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Articles by Laurell Ritchie
Want to fix our broken home-care system? Just answer these questions
Maybe you’ve found yourself worrying about how things would go if you or someone you know ends up home alone and in need of care. Or maybe you’ve already experienced the maddening search for home-care. It’s becoming familiar terrain as we wait longer for acute care, face earlier discharge from hospital or search desperately for rehab services, long-term care or temporary help after an illness or injury. Already a Subscriber?
Opinion | Workforce retention strategies that benefit all in the care economy
We’re losing workers in Care Economy jobs. The fix has nothing to do with more “choice” for people who can afford to pay for care and is more transformative than merely better wages and benefits. The secret sauce? A new commitment to collaboration, both in the workplace and in public policy.
Opinion | Provinces need to have a plan for health-care funding — or they shouldn’t get the money
Every day brings fresh evidence of profound mismanagement in health care: closing emergency departments, burned-out nurses quitting the profession, fewer Canadians with family doctors, hospitals full of older people with nowhere to go. Meanwhile, premiers want the federal government to ship them another $28 billion for health care, no questions asked — on top of the $45 billion they already get yearly. What’s wrong with this picture? Accountability.
Opinion | Provinces need to have a plan for health-care funding — or they shouldn’t get the money
Every day brings fresh evidence of profound mismanagement in health care: closing emergency departments, burned-out nurses quitting the profession, fewer Canadians with family doctors, hospitals full of older people with nowhere to go. Meanwhile, premiers want the federal government to ship them another $28 billion for health care, no questions asked — on top of the $45 billion they already get yearly. What’s wrong with this picture? Accountability.
National Nurses Week: Time to Fix Dire Nursing Shortages
“A bed is just a bed without a nurse to provide care” The crisis in health care in Canada has many dimensions, but the most obvious is the problem with labour shortages. For years, researchers, advocacy groups, and various government commissions identified the need for a national health care labour force strategy. It isn’t as though it is a puzzle about what to do. Ensuring an adequate supply of well-trained labour in any area does not just happen because it is needed – it needs to be planned.
Beyond Mother's Day: Caring for Mothers
Flowers are nice on Mother’s Day but ensuring access to quality care and quality care work would be better. And last much longer. Mothers are primary users of care services and primary providers of care, both paid and unpaid. But Canadian governments at all levels still cling to neo-liberalism and the shop-worn idea that the private marketplace knows best.
Opinion | Too many dangers in promised privatization of care economy Original
Federal Conservative leadership candidate Jean Charest is promising a “sea change” for health care by directing more public funds to privately delivered care. In Ontario under Doug Ford this is already happening as his government quietly expands the for-profit share of publicly funded care. Sixteen thousand long-term care beds were recently licensed to for-profit facilities and more are in the works despite the widespread evidence of appalling conditions of work and care in many of these homes.
Mandating care: recommendations for Canada’s new ministerial mandate letters
Many care workers are on the verge of burnout, with ballooning workloads and no significant relief nor improvement to their wages and working conditions on the horizon. Things are likely to get worse during this administration unless the government decides to take seriously the need for a mandate for care.
Opinion | Mr. Premier, bring your firecracker: COVID-19 requires two-prong approach to sick days Original
By Armine YalnizyanContributors Laurell Ritchie Thu., Jan. 21, 2021timer3 min. read updateArticle was updated 14 mins ago Premier Doug Ford’s “look over there, not here” routine slows recovery. Pointing at Ottawa’s inadequacies while ducking provincial responsibility won’t turn the corner on COVID-19 in Ontario. We need a two-prong approach to paid sick leave, involving both Ottawa and Queen’s Park.
CERB cancellation a disaster in the making
By Armine YalnizyanContributors Laurell Ritchie Mon., June 15, 2020timer4 min. read On July 4, about two million people will stop receiving the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) but will be ineligible for Employment Insurance (EI). There will not be two million jobs available to absorb these workers, given the pace and restrictions on reopening the economy. The Government of Canada introduced Bill C-17 to lay out Phase II of CERB.
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