Personal Support Workers demand greater appreciation, and wages to match

Caregivers provide care to people who require assistance with daily tasks and activities on a continuing basis and this can be people of all ages and gender, from those who struggle with chronic diseases to physical and mental challenges. Caregiving is sometimes informal and unpaid—provided by family members—or formal and paid, offered in recipients’ homes and care institutions. Despite being the central pillar of long-term care, many caregivers—formal or informal, paid or unpaid—in New Brunswick complain of exhaustion. Too often, caregivers are both poorly appreciated for their services and are paid far too little.

What is the care landscape in New Brunswick?

Caregivers in New Brunswick are known as Personal Support Workers. They come under four categories: trained private duty caregivers; independent caregivers; family caregivers; and respite caregivers. Sometimes caregivers render their services in adult residential facilities, other times in special care homes, and sometimes in the residences of people who need support.

Caregivers provide a wide range of continuing support to their “clients,” including maintaining medical schedules, providing medication reminders, shopping for groceries, preparing meals, assisting with feeding, housekeeping, assisting with physical support, and even first aid in emergency situations.

Caregiving is a publicly-funded sector in the province.

In August 2021, the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour announced adjustments to two programs to ease the training of Personal Support Workers. These adjustments to the training programs were to make tuition free. Until the announcement, the provincial government covered 50 per cent (up to $4,000) of the cost of tuition for training to become a Personal Support Worker. The government’s changes increased the coverage for tuition to 100 per cent, if the training would allow the trainee to improve their job performance.

“By making these changes,” Minister Trevor Holder said, “we are confident more New Brunswickers will be encouraged to choose a career in these occupations, while also addressing one of the province’s most critical labour needs.”

This new funding was in addition to millions of dollars allocated annually to informal caregivers and approved care institutions.

The reason for such public expenditure on caregiving is not hard to understand. The province ranks second among all Canadian provinces with the highest number of elderly people, typically the elderly is the demographic most in need of care. Of the 789,225 people who live in the province, people 65 years and above are 177,400 or 22.4 per cent of the population.

Caregivers are important in managing the province’s rapidly ageing population.

Yet, too often, caregivers are appreciated by clients, but not necessarily by care agencies.

Haven observed that most students, especially international students, take on caregiving jobs, I interrogated what some of their experiences have been. While rendering support to those in need can be rewarding, chatting with other caregivers suggests that they often feel their services are appreciated only by the clients they serve.

Too often, they complained about care fatigue, emotional and physical stress, sleep deprivation, and outright depression.

Some people explained their frustration at how their employers would ask that they take on clients under very short notice, sometimes no more than two hours’ heads up.

They often wondered if caregiving agencies had any concern for their well-being as care workers and people, as the focus seems to be only on reporting to work and getting the job done.

Even after being sick or having to look after a sick family member, some caregivers said their recruiters still called on them the very next day, to take on difficult shifts, never really asking about their well-being.

Part of the reason for agencies calling caregivers to fill in more shifts could be due to inadequate labour force in the sector, employees on sick leave due to exhaustion, or on vacation. Whatever the reason, it is appropriate to show genuine concern when calling on a caregiver to take care of a client last minute, especially if the caregiver had called off duty due to illness or to assist a sick family member.

Poor wage and pay disparity in the sector are also huge concerns.

Many believe that they are paid too little for doing so much. The best-paying caregiving agencies seem to pay an average of $27.34 per hour. Some private caregivers are only paid $11.50, and then there are many of them who pay about $15.13 per hour, often without regard to qualification and experience.

Some caregivers think that a fair pay threshold should be much higher than the current highest rate.

Rachel Richard, in her article, “Caregivers cannot live on recognition alone,” draws attention to inadequate pay and poor working conditions for caregivers in NB. Rachel’s piece showed how female caregivers are disproportionately affected. She also highlighted the adverse effects of the provincial government’s refusal to address these challenges despite the acknowledged indispensability of caregivers.

Another issue that came up again and again when going through the reviews section of agencies’ websites was that most present and past employers have little or no job satisfaction. As a result, many quit to other sectors while most students said they will quit upon graduation. They believe that besides the cavalier response to caregivers’ well-being by employers, the pay was not commensurate with the degree of mental and physical exhaustion the work put them through.

While some review comments show some employee derive job satisfaction, it is difficult to say if they worked as caregivers or as administrative staff for these agencies. However, many caregivers who are students opined their satisfaction came mostly from clients who were grateful for care.

Further examination of the reviews on the websites of some caregiving agencies in the province revealed that many reviewers who claimed to be former caregivers, identified lack of respect, unpredictable working hours, lack of empathy and kindness by employers, lack of job security, and low pay as reasons for poor job satisfaction. Perhaps this explains the high employee turnover rate in the caregiving sector.

These concerns are genuine and should be addressed.

The province needs standard hourly rates for caregiving, according to one comment. The writer believes that any disparity in pay shouldn’t be based on the company concerned, but qualification and professional experience. Therefore, irrespective of the caregiving agency, the rates for qualified or unqualified, experienced or inexperienced caregivers must be standardized.

If, as it seems, the government’s investments in caregiving reflect its recognition of the importance of the sector as the province’s demographic transition continues, then it is important that attention is also given to the wellbeing of caregivers who are the backbone of the system.

There needs to be minimum wage regulations in the context of care work, given the nature and extent of service caregivers provide.

It is also vital that government’s funding to care institutions and agencies come with a requirement on these institutions and agencies to demonstrate that in providing care, caregivers are not abused, neglected, left unable to cater to their own basic needs. Caregivers need respect, labour protections, and routine physiotherapy for those experiencing physical and mental exhaustion

This is particularly important because a poorly treated, depressed, and demoralized caregiver may have little care left to render.