![\"From](\"https:\/\/shawglobalnews.files.wordpress.com\/2020\/02\/image-from-ios-2.jpg?quality=70&strip=all&w=720\")
<\/p>\n(February 5, 2020)<\/p>\n
By: Jacquelyn LeBel, Global News<\/p>\n
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The Ontario Health Coalition\u2019s cross-province tour highlighting the findings of its Caring in Crisis<\/em>\u00a0report arrived in London, Ont. on Wednesday.<\/p>\n The report, commissioned by Unifor, focuses on the shortage of personal support workers (PSWs) in Ontario and was based on input from a series of roundtable events held last year, including one in London in late February.<\/p>\n According to the report, one rural care home in the London region was only fully staffed for eight days in an entire year. Retaining workers was also highlighted as a key issue, with one area home reportedly hiring 44 PSWs in Sept. 2017 and having only seven remaining by Jan. 2018.<\/p>\n When exploring possible reasons for the shortage of PSWs in long-term care homes, local participants highlighted inadequate pay, workplace violence, increased workload due to lack of staffing, and media attention to the challenges of PSWs, among other potential factors.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s an amount of money we need to be able to make to be able to live,\u201d said Shoshannah Bourgeois, a PSW with a background in homecare, during Wednesday\u2019s news conference in London.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you can\u2019t afford to run your car, you can\u2019t afford child care, how can you afford to do that job? So you\u2019re working two or three jobs without a day off, without vacation, you\u2019re not even taking vacation because you can\u2019t afford it.\u201d<\/p>\n Speaking at the news conference at Unifor Local 302 on Elm Street, coalition co-chair Peter Bergmanis noted that an added pressure is decreasing enrollment in PSW courses.<\/p>\n \u201cFanshawe [College] is like a pioneer in PSW course training and had a well established program here, but as of the time of this report coming out, they were discovering that people were not willingly enrolling,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n \u201cTheir enrollment levels have fallen to the point where they couldn\u2019t put on the course.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The Ontario Health Coalition\u2019s report also included a number of recommendations to address the PSW shortage, including: increasing funding to improve PSW staffing levels, wages, and working conditions; tuition reductions and grants for PSW college programs; mandatory reporting of staffing shortages; and a publicity campaign to share a positive image of personal support work to increase retention and attract students to the sector.<\/p>\n Dr. Merrilee Fullerton, minister of long-term care, said she is aware of this issue.<\/p>\n\n\n