(04-15-2020, 11:31 AM)panamaniac Wrote: If nothing else comes out of all this, our society MUST improve living conditions for our non-indepent seniors, and working conditions for those who care for them. What is happening, what has been allowed to happen, in seniors facilities is beyond horrid.
One big issue about non-independent seniors is not so much the living conditions they are in, but the low wages that the staff make - including PSWs, RN/RPNs, kitchen and housekeeping.
Pretty much every home that is currently hit with an outbreak in the province is privately owned, and PSWs who work at these places are lucky to make above minimum wage. This forces a lot of them to work two jobs - usually at two homes as that is what they are trained in. In comparison, the Region of Waterloo owned and operated Sunnyside Home pays PSWs over 20 an hour to start and RN/RPNs make much more - even the kitchen and housekeeping staff make above 20. So far, Sunnyside has no outbreak in the resident population and it's limited to 4 staff members the last I checked. They took steps to prohibit staff from working in more than one home weeks before the province issued the order to prevent that this week, and because of their good pay and diligence, they've so far avoided any problems.
If these privately operated paid their staff more money, they wouldn't be forced to be working multiple jobs. They easily could, too, because these places rake in money as it costs a lot to be able to live in one. Unfortunately, low wages have resulted in workers juggling two or more jobs to pay the bills and that has resulted in so much death from Covid-19.