We Need Better Caregivers In Calgary
Let me start by saying my wife and I have some incredible caregivers who care greatly for us and are immeasurably skilled in knowledge and experience for looking after our health needs as quadreplegics here in the city of Calgary. We could not survive out here in the community without them! But, it seems as though this community of caregiving has been drastically shrinking the past several years and culturally changing with fewer skilled employees who seem to only care about receiving a paycheck rather then bringing dignity and care to those with disabilities.
Last June, AHS announced they would be canceling their community caregiving contract with CBI Home Health and renewing it with a new company here in Calgary called Caregivers Home Health Care. The link I give you is for their Edmonton counterpart as they have yet to fully establish a webline presence or contact here in southern Alberta. My wife and I have undergone the transition to there services at the end of last January and it has been a complete nightmare.
For the first week of there care they seemed to simply showup whenever they felt like it without any regard to the scheduled times we had. They still do, as just this morning the caregiver called at 9:40 am to say they would be here at 10. She's not suppose to be here until 12 noon. We have tried three times to call Caregivers Home Health office to ask if someone was still coming. But, like so many times before, we can only leave phone messages and no one returns our calls.
Despite AHS's promises that our services would not change and our requested regular caregivers would not be removed from our care, every single person that arrived was completly band new - not just in our care personally, but in any care. Most of the time they had no understanding of what a Hoyer floor lift was or how to safely opporate it; including those who were in the office when we called for help. In one such case, after struggling to put the sling on my wife for 15 minutes (even at first trying to put it on upside down), she stood there with the lift behind her while looking blankly up at the lats pull down bar on my gym in front of her. I asked her, "What are you doing?" And in her broken english she says to me, "I'm trying to figure out how to hook her up to this bar." REALLY?! I didn't know whether to laugh or scream.
I'd like to share more but, in truth, it hurts to much and I am fearful enough to the dangers of both our care in just writing this post.
I am not nieve either as to the struggles faced by local caregiving companies here in Calgary trying to find competent employees. Recently this past week the Calgary Hearld released an article that highlighted the fact that Calgary lost over 20,000 health-care and social assistance workers this past year (see here). Ironically, Edmonton gained about the same number of health care and social assistance workers. There was no indication as to whether it was transfer growth or not but, it left me with the questions:
What is Edmonton doing to recruit health-care workers that Calgary is not?
What incentives does Calgary offer to health-care workers to foster longevity of employment?
How is Calgary vetting and training its local caregivers to give proper care in the community?
What supportive web services and communication tools can be sponsered by AHS to give better communication tools for community members and clients?
The list continues to grow and perhaps you might like to add some of your own questions in the comments below.
Of course, we brought our concerns to our AHS Coordinator. But the only alternative she can offer us is Client Directed Care and Blue Cross Billing. This would be a move into a private and profit driven health care system where AHS will cover a certain portion of the care while the private agencies then bill the clients through Blue Cross billing. Most to all of these agencies require a minimum of 2-3 hours per visit resulting in an inbalance of clients personal care needs. In other words... overbilling for time needed. Like so many others in a budget concious world facing the rising costs of living today and compounded by the health care needs and income restricted life of being disabled; we simply cannot afford this.
All I can say is we need better Caregivers in Calgary and something needs to change... and change fast before someone ends up hurt or worse! I shutter to think... if it already has.