Thread by @DrVivianS

Ft. my friend/advocate @creyola ⤵️
A Long-Term Tragedy thelocal.to/a-long-term-tr… via @thelocalhealth

"In 2018, Paul moved to Pickering, down the street from his daughter. For 18 mos, she was his primary caregiver. “Dad was losing his mobility,” Cathy says. “And I was hurting myself trying to lift him.”

"As his condition worsened, she forced herself to confront a painful fact: Paul needed more help than she could give."

I hear these stories all the time from the all too often women who try their damned best to step in and care....but its incredibly taxing work and sometimes a physical impossibility.

What's worse is the guilt these often female family caregivers feel when these horrid things happen and you blame yourself (when we all know it isn't their fault). It's really heartbreaking.

"And so, as research by the sociologist Pat Armstrong reveals, Ontario’s chain nursing homes became adept at cutting corners. This meant crowding patients four to a room, scrimping on cleaning services, contracting external caterers to bring in prepared meals rather....cont.

....than cooking onsite, doing laundry in massive industrial machines (the kind that destroy everything except synthetic fabrics), and allowing stockpiles of medical supplies, including PPE, to run perilously low. “There was only just enough of everything,” says Armstrong.

"The biggest cost-saving measures were in the area of labour. Medical professionals (including nurses) are expensive, whereas low-skilled personal support workers (PSWs) can be hired for a mere $20 an hour. In Ontario nursing homes, PSWs comprise 58% of the workforce...

....and perform almost all of the front-line care. The majority of them work part time, often without job security or benefits. During busy shifts, a single PSW might find herself taking care of 40 residents at once, and (cont)

....the work often resembles an assembly line, with a set number of tasks to be completed in a limited timeframe."

Yep.

Such great work with this piece @SimonLewsen.