`Please do something,' PSW pleads
Letter to Trudeau, Ford reveals fear, dismay inside care homes
In simple, chilling language, the personal support worker opens a curtain on what the COVID-19 pandemic has looked like from the front lines of devastated long-term care homes: Bodies of residents piling up, desperate staff shortages, fear.
“One after another of the residents started dying. I was scared to come back after a few days off, not knowing how many would be left. It is not right, so short staffed and bodies of the people I cared for piling up,” the PSW wrote in an email sent to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier Doug Ford, among others, on Sept. 27.
The worker ended the email with a plea for help: “Please do something to save the workers and the residents that have survived so far.”
Although many personal support workers have experienced the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ontario's long-term care homes where more than 1,800 residents have died, their perspective is rarely heard in discussions about what went wrong and how to improve things.
Those who do speak out, like this one, often remain nameless and faceless out of fear that they will lose their jobs if they talk publicly about the situation inside homes.
It creates a culture of secrecy that exacerbates problems, one that is enforced with stern warnings from many long-term care employers, says Candace Rennick, a former PSW who is secretary-treasurer of CUPE Ontario.
“People have been told if you speak out you will be fired on the spot,” Rennick said. “The message has been sent loud and clear.”
Both CUPE and Ontario's Patient Ombudsman Cathy Fooks are pushing for better protection of health-care workers who speak out. In a recent report on experiences in long-term care during the pandemic, the patient ombudsman thanked the workers who stepped forward with concerns, despite their fears, and called for extended whistleblower protection for health-care workers.
“Patient Ombudsman commends the courage of those healthcare workers that spoke out about what they saw, heard and experienced in Ontario's long-term care homes,” Fooks wrote.
“The information these individuals provided brought needed attention to the appalling circumstances in a number of Ontario's long-term care homes and likely spurred the government to take significant action, including calling in the Canadian Armed Forces. This saved lives.”
But there is only limited whistleblower protection for healthcare workers under Ontario law, specifically relating to disclosures to the Ministry of Long-Term Care and during a coroner's inquest. That needs to expand, her office recommended.
CUPE, meanwhile, is seeking protection so some front-line health-care workers can meet with the province's Long-Term Care Commission, which is currently investigating COVID-19 in the province's long-term care homes.
“The Long-Term Care Commission does not guarantee protection of front-line workers who come forward to tell their stories,” Rennick said. “If front-line workers can't even come and freely tell their stories, there is something seriously messed up about that.”
CUPE and the province are in talks about the issue, she said.
Although some things have changed in Ontario's long-term care homes since the first wave of COVID-19 — including more testing, fewer residents sharing rooms, some on-site treatment for infected residents — the culture of secrecy remains firmly in place. It has even followed some workers to the grave.
Three Ottawa long-term care workers have died from COVID-19. One other Ottawa long-term care worker survived COVID-19, but passed it on to her husband, who later died in hospital.
During the summer, some of those workers were remembered during a small ceremony in a garden outside Madonna Care Community in Orléans, where two health-care workers died after becoming infected with COVID-19.
“In memory of those who sacrificed their lives to help others. You will never be forgotten,” was written on a card distributed to staff and family members at the ceremony.
But their sacrifices are largely unknown to the outside world.
A relative of one personal support worker said her family begged her not to return to work as the home became overwhelmed with COVID-19 cases. But the worker insisted on going because so many staff had left and she didn't know who would look after the residents. Within days, she was in hospital, where she later died. Members of her family have asked that she not be identified.
That culture of secrecy is compounded by the fact that data on Canadian health-care workers who have died during the pandemic is difficult to find and is inconsistent. That means even organizations trying to recognize healthcare workers who have died from COVID-19 are having difficulty getting accurate information.
“The Canadian Health Workforce Network began to assemble a memorial of the Canadian health workers who have died from COVID-19 to put faces to the numbers and remember their sacrifice,” uOttawa student Jade Sim, University of New Brunswick professor Neeru Gupta and Ivy Bourgeault, who is chair in gender, diversity and the professions at the University of Ottawa, wrote in a published opinion piece. All three are members of the Canadian Health Workforce Network.
Sources disagree on how many health-care workers have died from COVID-19 during the pandemic, they wrote.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information, using data gathered from federal, provincial and territorial public health or ministry websites, reported 12 health workers have died from COVID-19 in Canada: nine in Ontario and three in Quebec.
Public Health Ontario reported 13 deaths among health-care workers in Ontario as of June 22, according to Sim, Gupta and Bourgeault, eight of them from long-term care. The Canadian Federation of Nurses, meanwhile, has gathered information about 19 health-care workers who have died, said the authors. The Ontario government reports that 2,712 health-care workers have become infected.
“This is not just a data issue, but a matter of who counts as a `health worker' and how much they count to the government agencies tasked with safeguarding them. These are also more than just numbers to the countless family members, colleagues and communities affected by the deaths of these critical workers.”
PSWs and other front-line workers fear for their safety and that of the residents they care for, and they fear bringing COVID-19 home to their families. Some also live with the emotional damage of watching so many vulnerable residents become ill and not having enough time or resources to properly protect them.
Rennick said she believes the experience will leave scars on many health-care workers for a long time.
The anonymous personal support worker who survived COVID-19 fears what the coming weeks will be like in long-term care and the impact that will have.
“I don't know if I can go through that again, but because of the person that I am, I will be there for the residents that remain.”