Nola has been a Continuing Care Assistant (CCA) for the past 11 years, working in the field of Home Care.
Nola goes to people’s houses to provide care such as assisting people to get washed, dressed, transferred to their wheelchairs, toileting, bathing and administering medication, along with other tasks one needs to live independently in their homes.
Working through the pandemic has been crazy because she never knew if she was walking into an contagious setting and faced clients that didn’t believe the pandemic was real. She lived in fear for many months.
Nola felt like she didn’t matter to the government because she felt community CCAs, or home care workers, weren’t seen by the government as front line workers in the pandemic. She still feels that way, pointing to the fact she was only fitted for an N95 mask for the first time a few weeks ago, once Premier Scott Moe decided to end the state of emergency. In other words, she struggled to get proper Personal Protective Equipment at the beginning of the pandemic and that struggle has continued right up to when the provincial State of Emergency was lifted. She is still required to wear masks, face shields or goggles, in spite of the public health orders being lifted – and that’s confusing to her.
She is hopeful that Premier Moe hears our campaign, “Hey Moe: Respect Us, Protect Us, Pay Us” and that he finally shows up for front line workers, like front line workers did for the community throughout this pandemic.