Low pay leads to 'revolving door' of adult support workers in Manitoba, mom says

Kalyn Falk's son Noah loves to take walks by the duck pond in St. Vital Park picking up feathers from the many dozens of geese. 

That's a good day for the 24-year-old with autism and high support needs. Other days, he and his family simply have to manage intense abdominal pain caused by a gastrointestinal condition the family is still in the process of diagnosing, but which causes Noah to act aggressively in ways that can hurt himself and others.

"When he is calm, he's doing his photography, he's doing his drawing. We've sold at a lot of art sales. He's part of the community," Falk said.

"But sometimes we go to crisis level where we're just managing pain and managing anxiety and we're just coping. But when we're living like this, we're just having a lovely life."

Noah needs stable care from people he knows and trusts, but widespread staffing shortages at organizations serving adults with intellectual disabilities have made it hard to find workers who stay with him long enough to form a bond and learn his particular ways of communicating, she said.

Organizations that help people living with intellectual disabilities have had to cut back services due to widespread staffing shortages, which they blame on wages that haven't kept up with other sectors.

Falk praises the direct support workers who have helped her son since he was diagnosed before the age of two, but she estimates that he has had more than 100 direct support workers in his lifetime.

"It feels dehumanizing to have a revolving door of people, because it teaches him to say goodbye," she said.

The emergence of Noah's gastrointestinal condition led to a health crisis that forced Falk to temporarily give up his care to go to Victoria General Hospital in February. 

That crisis came about partly because the group home where he lived part time lacked the resources to provide the kind of consistent care needed to manage Noah's sensitive dietary needs, which play a significant role in his behaviour, she said.

They are still in the process of trying to find him a permanent group home, which they say he needs because of the intensity of the care he requires.

The sector has always faced staffing shortages, but the problem has gotten significantly worse in recent years, said Audra Penner, president and chief executive officer of ImagineAbility Inc., which provides day services to adults living with intellectual disabilities.

Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, agencies would typically operate with vacancies of 10 to 15 per cent, she said. Now, vacancy rates have risen to between 30 and 50 per cent.

"The primary reason for the staff shortages is that Department of Families funding has not kept pace with inflation," Penner said.