A brutal wake-up call regarding the situation in long-term care homes in Quebec

In the province hardest hit by COVID-19 in Canada, residential and long-term care homes (LTC) in Quebec have borne the brunt of the outbreak.

In recent weeks, horrifying stories have emerged of seniors who are left alone in their rooms, frightened and without staff to care for them, thirsty and hungry, often in soiled diapers... The scenes described are shocking.

As workers have fallen sick or abandoned their posts out of fear of catching the virus because of a lack of protective equipment, residences have faced acute problems.

“Doctors, nurses and patient care workers who have witnessed some of these situations have even evoked a ‘genocide of the elderly,’” explained brother Renaud Gagné, adding “It’s revolting!”

This nightmare has shone a very public light on the extent to which workers in these residences have always been undervalued and overworked. For too long, these workers, many of them immigrants, have been under-paid and deprived of decent working conditions, both in private and public residences.

Another aggravating factor has been the ban on visits by personal caregivers, who provide endless hours of care to their family members in residences.

“Coming on top of the lack of personnel, this ban created a perfect storm that led to the tragic situations we have witnessed,” added Brother Gagné.

“Despite our repeated calls for better working conditions over the years, it is clear that the majority of the population preferred to close their eyes and avoid facing reality. This is a painful awakening for the entire population of Quebec. But it’s also a necessary awakening,” Gagné said.

Unifor has joined with the QFL and affiliated unions representing members in LTC to demand that the government issue a decree that would force the private sector to set decent minimum wage rates.

Negotiations are ongoing in the public sector to increase the salaries of patient attendants. “In the meantime, private-sector workers are being paid a bonus of 4 per cent per hour. It’s a start, but more is needed.”

The Legault government has promised a major overhaul in this sector, even evoking the possibility of a nationalization of private seniors’ homes! Quite the turnaround. While we doubt he will go that far, it seems almost certain that much stricter controls will be put in place. That’s welcome news.

Despite the fact that some long-term care homes are still struggling with COVID-19, the situation now seems to be under control thanks to the thousands of workers who have volunteered to work in the long-term care homes to make up for staff shortages.

However, according to Renaud Gagné, “it’s unfortunate that it took all these deaths for the population and the government to realize the importance of offering decent working conditions to people working in long-term care homes.”

COVID-19 has hit particularly hard in the greater Montreal area, which has the vast majority of cases, with 81% of cases of infection and 87% of deaths.

Although the percentages of people infected are distributed more evenly across the different age groups, the rate of death is much higher among people over the age of 70 (91% of cases).