“I’ve been working in long-term care for 15 years. For me, it’s an honour and privilege to take care of seniors. There is so much to learn from them, and I consider myself truly lucky that I get to be with them in their last days. Even in the hard times, I love working with seniors.
During the height of the pandemic, it was a huge fight for their lives, especially because we were an outbreak site. It meant long hours but I wanted to do it because I wanted to be with them and help them as much as I could.
Working for a private, for-profit company, I’m incredibly grateful to be part of a union during the pandemic. The wage levelling that our union fought for was a game changer for our long-term care site. It meant that people stayed in one place and that we wouldn’t constantly lose workers to other sites or have workers leave health care altogether.
One of the biggest issues workers are dealing with right now is burn out and mental health. We’re a tight group at my work, and everyone leans on one another for mental health because often we don’t know where else to turn. Having resources that workers can access is so critical.
One good thing the pandemic did was rip the band-aid off of the current state of our seniors’ care system. It gives me hope that the public is paying much closer attention to our health care system, and that we have no choice but to come back stronger than we were before.
I’ve learned through this pandemic that I’m a lot stronger than I thought I was. And going through this together, we’ve all learned what’s important in life.”
Jennel, care aide, part of the health care team