A rapidly aging population, high worker injury rates, funding shortfalls, low recruitment and the increasing acuity level of seniors are all contributing factors to the health human resources crisis facing the continuing care sector.
Earlier this year, over 170 stakeholders came together at the 2nd Annual BC Continuing Care Collaborative to address training, recruitment and retention challenges of the next generation of continuing care workers.
Today, the BC Care Providers Association released a report entitled “The Perfect Storm: A Health Human Resources Crisis in Seniors Care” highlighting the key takeaways from the Collaborative, particularly the need for a comprehensive health human resource strategy.
The event—a partnership with the BC Ministry of Health—brought together government and health authorities, unions, training colleges, continuing care employers and frontline workers to not only identify the most pressing HHR issues, but also seek out opportunities to tackle them.
“Delegates at the Collaborative clearly identified that labor shortages in the sector have reached a crisis point,” says BCCPA HHR Analyst Lara Croll.
“What is promising, however, is that delegates were also able to identify feasible solutions that can be implemented with stakeholder collaboration over the next few years. We are hoping that all stakeholders will commit to this vital work,” she adds.
Collaboration between all stakeholders is key to overcome barriers facing the sector, and the BCCPA is confident that together we can reassess the proposed solutions and put ideas into action.
“The seniors care sector have identified the critical shortages of qualified front-line staff as one of our biggest challenges,” says BCCPA CEO Daniel Fontaine. “We are grateful for all of the contributions of so many stakeholders to date, and I highly recommend that everyone who is interested in the future of seniors care in B.C. downloads and reads the Perfect Storm report. It will serve as a useful reference handbook as we try to address the staffing crisis in seniors care.”
Leading up to the release of the report, BCCPA published a series of preview posts that zoomed in on some key themes discussed at the Collaborative, such as worker safety, recruitment challenges in rural areas, and addressing barriers for international workers. In addition to these posts, PowerPoint presentations, videos and photos from the event are available to review here.
