When you come home from the hospital—after surgery, a fall, or childbirth—a nurse might stop by to to make sure you’re recovering well. The morning after I got home, the doorbell rang and a young woman in scrubs and a mask was waiting outside. She had been assigned by VHA Home Health Care, an agency contracted by Ontario Health at Home, (formerly Home and Community Care Support Services and part of the government super agency, Ontario Health). Mike led her to my armchair.
“Thanks for coming,” I said, “I have so many questions. Am I elevating my leg enough? This bruising seems extreme, is it normal? Is there anything I can do for it?”
She looked at my leg and touched it very gently, “Maybe you could put some lotion on it.”
My mouth opened, but no words came out.
“Would you like me to wash your hair, or go to the store for you?” she asked.
“No, thanks, I’m good, but I can’t get up from the chair to go to the bathroom or anything. I was wondering if you had any strategies for that?”
She thought about it for a minute, “How about one of those hydraulic lifts.”
I quickly looked them up online–hydraulic lifts start at like $1,500.
“Ummm. Those are a little out of my price range.”
“Okay. But what are you doing, then, to use the bathroom?”
“Well, I’ve been been hanging my butt over the edge of the chair and peeing into a bucket.”
She lowered her voice, “But what about number 2?”
“Well, so far I’ve been holding it.”
Her eyes got wide and she looked concerned and said,
“Oh, that’s not good. What if, you know, it leaks into your uterus?”
That was the moment where it clicked that this visitor was not a nurse. She explained that she was a PSW, a Personal Support Worker, trained to assist people with daily activities. I apologized for the misunderstanding. I told her I already had support for my dailies, and didn’t really need help like that. So, instead, we just had a chat and that was good.
The following morning, another very kind and helpful PSW came to the door. The fact that this service exists as part of Ontario Health is a great thing, a crucial support for people. That said, I didn’t need a PSW and they were scheduled to keep coming. I figured out how to find my VHA Home HealthCare profile online and I cancelled the rest of the scheduled appointments.
WELCOME TO GASLIGHT CITY
I then received a call from the Care Coordinator, wanting to know why I had cancelled the services. I explained that the PSWs were the best, but I was well supported with personal care. I told her that what I really needed was a nurse and asked if that could be arranged. I guess the Care Coordinator was mad about the cancellation of the PSW visits, because despite the fact that it was in her power to send me a nurse, (also, she was a nurse), she said no. She insisted that providing people with care after an injury was “not within a nurse’s purview.”
She suggested if I needed advice or help, I should go to a walk-in clinic. It was like I had been transported to upside-down world. She followed that up by saying that the only way she would order a nurse was if a doctor prescribed it.
So, I booked an online appointment with a doctor and after the consultation, the doctor wrote me a prescription for a nurse. I called the Care Coordinator to ask her where I could email the prescription. She said I could FAX (??) the prescription, but that really I shouldn’t bother because she wouldn’t accept it.
“I don’t understand.”
She said it was her decision to make, and she’d decided to refuse the request. It was bizarre. To this day, the only potential explanations I have come up are a) she was still mad about the PSWs and/or b) she had some personal problem(s) going on.
Just to rub it in, she sent me a physiotherapist the next day.
Psyche.
Since I couldn’t stand on either leg and was waiting to see a specialist, the physiotherapist was not allowed to offer anything. It was simply too early in my recovery for physiotherapy.
There are great things happening every day in health care, but we all know what the problem is. Continuity of care is not present. It’s an ongoing communication breakdown resulting in an endless fiasco and a system that gaslights people as a matter of routine. The glue that should connect the working parts of the health care system together (ex. Care Coordinators) turned crusty and flaked off a long time ago.
