Former home-care client finds new freedom in managing support team
Erin Millikin has been smiling a lot lately.
She left the provincial home care system in May and took control of her own care plan.
Millikin, who lives in Saskatoon and has had muscular dystrophy since childhood, was a home-care client for nearly 25 years. Now a recipient of Individualized Funding, she manages and sets the work schedule for the two home-care workers who share the job of helping her seven days a week — four hours a day for three days a week, and three-hour visits on the other days.
Months ago, while still a homecare client, she faced the prospect of having her services cut to onehour visits. With two workers attending each time, each one hour visit counted against her limit of 20 hours per week.
The change brought back the in-tub baths that help soothe her muscles. When she was a homecare client, they were taken away, leaving her with unnecessary pain.
Managing her own care, Millikin hired the two workers, each with a background in providing care, after posting job openings earlier this year. She went through the process of conducting interviews, hiring and setting up Workers’ Compensation coverage for them.
“When I think of these people, I don’t think that I’m their boss. These are my friends that are helping me through the day,” Millikin said.
For a period of months, she sought answers from managers of the provincial home-care program in Saskatoon, but never got them. After starting on Individualized Funding, she continued to make inquiries, sending a few messages. She still has not received any answers, she said.
After leaving a final message, an ombudsman she had been in contact with offered to reach out to the home-care managers on her behalf, but she told him not to.
“Things are finally getting so good. You’ve just got to stop being a victim of things and just start moving forward,” she said.
“I could still sit here and be bitter about it, and I am a little pissed, but I just keep thinking, that’s them.”
Millikin was pre-approved for individualized funding while still a home-care client. At first, she hesitated to make the change.
People on individualized funding get money from the province to recruit, hire and train their own care workers. They can’t hire family, or, for the most part, workers already employed by the Saskatchewan Health Authority. They manage scheduling and payroll themselves.
Millikin’s mother, Marilyn, handles this part after learning how to manage the books from a friend who is an accountant. She also handles the related paperwork, including time sheets that have to be filed to the SHA.
The number of patients accessing the program remains small. In 2017-18, 128 people accessed Individualized Funding. In 2016-17, that number was 124.
“Individualized funding for home care is an option for patients who want more choice to manage their own support services. We continue to look at all options to best meet the needs of individuals who reside in their own homes,” SHA spokeswoman Shelley Svedahl wrote in a statement to The Starphoenix.
So far, Millikin’s care workers only visit in the daytime. When she opts for evening care, the longer daytime visits may be reduced to shorter ones because she has to stay within the amount provided by the SHA. Individualized funding has some rules. For example, clients have to have their own backup care plan that doesn’t rely on the provincial home-care system.
Millikin said she had a few “hiccups” in her care this spring when one of her original care workers unexpectedly quit. She briefly turned to her backup care option, a private care company. She eventually hired someone who now cares for her on weekends, and also has a full-time aide from Monday to Friday. She beams when she speaks about them.
Since they came into her life, she’s done something else she hadn’t done before: taking regular trips out of her home. Because her care aides spend a few hours with her each day, they can accompany her on trips to the mall, the farmers’ market and to appointments.
This summer, accompanied by one of her care workers, she went to the Fringe Theatre Festival for the first time and ate food truck food.
“I think they were meant to be here,” she said of her care workers. “They came at the right time.”