Home help for seniors: our seniors deserve better!
Gold Squad is very committed to the seniors in our community. As such, we do our research to find articles, information and opinions that are of interest to the seniors and the families we serve.
Here is a curated selection of content, updated regularly.
Be a boss: 5 ways to support your caregivers
August_Gold Squad:
Caregivers deal with a lot, and they need the support of their employer to avoid occupational burnout. Research shows that it’s common for caregivers to report high levels of stress, a factor which takes a toll on the quality of care provided and even affects the mental health of the care recipient. Furthermore, the odds of burning out increase drastically the longer someone is a caregiver, almost doubling from one year to the next.
Many things can cause stress; however, there’s an answer to controlling and reducing stress. It keeps appearing in the conclusions of most research studies on the topic…
It’s simple: support your caregivers.
The 5 most important caregiving skills
_Gold Squad_July 2022
Every caregiver should have a basic set of skills. While providing care for someone can be fulfilling, knowing you make a difference in their daily life, even the most altruistic caregivers cannot perform their duties fueled by that motivation alone. Especially when it comes to in-home care, caregivers need to handle situations better than the average worker in public residences.
What are some important skills and knowledge for caregivers?
How companies can expand benefits for employed caregivers
_Gold Squad, July 2022
Companies need to start offering caregiving benefits. Over the last decade, worker’s unpaid caregiving responsibilities have been steadily increasing; and, with 35% of the workforce (6.1 million Canadians) caring for a loved one in 2022, these responsibilities are becoming a serious factor in their employment choice.
Remote work positions, or hybrid work schedules where employees spent half their time in the office and the other half at home, quickly became the standard under the COVID pandemic measures. This provided most employees with a work-life balance that was without precedent.
And they aren’t willing to give it up.
In fact, employed caregivers are 50% more likely to seek out other jobs for flexible schedule opportunities.
Private senior healthcare that Quebec can’t afford
Blame a nickel-and-dime public policy!
_Gold Squad, June 2022
Back in 2020, Mr. François Legault floated the idea of nationalising private senior healthcare in Quebec in response to the horrifying conditions and practices reported at CHSLDs. However, healthcare costs money.
Whether private or public, it is all about the bottom line.
The Workforce and Senior Responsibility: How companies stay productive, build loyalty, and avoid a Human Resource Management nightmare
_Gold Squad, May 2022
Over seven million Canadians are already 65 years or older. With a population counting more seniors than 15-year-olds, the younger workforce must plan their lives to care for their elderly. Home care, that is, someone in the household acting as an informal, unpaid caregiver, becomes anaffordable option. However, it has a significant impact on business productivity.
The Truth: Warehousing Seniors in long-term care
Gold Squad_May 2022
Seniors are people, not numbers – COVID merely overturned a long-term care boulder
Since the 2000s, policymakers view retirees as part of a developing crisis that threatens to unravel the economic fabric of our country. Instead of affordable, viable, or respectful solutions, quick fixes to cheapen long-term care services took them into a nosedive.
Famous people you didn’t know had Parkinson’s
_Gold Squad, April 2022
Many people are familiar with the fact that actor and activist, Michael J. Fox, as well as boxing champ and international icon, Muhammad Ali, are and were notable figures afflicted with Parkinson’s. And both are and were inspirational figures in the fight against this terrible disease.
It got us to thinking: who else is/was living with Parkinson’s, serving as important ambassadors for research and treatment?
Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Alan Alda
In-home care vs. facility care
_Gold Squad, March 2022
Gold Squad won’t pretend to be neutral on this subject. We believe the best place for seniors — whatever their situation — is in their homes, preferably with loved ones as close at hand as possible.
We have simply heard too many stories about residents being drugged at night so that they can’t call for staff who aren’t there.
We know of families who have been turned away from regular facilities because their cases are deemed too advanced and are pointed to more medical institutions, with precious few options.
Vascular Dementia: the blacker sheep of the dementia family
_Gold Squad, February 2022
Dementia is a general term for mental decline — unlike Alzheimer’s, which is a disease in and of itself. Specifically, dementia is a grouping of symptoms associated with a decline in memory, reasoning or other thinking skills.
And while many people are at least passingly familiar with dementia and Alzheimer’s, understanding vascular dementia is less mainstream.
