Trillium Manor health care workers ‘not only deserve our respect, they deserve the conditions that allow them to do their best work,’ says columnist
I have a family member who has gone through the perilous journey of old age, and I’ve learned a few things about local care systems while doing my best to help her.
Her story is pretty common: a long life prolonged even longer by modern medicine; living independently in her own home until she was felled by a broken hip; a move to an apartment supported by home care; then assisted living, then the hospital when assisted living was no longer enough, then finally long-term care.
Along the way we learned that support for the elderly in their homes is more an aspiration than a reality in Ontario. There are a lot of good people working very hard to make it a reality, but constantly shifting schedules, shortages of people, poor pay and overly restrictive job descriptions render the whole concept more of a worthy future goal than a current reality.
We also learned the significant difference between private, for-profit retirement homes and non-profit public homes.
When my family member was granted a room at Simcoe County’s Trillium Manor, it felt like she had won the lottery.
While acknowledging the built-in differences in the level of care between the two places, everything about Trillium was better than the for-profit assisted living residence she had been in previously. The administration, the professionalism, the atmosphere, the personal care, the food, the programming — every aspect of the experience is in another league.
For all the flaws of the system, I still feel grateful for the care I have witnessed in our over-taxed hospital, and I am grateful that my loved one was lucky enough to become a resident in a not-for-profit long-term care facility.
The thing that stands out most at Trillium is the dedication of staff in the face of very difficult situations. I regularly marvel at the compassion and consistent care on display. I would wager there are few people working harder on a daily basis than the staff inside the walls of Trillium Manor.
All is not perfection of course. We can almost instantly see the impact of staff shortages on the most vulnerable residents. But we also see the staff effort that goes into minimizing that impact on the people in their care. On the whole this is a public institution about which we can all be proud.
It’s also fragile and in constant need of adequate support.
Imagine my concern when I walked past a group of protesting Trillium staffers who were out on Laclie Street recently trying to raise awareness about chronic staff shortages. These unionized workers weren’t on strike; they were taking their own personal time to improve conditions they say are becoming untenable.
“County-operated long-term care homes are facing extreme short staffing, vacant shifts left unfilled, reduced full-time jobs, increased workloads, staff burnout and less time for resident care,” claimed a flyer being handed out to passers-by by the protesters. “When there aren’t enough caregivers, residents suffer.”
Despite pay grades significantly higher than the average personal support worker, Simcoe County officials did not respond to requests for comment from OrilliaMatters, which is a dereliction of duty to the public as far as I’m concerned.
What I can tell you is that despite the high level of care my loved one continues to receive, I have seen multiple examples of short staffing and vacant shifts that lead to harried staff frustrated by their inability to get to everything that needs to be done. And it leads, unequivocally, to increased suffering for residents.
I’ve signed the “Stop the Long-Term Care Staffing Crisis” petition and I hope you will too.
The public needs to gets behind these critically important public health care workers. They not only deserve our respect, they deserve the conditions that allow them to do their best work.
Mark Bisset spent the past 14 years of his working life as the executive director of the Couchiching Conservancy before retiring in 2024. In a previous iteration of himself, he worked in every news department at the Orillia Packet & Times, a daily newspaper from a bygone era. Mark was the managing editor when he stepped down in 2009. And before all of that, he was a pretty happy kid. He’s a lifelong sailor and gardener who has chosen Orillia as his beloved home for the past 38 years.