Kellie Hastings recalls a time, almost three years ago, when she was on the verge of quitting her job at a large home care services company. “This was before the pandemic – and even then, it was truly horrible. We received rude and abusive treatment from our superiors, and because we had so many clients, it was hard to cultivate a relationship with any one of them,” she told The Globe and Mail recently.
“The biggest problem with home care is that it does not work for workers. Many of them are underpaid, and they don’t have consistency in employment,” Ms. Xia explained. “As we saw in the pandemic, many home care workers ended up getting hospital jobs or finding work in long-term care homes because they needed some stability.”
That wage gap is exactly what Ms. Xia is trying to address with Gotcare; she believes it is at the heart of the home care worker shortage in Canada. Joan Kerr, a Toronto-based personal support worker, quit her job with another home care company during the pandemic because Gotcare offered a significantly higher wage. That allowed her to work fewer hours and cultivate better relationships with her clients. Her biggest criticism of previous employers, beyond the wage issue, was that she could not negotiate her schedule directly with her clients.
The average person doesn't have enough money to pay for homecare or private pay assisted living. I could only pay for palliative short term private care or some month long thing after surgery. Anything longer term I would have to choose medical aid in dying.