I’ve been ordained in the Anglican Church for almost four years. Much of my work involves the obvious – prayer, worship, Bible study – but a major, perhaps dominant aspect is pastoral outreach. Which is a grand way to describe being with and trying to help those who are in pain, need, and despair. And I have to say that I’ve seen a tangible decline in services available to the sick, old, homeless, and abused. Put simply, it’s becoming increasingly bleak for those with the least influence and the greatest need.
Jean comes to see me on a regular basis for $50 shopping cards. We give them to a number of people once every few weeks. Like to do more but we’re not a wealthy church. We chat. “My doctor retired and the new one won’t see me very often,” she says. “I don’t blame him though because he’s overwhelmed with people.” She’s on various meds, can’t afford all of them, so is selective in what she takes. That’s not uncommon, and the notion that those on low income receive all the support they need is pure fantasy.
“It used to be easier but now they’re very strict. There’s one drug they have me on but it has some bad side effects. They’ve said I have to give it three months before they’ll pay for an alternative.” She pauses. “I think I’ll just stop taking it.” I tell her that could be dangerous, but she just shakes her head. “If I die, I die. Not sure I really care anymore. I’m so damned tired of making phone call after phone call and nobody seeming to care.”
People do care though. Spend time in hospitals and care homes and the dedication can be extraordinary. But morale is, in my experience, bitingly low. Nurses speak to chaplains more than they do most people, and the universal feeling is one of neglect.
“Look, it’s never been easy but we now feel like we’re almost an enemy of the administrators, the politicians, the government,” says an ICU nurse (no names) of 30 years’ experience. “I’m a realist. There were shortages under every government, but in the past it was as if we were in it together, on the same side. Not now. We nurses, and doctors too, think we’re seen as the problem, even the enemy.”
The work load is worse than ever, and that’s especially true in emergency rooms, where I spend a lot of time. Friday and Saturday nights have always been busy, but the volume of people every day has increased extraordinarily. The reason is simple. People can’t find family doctors anymore and have no option but to go to emerg for clearly non-emergency cases. “It’s always been an issue,” says the nurse, “but never like this. These people don’t have doctors, and we don’t have the time and resources.”
I pause, and then ask: do you think anybody has ever died because they couldn’t receive treatment quickly enough due to the numbers?” No pause. “Of course, of course.”
Less than a ten-minute drive from the hospital is one of the many care homes I visit on a regular basis. These places vary in cost and quality, and in the services they provide. Some are up-market and house people who have financial resources. Even so, the residents often have to sell their homes – their only real asset – to pay the substantial fees. Others are far more basic, and you can feel it as soon as you enter the front door. It even influences COVID testing. Generally, the more expensive the home, the more elaborate and careful the screening.
The one I visit this day has excellent staff – most of them do – but the turnover of employees here if far too high, and the all-important relationships that those with dementia in particular need to make can never develop. That change is frightening, destabilizing, and ultimately dangerous.
“We work long hours for a modest amount of money,” says Ivana, from eastern Ukraine. “You become attached to people so you stay a bit longer, but I’ve a family too and I need to get home. This is what they pay me” – she shows me her pay stub – “but I know what the fees are here. Who is making the money! This is supposed to be about service, not profit.”
The same stories, over and over again. No, it isn’t all rosy in this super-wealthy province, and the flower is shedding more petals all the time.
