Is that really too much to ask for?

At the moment, Mom is eligible for 120 hours of Home Support per month, and uses 28 hours of it. That works out to ONE HOUR PER DAY, for the entire month.  The purpose is not to just provide her the support she needs, but to give the PRIMARY CARE GIVER a respite.

The reality is that for every hour, you get 50 minutes, as 10 minutes of that hour is allotted for the worker to transit from one job site to another.

What seems to escape the POWERS THAT BE, is that you aren’t providing any respite, when you mess around with that schedule.

When you set a schedule, set a routine for someone who is NINETY THREE YEARS OLD, changes have a huge impact on her quality of life, as well as the primary caregiver.

Old people fixate on ideas, and when they worry needlessly, it creates a bad health situation. It makes them more susceptible to stress, to pressures, that they shouldn’t have to have. PLUS it leads to increased stress to the primary caregiver.

The uncertainly of not knowing who will show up for that FIFTY MINUTES isn’t just a passing fancy. IT LINGERS and can only be reduced, by keeping to a set a schedule, to a set worker.

TOO BAD BEACON COMMUNITY SERVICES & VIHA DO NOT UNDERSTAND THAT.

The argument too, that it is due to a shortage of qualified staff, is rubbish. IF they provided their workers with a regular schedule, without random changes, it becomes easier for the worker to manage, as well as the patient.  That creates JOB SATISFACTION, which keeps workers from being dissatisfied & leaving the work force.

When a regular is sent, the primary caregiver can relax, can sit back and enjoy a hot cup of coffee. One can read the paper, without having to keep an ear open for any problems. It is that FIFTY MINUTES where you can shut your mind off, to just not worry about being called to service.

When a Substitute is sent, you have to Stand Guard, which means that FIFTY MINUTES is not spent unwinding, not spent just relaxing, but instead is just part of the day, WHEN YOU ARE ON DUTY.

When you care, your mind doesn’t shut off. You have to plan for problems, to mitigate them. When you are uncertain WHO WILL SHOW UP FOR THOSE FIFTY MINUTES, you have ONE MORE STRESSFULL ITEM TO TRACK.

The less you have to worry about, the easier it is to cope with the job. And this job is about COPING, about STRESS.  To have an ADDED BURDEN THROWN AT YOU only makes you sick, and then what happens to the one you are caring for?

People get sick, go on holidays, which is normal. Certainly at those time, substitutes are a necessary evil, but that isn’t how Beacon Community Services operates. For them, EVERY DAY IS A POTENTIAL HOLIDAY, VACATION TIME, SICK DAY.  And that leads to a lack of continuity that impacts the Patient, as well as the primary caregiver, detrimentally.

VIHA fails to monitor the services being provided, or the scheduling, and that doesn’t even take into consideration, the standard of care being provided in those FIFTY MINUTES.

For over one year, I have been forced to endure random switches of workers, have had to fight for even obtaining regularly scheduled workers, and still, a year later, I cannot go to sleep at night, assured that those assigned to show up, will.   THAT ALONE leads to a restless sleep, that is impacting my own health.

It gnaws at Mom, as each night it is the same question – who is coming tomorrow, will they actually show up?    HOW CAN THAT BE GOOD FOR HER?

That is the reality I deal with 24 hours a day, despite having assurances that a regular schedule will be followed.  Just in the last week, we have had three substitutes out of seven, and that in itself, adds to the stress that cannot be easily erased.

VIHA needs to step in, to find a company that WILL ADHERE to a set of standards, THAT INCLUDES PROVIDING QUALIFIED STAFFING.

AND yet VIHA is unwilling to do this, which makes one wonder, just how many BROWN PAPER BAGS have been handed over to VIHA OFFICIALS?

There is no excuse for VIHA to be so uncaring, so incapable of monitoring the contracts it outsources to private business. Sure, Beacon claims to be NON PROFIT, but come on, how in hell does a small outfit suddenly become the major player in providing care to Seniors, at TAXPAYER EXPENSE?

IT IS TIME WE GOT AN ACCOUNTING FROM VIHA & THE CAMPBELL GOVERNMENT.