Winnipeg sisters say inadequate home-care funding leaves them paying out of pocket, $30K in debt
CBC
Two Winnipeg sisters who rely on a program for home care say their safety and health are at risk because they're not funded for the hours of care they need.
"When you don't provide enough funding, you're hiring people who are not qualified and trained and in a way, it's kind of risky for us," said Antonia Murgolo, one of 700 clients of the program.
Antonia, 63, and her sister Rosanna, 54, have been enrolled in the provincial self- and family-managed care, or SFMC, program for 13 years.
The program, which is administered by regional health authorities, allows people who need home care to act as managers and hire their own workers in order to live independently at home.
In 2008, when they first enrolled in the program, the sisters were granted just under eight hours of care per day, at $21.40 per hour, by the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.
The sisters both have limb-girdle muscular dystrophy, a disorder that causes progressive muscle weakness. When they signed up for the program, eight hours of care a day was enough, Antonia said.
But since then their condition has deteriorated to the point that the sisters are unable to move without assistance, and Antonia says they now require care 24/7.
Her lungs have been weakened by pneumonia, which means an attendant must connect her to a BiPAP (bilevel positive airway pressure) ventilator for four hours a day and overnight.
"If I go to sleep without it, I would never wake up because I stop breathing when I sleep," she said.
Antonia and Rosanna have been asking the health authority for more care hours since 2015. The hourly rate the province allows for attendants hasn't been increased since 2012.
Antonia said that amount — minus Canada Pension Plan and employment insurance premiums, equipment, and workers' compensation coverage — only leaves them around $14 per hour to pay workers, which is not competitive enough for them to recruit staff.
They pool the cash they receive for 55 paid hours of care per week and stretch it to cover 24/7 care by reducing the hourly rate they pay their attendants and digging into their own pockets to subsidize the wage.
Antonia has bumped the wage to $18 an hour by using her credit card and line of credit.
"The applicants apply. We noticed a difference, so it's the money. The only problem with that is we are running out of money," she said.
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