CARP in Nova Scotia is working hard to highlight a critical gap in the healthcare continuum during COVID.

Ron Swan from NS CARP’s Executive Committee and Beverley Lawson, Chair of CARP’s NS Health Advocacy Committee are advocating for increased attention to Home Care challenges and in the context of COVID and what is being done about them.

There are many Home Care clients, living in their own homes, some with family/friend caregivers and others all alone, whose services are being disrupted or cancelled completely due to the pandemic.

Home Care is largely invisible to the public, but for the 17,000 people across the province who rely on these services there are many issues to acknowledge or provide reassurances around, such as:

• Are Home Care staff on the booster priority list?
• What steps are being taken to address current Home Care staff shortages due to illness, as well as to provide support for family caregivers infected with Omicron?
• Hundreds of Home Care employees are likely contacts of Covid positive people, either in their personal or workplace circles, and they may be continuing to work because they don’t want to abandon their clients. Do they have proper PPE for their daily assignments, which can include up to five or six daily visits to households in the community?

While solutions to the breakdown of Home Care services may not be readily available during this crisis, C.A.R.P. Nova Scotia is alarmed at the lack of visibility of and attention to this issue.

See CARP NS’s 2021 position paper on Home Care