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Winnipeg Free Press
2 days ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Home-care scheduling chaos worsening, overwhelmed staff say
Home care workers feeling overwhelmed and burned out because of heavy caseloads say leadership's response to a recent Free Press report on the city's centralized scheduling office only intensified the pressure on staff over the past weekend. 'Expectations are already way too high, and they constantly ignore our concerns,' said one employee, who asked not to be identified, fearing the consequences of speaking out. 'The direction on Friday was to fill all of the calls for the weekend by Friday at 4 p.m., which is impossible.' The employee, whose position is being withheld to protect their identity, said that between Friday and Sunday, more than 2,100 scheduled visits by nurses and health-care aides were cancelled with notice. That figure represented about a quarter of the visits that were expected to go unfilled late last week. Internal data showed more than 8,660 visits were at risk of being unassigned heading into the weekend. The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority said Tuesday that 727 visits were cancelled on Saturday, while another 782 were shelved Sunday — significantly lower than figures from late last week. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said Tuesday that the lower total of missed visits came after the WRHA was told last week to remedy the situation. Asagwara said they are also working quickly to bring more 'expertise' to look at the system and recommend changes. 'A fresh set of eyes,' Asagwara said, adding those people could be installed within days. Some of the experts will include front-line workers, including nurses and health-care aides, who Asagwara called 'rock stars' in wanting to provide the best possible care for clients. They will work closely with WRHA leadership and the province, the minister said. However, Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook said Tuesday it's safe to say that enough time has passed to indicate the switch to a centralized scheduling office hasn't worked. 'It's been four months since they rolled it out… and I think it's incumbent on the minister to say they tried something and it didn't work and maybe it's time to revert back to the old scheduling system,' Cook said, adding she has heard similar concerns from nurses and health-care aides, and raised them during question period in April, only to be told by Asagwara that she was fear-mongering. 'Worse, they assured Manitobans these issues were being addressed and resolved very, very quickly. We now know that was not the case. These problems persist. If the scheduling system is the problem, let's fix it.' Asagwara shot back, saying it was under the former Tory government that the 2023 death of cancer patient Katherine Ellis, who was incorrectly classified and denied timely home care, led to a review. That review produced 21 recommendations, including the shift to a centralized scheduling office. The WRHA centralized its home-care scheduling system in March, in an effort to improve communication, workload and client support. The overhaul has been harshly criticized by workers, who have complained of long wait times in contacting the central office. 'The critic has a short memory, and would do well to understand where this rollout came from,' Asagwara said. 'I think it's incredibly disingenuous of the health critic to comment on a system that is a direct result of the PCs' failings.' On Tuesday, two employees told the Free Press that leadership pushed staff, including resource co-ordinators, to work additional hours. While staff were previously only permitted to take on full shifts, management reportedly said they could now pick up partial hours to help manage the growing backlog. 'Their desperation was showing,' one employee said. Added another: 'They wanted them to ensure that visits were covered until the following Wednesday, which is hard to do when you're already trying to cover thousands of visits that are for the same day and next day.' While leadership was physically present at the office over the weekend, employees said they didn't check in to offer help or support. 'Their presence is being received as an intimidation factor; that we must be on our best behaviour while they are here,' an employee who worked the weekend said. 'Our breaks were also scheduled for the first time since moving here, which makes us feel like children who have to be constantly micromanaged.' Looking ahead to the upcoming weekend, internal data shows 8,152 home-care visits — affecting 2,860 clients — remain unfilled for Saturday and Sunday. The WRHA, which oversees about 16,500 home visits daily, has said those numbers are fluid and often fluctuate up to the day of service. Their latest seven-day average for cancelled visits, they said last week, was 3.7 per cent. Meanwhile, a new voicemail system meant to prioritize urgent calls has been rolled out haphazardly, employees say. 'Nurses and health-care aides are leaving messages on the wrong line, and they are also scheduling people to only answer phone calls for the entirety of their shift,' one said. 'It seems their general response to the health minister's questions is to offer as much overtime as people want and put increased pressure and blame on the schedulers who are already burned out from working as hard as we can with the limited number of staff we have. 'This is not sustainable. The mood in the office is toxic, people are struggling with their mental and physical health, and we are tired of coming into work each day feeling like things will continue to get worse.' 'The pressures are high,' another employee said. 'The expectations are high. The support is low, and the wild thing is that they tell us that we should be 'fully staffed' now, but then post over 50 available shifts for the weekend… if we had enough staff, we would not be needing to post that many available shifts for office staff.' Scott BilleckReporter Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade's worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Read more about Scott. Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
