Re: Coronavirus (COVID-19): What You Need To Know
Posted: Sun May 03, 2020 6:40 am
- PSW death sheds light on risk facing health-care workers, home care patients (May2)
https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavir ... -1.4922566
'TORONTO -- The death of an Ontario health-care provider who not only worked in senior care facilities, but also went home to home looking after people in their own residences, is highlighting the risks facing home care patients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
...The Services Employees International Union Healthcare (SEIU) has called for better protection for Ontario personal support workers and front-line health care workers.
It's not just caregivers who are scared, but the hundreds of thousands of Canadians who normally rely on receiving care in their homes.
“A little more than half our clients have cancelled services or suspended services,” said Ryan Jershey, who owns a private home care agency in Windsor, Ontario.
He said the drop in clients is due to those in high-risk groups being afraid of getting the novel coronavirus from health workers.
But some home care clients, like Diane Sims, who has multiple sclerosis, have no choice but to take the risk.
"There's no way I can cancel services,” she told CTV News. “My life depends on these workers."
Until recently, she said that many PSWs came to her home without proper PPE — exponentially frightening considering she has to see up to five different support workers every day.
Ontario's rule limiting PSWs to one care home doesn't apply to home care, meaning that a single worker could be visiting various clients in different homes.
“I question whether they should be going hither and yon, or whether they should have a set number of clients,” Sims said.
But for Sims and others like her with critical needs, there is no other option.'