Ontario’s
Health Minister Deb Matthews recently visited Waterloo to promote the
government’s decision to increase funding for home-based care services by four
percent per year for three years.
However, in the town-hall meeting hosted by the Quality Care Alliance
and the Service Employees International Union, Matthews was told by some
personal support workers who work in the homes of clients who are elderly and
disabled that they felt overworked and underappreciated. Several personal support workers told the
minister that they essentially felt like cheap labour. One participant described herself as having
the lowest paid college-educated job of all.
The
issue of the wide discrepancy in pay between personal support workers in
long-term-care facilities and those who work in home-based environments was
brought up as well as the differences in the amount of time they have with
clients. Matthews acknowledged the
discrepancies in both and noted that these were most likely the result of workers
who work in the home-care environment not being unionized while those in
long-term-care facilities are. Matthews
told the audience that she knew who was working their heart out in the healthcare
system, and acknowledged that more needs to be done to support them.