6 days ago
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Lack of nutritional oversight in care homes hard to swallow
Opinion Nobody would ever say that ensuring residents of personal care homes are properly fed is a simple matter. Caring for the elderly and infirm is, given the broad range of health issues, a complex challenge. Once the elderly arrive in a care home, it often gets even more complex. Still, one has to wonder why the nutritional programs in the majority of the care homes in Winnipeg operate without direct oversight from the province. MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS Manitoba needs more precise regulations on how care home residents should be fed, and more resources and staff to ensure the facilities adhere to the regulations, writes Lett. In a compelling and in-depth examination of the state of care home food, Free Press reporter Janine LeGal provides numerous examples in which residents are given unappetizing meals with limited choice and, in some cases, an absence of fresh fruit and vegetables. Trying to verify the allegation here is a tricky matter: there are thousands of Winnipeggers who live in care homes, many with profoundly different needs when it comes to basic care. Some can care for and feed themselves; others require full assistance to perform the most simple personal tasks. Still, that doesn't explain or excuse the state of the food being served in some care homes. LeGal's article, which relied heavily on her own experience caring for her mother and father, says the quality of food in some care homes is beyond disgusting, even though the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has an entire team of professionals charged with ensuring meals are appetizing and nutritious. Well, at least some of the facilities. The WRHA directly oversees nutrition in seven of the 37 care homes in Winnipeg: Riverview Health Centre, Deer Lodge Centre, Misericordia Place, Concordia Place, Calvary Place, River Park Gardens and Middlechurch Home. For all seven facilities, meals are prepared in the regional distribution centre, a centralized commissary. Meals are frozen and then distributed. The distribution centre was, from the moment it was proposed in the 1990s, more than a little controversial. Introduced by the former Progressive Conservative government of premier Gary Filmon, it was supposed to be a cost-effective way to provide meals to hospitals and personal care facilities. Over the years, the reviews of the distribution fare have been varied, to say the least. Still, the WRHA and its nutritionists are making deliberate efforts to make sure the food is as appetizing and nutritious as possible. What about the other facilities? Julie Gislason, the WRHA's chief nutrition and food services officer, says those remaining care homes are providing, with guidance and tools to help them, menus that fulfil the demands of government regulation for nutrition. However, the challenges faced by care homes are not insignificant on this issue, Gislason said. Manitoba has one of the more evolved home care systems, which means the residents arriving at them are generally older and sicker than those in other provinces, she said. It also means the challenges of providing nutritious meals are more pronounced. Gislason said up to two-thirds of residents arrive at a facility in some state of malnutrition through neglect or declining health and mobility that makes feeding themselves an impossible task. Is there a double standard in care homes, one for those directly overseen by the WRHA and another for the far greater number of ones that are still governed by provincial laws and regulations but which do not receive direct oversight? Gislason said she could not say for sure given that the 30 care homes do not currently report to her directly. It would be easy to assign this failure to the WRHA. However, health authorities can only operate within the laws and regulations created by the provincial government. If a government wanted to have the health authorities provide more direct oversight, as is done in other provinces such as Ontario, it would pass regulations and provide the resources to make it so. But that is not happening in Manitoba. That is extremely disappointing given there is a fairly deep body of legislation and regulations designed to provide standards for care homes when it comes to food and nutrition. These guidelines include the requirement to provide at least three meals a day and in-between-meal snacks, and lots of hydration. There's a lot packed into those regulations but when one considers the complexity of the issue, they seem to be profoundly inadequate. The individual stories of food horrors may not be prima facie evidence of a systemic failure. However, there are enough of them to suggest a bigger problem lurks beneath the surface. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. In fact, it doesn't take a lot of work to connect food and nutrition with other issues related to long term care. For example, Canada is suffering through an acute shortage of health care aides to work in care homes. Without adequate staffing, there aren't enough people to assist residents who cannot feed themselves. There are also not enough people to make critical observations about when a resident may be suffering from malnutrition. Like many other provinces, Manitoba needs more precise regulations on how care home residents should be fed, and more resources and staff to ensure the facilities adhere to the regulations. Right now, it seems as if many are not getting the food they want or need — which provides a very unappetizing image of the current government. Dan LettColumnist Dan Lett is a columnist for the Free Press, providing opinion and commentary on politics in Winnipeg and beyond. Born and raised in Toronto, Dan joined the Free Press in 1986. Read more about Dan. Dan's columns are built on facts and reactions, but offer his personal views through arguments and analysis. The Free Press' editing team reviews Dan's columns before they are posted online or published in print — part of the our tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
