B.C. care home aims to hire residents' family members as temporary staff

Families with loved ones in a Fraser Valley care home may get a chance to be a lot closer to them than the pandemic has so far allowed.

Menno Place, an 11-acre campusthat houses and cares for 700 seniors in Abbotsford, B.C., says it is looking to hire interested family members as temporary relief workers.

The centre, which is owned and operated by the Mennonite Benevolent Society, is currently dealing with an outbreak of COVID-19. Eleven residents and six staffhave been infected.

KarenBiggs, Menno's CEO, says turning to family members to provide essential services such as housekeeping, laundry and distributing food may help fill a shortage of staff.

"When staff get sick, of course all of a sudden you start getting shorter and shorter of staff," she said."So we're trying to think out of the box where can we get more trained people?"

Biggs saidthe family members aren't needed right now, as Menno Place still has enough staff working overtime to fill the need.

'Families came out of the woodwork'

A form has been posted on its website forinterested people to fill out. The job pays $20.58 an hour.

Biggs says, in one day, 22 family members expressed interest in being hired.She says it shows how committed families are to helping.

"When we were short of personal protection equipment early on in the pandemic, families came out of the woodwork and brought us gowns, they brought us N95 masks, so we thought, 'OK, do families out there have the skills to come and clean, and help us in the kitchen if we need help?' " she said.

Elderly people have been particularly vulnerable in the pandemic, accounting for the majority of deaths from the illness in B.C. They have also sufferedisolation as care homes have strictly limited visitors in an effortto keep residents safe from infection.

In May, a Toronto man washired at his mother's long-term care facility so he could be closer to her.

Earlier this month, the province's senior advocate releaseda reportthat saidvisitor restrictions on long-term care homes are harming residents' health and should be eased.