Red Cross to replace military in care homes
Soldiers began pulling out of Quebec’s remaining long-term care homes on Friday, after stepping in during the health care emergency caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The pandemic hit long-term care homes in the province, known as CHSLDS, particularly hard with residents of those homes and seniors’ residences accounting for nearly 90 per cent of all deaths. Care workers were infected and had to be isolated, and some elected not to come in to work, which resulted in a shortage of thousands of employees.
At the height of the pandemic, about 1,400 Canadian Forces personnel were deployed in Quebec senior care facilities, but they’ve been slowly rotating out of the province.
On Friday, army personnel were working in only four CHSLDS and one hospital in the province: CHSLD Providence Notre-dame de Lourdes in the east end, CHSLD St-joseph de la Providence and CHSLD Paul-lizotte in the north end of the city. Outside the city, soldiers were in place at CHSLD Maison des aînés in Valleyfield, and at the Hôtel Dieu de St-hyacinthe. The soldiers expect to complete their duties by July 6.
“I want to be clear: Canadian Armed Forces won’t leave a facility until it is stable and staff are well equipped to meet their residents’ needs,” Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan said during a news conference in Ottawa on Friday.
The personnel shortage in the province remains dire, however, and a permanent solution isn’t expected to be in place until at least Sept. 15. That is the date by which Quebec Premier François Legault has vowed to hire additional staff at the long-term care homes.
In the interim, the Canadian Red Cross will supply temporary workers. Carl Boisvert, a spokesperson for the Canadian Red Cross, said the organization is in recruitment mode to hire 900 people on a temporary basis.
The work is gruelling: changing diapers, disinfecting surfaces and feeding patients, all while wearing cumbersome personal protective equipment.
“We’re looking for people who need summer jobs and would like to help their communities, or people who have been temporarily unemployed because of the pandemic,” Boisvert said, adding that applicants must commit to work for at least a month.
Boisvert said the Red Cross has been on the ground since the pandemic started, as aid workers were called in to long-term care homes in Montreal’s West Island as well as in Trois-rivières and the Lanaudière region. Red Cross workers also trained army personnel before they were deployed into CHSLDS.
Sajjan said soldiers have been communicating with the Red Cross about the situation on the ground in the province to keep them up to date about best practices.
So far, 2,500 people have applied for positions with the Red Cross
Canadian Armed Forces won’t leave a facility until it is stable and staff are well equipped to meet their residents’ needs.
and between 150 and 200 have been hired. The first cohort of 150 is to be trained at a Montreal-area hotel starting Monday, and will be deployed on July 6. An additional 150 people will be sent out each week over the next six weeks to work at CHSLDS, for a total of 900 people. Those who take the job will receive a premium, introduced during the pandemic to attract more workers to the long-term care homes, so they will receive roughly $26 per hour.
Boisvert didn’t say in which facilities Red Cross personnel will be working, and added that not all soldiers will be replaced by Red Cross workers. Some will be leaving longterm care homes and turning them over to permanent staff in place.
“We will go where the needs are the greatest,” he said. “That will be determined by the ministry of health.”