15-07-2025
- Health
- Winnipeg Free Press
Missed visit ‘can be a life and death thing'
The DAUGHTER of a woman living in a Winnipeg assisted-living facility is raising concerns after a mixup at home care's new centralized scheduling office nearly caused her mother to miss essential medication. Koralee Nickarz, who lives in Vancouver but returns to Winnipeg every six weeks to visit her mother, 82-year-old Paulette Nickarz, said that had she not been in town last week, her mother would have missed critical nighttime medications. Her mother's regular bedtime worker didn't show up, and no replacement had been arranged. Nickarz said she had to call home care's after-hours line to find out if a worker was still coming. She eventually learned that the scheduled aide had left to tend to a family emergency. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Koralee Nickarz, with her mother Paulette, is concerned centralized scheduling is putting her mom's life in danger. 'No one knew because the home-care worker could not get through to the scheduling office. And she didn't have the time to wait on hold.' Nickarz said a customer service representative later told her that some aides had waited up to five hours on hold or for a callback that same day. 'Before moving to the centralized office, scheduling used to call me when they did not have a worker,' Nickarz said. 'Now, no worker shows up. Or they send someone at whatever time they can find someone for my mother's timed medication.' The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority centralized its home-care scheduling operations in late March, at a single location on Sutherland Avenue. The move was intended to address issues with communication, service inconsistency and workload. In a Jan. 23 memo introducing the changes, the WRHA said the move was also prompted by a review following the 2023 death of cancer patient Katherine Ellis who died after being misclassified and denied timely care. At the time, nurses described the rollout as rushed and chaotic, saying it disrupted care and overwhelmed staff. Some reported insulin-dependent clients had gone hours without medication, while others noted overlapping shifts or being dispatched to unfamiliar areas, causing further delays and cancellations. Nickarz said health-care aides she's spoken to have described the new system as a 'shit show.' She fears the consequences of delayed care for her mother, who has Parkinson's and requires medication at strict intervals. 'She has to take her Levodopa… every four hours,' Nickarz said. 'If she doesn't get it on time, she has a really hard time walking. And if she gets up, it's likely that she will fall. If she gets her Levodopa less than four hours apart, it can cause nausea, dizziness and confusion, which makes it more likely she could fall.' Her mother receives eight visits per day, including four for medication. Under the previous system, Nickarz said she would receive notice of care disruption a few days in advance. Now, she said, no one informs her if no one is coming — and staff at the assisted-living facility are not permitted to administer medications. A WRHA spokesperson said last week that the centralized scheduling office continues to improve service for both clients and staff. They noted that the average wait time for staff calling the office is currently 9 minutes and 20 seconds. Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. 'We recognize there are periods when wait times may be longer, and we remain committed to reducing them,' the spokesperson said. They also pointed to recent changes, including new escalation pathways for urgent issues, a voicemail system for staff unable to work, and a pilot system to fill open shifts more efficiently. 'When changes to a client's schedule are necessary due to staffing, the scheduling office will reach out to the client or their primary contact to ensure they are informed and that backup care plans are in place,' the spokesperson said. Nickarz remains skeptical. 'It can be a life and death thing, because we know what happens with seniors when they fall — they can die,' she said. Scott BilleckReporter Scott Billeck is a general assignment reporter for the Free Press. A Creative Communications graduate from Red River College, Scott has more than a decade's worth of experience covering hockey, football and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Read more about Scott. Every piece of reporting Scott produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Madison Co. Mental Health Clinic adds new furry friend to the team
WAMPSVILLE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) — The Madison County Mental Health Department has added a new furry friend to the clinic's team, just in time for Mental Health Awareness Month. The department officially adopted Big Ben from Wanderers' Rest Humane Association (WRHA) a few weeks ago. The department met the 4-year-old domestic cat a few months prior, after he was surrendered to WRHA. Staff said Big Ben has already had a positive impact on clients. Big Ben is at the mental health clinic five days a week to greet clients and is available for sessions Monday through Friday. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CTV News
07-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Thriving Through Life with WRHA
Winnipeg Watch Jenny Hohne, WRHA mental health promotion facilitator, shares everyday self-care tools from the Thriving Through Life series.
