Understaffing in care homes puts everyone at risk

Health Care Assistant Day is held every Oct. 18. It’s a day when B.C. honours the thousands of care aides and community support workers who provide the lion’s share of personal support in our hospitals, seniors care homes and community health facilities.

As the union representing the vast majority of these often unsung care workers, we know the extraordinary value they bring to our health care system and we understand the huge difference they make, every day, for patients and residents needing personal and bedside care.

However, it’s not enough to pay tribute to their critical role on health care’s front lines. It’s well past time to recognize the extreme challenges they are working under and take the steps to correct them.

It’s the right thing to do for them and for the people they care for.

Care aides are among the most injured of all workers in the province. And in health care, they suffer the highest rate of injury due to patient and resident violence.

These are shocking facts by anyone’s standards. And when you look at the province’s seniors care homes in particular, they have become some of the most dangerous workplaces in B.C., both in terms of violence and strain-related injuries.

Why? Because there are not enough staff in most long-term care facilities to provide the level of dignified, timely and compassionate care that every senior deserves, and that every care aide wants to provide.

Understaffing puts everyone in harm’s way. Whether injuries come from overexertion or from violence by a confused or frustrated patient, the vast majority stem from inadequate staffing levels in pressure cooker environments.

Right now, nine out of 10 seniors care homes in B.C. do not meet even the government’s own minimum staffing guidelines.

Without enough staff on any given shift to provide timely, responsive care, these health-care assistants are at risk — and so are their patients and residents.

As care aides struggle with impossible workloads, quality care suffers and hazards increase.

When staff are stretched to the limit, rushing from call bell to call bell, seniors are left waiting for timely toileting, bathing, assistance with meals and more.

There’s rarely enough time for any care aide to take a few extra minutes to comfort someone who is confused, lonely or afraid — whether in a hospital or a care home, or during a home visit.

Over the last 16 years, fewer British Columbians over the age of 75 have had access to home support services provided by health-care assistants.

These are all issues that aren’t going away unless action is taken on several fronts. That’s why our union is pressing for more staff to improve working and caring conditions in the province’s long-term care sector.

We are also calling for legislated minimum staffing levels that can be monitored and enforced, and just as important, we are demanding an end to contracting out and contract-flipping — where entire staff teams can be laid off in one fell swoop.

With the expansion of for-profit seniors homes over the last several years — homes that are funded with public tax dollars — staff in several facilities have been subjected to sudden mass layoffs.

Every time this happens, longterm care homes are thrown into chaos.

Familiar, trusted relationships that have been built between seniors and their care staff are ruptured, and those individuals who may be hired back by a new contractor start over again with lower wages, fewer benefits and no seniority.

With Health Care Assistant Day taking place this week, it’s time to make a genuine commitment to our seniors and those who care for them.

Every party in the legislature has committed to higher staffing levels, so now is the time to take urgent steps to equip our long-term care sector with the funding needed to ensure every senior gets the treatment and attention they deserve.

It’s time to truly value our health care assistants by making sure staffing levels are sufficient to reduce injuries. And it’s time to stop the practice of wholesale staff layoffs that come from contracting out and contract-flipping in the for-profit sector.

These are forward-thinking solutions that will benefit patients, residents and staff alike. It’s time. Jennifer Whiteside is secretary and business manager of the 49,000-member Hospital Employees Union.