing up against flagrant disregard for the safety of residents and staff. TML Weekly has been informed that workers in a private long-term care facility run by one of the biggest monopolies in health care in Canada resisted the pressure from management to come to work when they were sick. A manager even boasted that she came to work even though she was sick, and they should be doing the same. When Shepherd's Care Continuing Care Centre in Edmonton had its first case of COVID-19 at its Kensington Village location, it implemented safety measures but only at that site. Seeing the importance of not waiting for an outbreak at their site, the workers at the Shepherd's Care Mill Woods location waged a fight to also implement safety measures at their site, such as limiting visitors to only end-of-life situations, temperature checks for all staff, and adequate personal protective equipment. They succeeded in achieving better safety measures and for weeks they have been insisting that limiting workers to one site should be implemented everywhere, while fully compensating workers.
Many health care workers have spoken out publicly, even when they felt their jobs were on the line, again and again addressing the measures which must be put in place. "It is a war we are fighting and all must be protected no matter what you do. Everyone should have enough PPE [personal protective equipment] to be protected," said Abiola Tijani, who works as a personal support worker in Ottawa and is president of CUPE Local 4592, which represents personal support workers (PSWs), registered practical nurses (RPNs), housekeepers, dietary aides and others in Ottawa. On April 3, Tijani said workers were not being provided with N95 masks while working with COVID-19 patients, and fear not only getting sick themselves but that they will infect vulnerable residents. Media reports indicate that deliveries of protective equipment to long-term care homes in Ontario finally began on about April 11. A PSW at Anson Place, a long-term care facility in Hagersville, Ontario, where 15 residents have died from COVID-19, spoke to media about the conditions in the home. Patients are still sharing rooms with as many as four other people, she said. "Their beds are two feet from each other. No wonder it is spreading," Rebecca Shaw-Piironen, told CTV News. "I don't know how much more of an emergency this could be. People are dying, and daily. I don't know what today is going to bring, or tonight. Why aren't we taking care of our people?" Fifty-five residents have tested positive for the novel coronavirus at Anson Place as well as at least 30 staff members. This has put a massive strain on the home's ability to care for its residents, and those who are left are burnt out and overwhelmed with grief, Shaw-Piironen said. "We need help. This is dire," she said from home as she awaited her own test results. "So many lost so fast and so many all at once. The magnitude of this... my heart just aches. Me and my coworkers, we were just so sad right now." Shaw-Piironen said she was speaking out despite risking her job to do so. "I'd rather live in a cardboard box and feel that I did those residents right then to shut up and not say anything. She said "They need help. They're desperate. And I don't know what we have to do to get the help in there." (With files from the Ottawa Citizen and CTV News)
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