Inside the Circle – August 1, 2023

All SEIU Circle of Care members are invited to Happy Purple Day. The event will take place at Earl Bales Park (4169 Bathurst St.) on Saturday August 12 from 3:00pm to 7:00pm.

We want to remind you about our “no gift” policy and provide some more information on why we have this policy. At Circle of Care, it is not allowed for our staff to accept gifts. Sometimes, even when gifts are given by clients with good intentions, it can create expectations of special treatment or favours, which may lead to negative interactions with your clients in the future. Here is an example of a situation you may encounter, and how you should respond:

Hazel, a dedicated Personal Support Worker (PSW) provides care to senior clients living in their homes. One of her clients, Mrs. Smith, an 85-year-old female, appreciates Hazel’s assistance tremendously as Hazel helps her with her personal care such as grooming, toileting, and meal preparation. One day after Hazel’s shift ends as she is about to leave, Mrs. Smith hands Hazel some extra money as a token of appreciation for all her hard work and asks if she could stay an extra hour to keep her company and socialize as she has been feeling lonely ever since her son moved out.

Accepting the extra money and staying an additional hour to keep Mrs. Smith company would be unethical and cross therapeutic boundaries as Hazel has a set schedule and commitments to other clients. As a result, staying longer with Mrs. Smith could interfere with her responsibilities for her other clients who are awaiting her arrival.

What Hazel Does Instead

To maintain professionalism and uphold the schedule she is committed to, Hazel respectfully declines the extra money and explains to Mrs. Smith that she cannot accept money or gifts from any clients and that she cannot stay longer as she has to go see other clients. However, she assures Mrs. Smith that she will always be able to provide personal care and company during her regularly scheduled hours.

Our main goal is to make sure that everyone is treated fairly.

We do recognize that caring with clients who have dementia can be challenging, especially when they want to give gifts and don’t understand when you say you can’t accept them. Our Client Services Supervisors (CSSs) are here to help you handle such situations appropriately and avoid upsetting the client while following the policy.

Ultimately, our “no gift” policy is in place to ensure a workplace where everyone is treated fairly and equally. If you have any questions or concerns regarding this policy or any related matters, please feel free to reach out to your CSS or the HR department for guidance. Your understanding and cooperation in upholding this policy are greatly appreciated.

For all staff participating in the Wellness Challenge, please remember to log your step count for the previous week. All step counts must be entered by 4:30pm on August 4^th. Challenge winners will be announced August 8^th.

*If you are having difficulties accessing the spreadsheet (you may need to access the spreadsheet using your personal mobile phone or device), please email Nasrin (nalam@circleofcare.com) with your step count for each week, and we will enter your steps on your behalf.

All employees are reminded of the importance of staying vigilant to reduce the risk of COVID-19. Employees should continue to follow these safety and infection control measures to reduce the transmission of COVID-19:

• Practice regular and frequent hand hygiene
• Make sure that you are feeling well, and have no COVID-19 symptoms before starting your shift
• Stay home from work if you are not feeling well
•  If you are experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19, you should stay home for 24-48 hours and take a rapid antigen test
• Adhere to our PPE protocol by practicing universal masking for all clients
• Pay attention to how your clients are feeling, and report any new symptoms to your CSS, and don additional PPE (gloves, eye protection and isolation gown)

When you are working with your clients, it is important to be cognizant of the language that you are using. When speaking to clients, you want to make sure that you are using Person Centered Language (PCL). This means that you are speaking without judgement or bias, that you are being specific, and that you are being respectful to the client.

Toronto’s Caribbean Carnival is a celebration of Caribbean music, cuisine, costumes, tradition and culture. The Carnival has been an annual event in the city of Toronto ever since it began in 1957. Today, the Toronto Caribbean Carnival has been considered North America’s largest street festival, with attendance of up to two million people! It was created as a tribute to the Canadian Caribbean community, and the Carnival has a variety of events and activities in addition to the Grande Parade including: talk tents that feature Caribbean story tellers, a variety live music highlighting different styles of music and the showcasing of intricate costume designs worn by masqueraders.

The official Toronto Caribbean Carnival weekend will take place from August 3 – August 7. To learn more, visit the website by clicking the button below.

As I understand, Circle of Care’s policy is to increase PSW salaries every two years. Our salary increased in January 2020, and it’s now 2 and a half years after the last increase. When will our salaries increase again?

* PSW wage increases happen annually according to Schedule A: Schedule of Wage Rates in the Collective Agreement.
* The most recent increase took place on July 1, 2023. Any further increases after that date will require negotiation during the next collective bargaining.
* The current collective agreement is set to expire on June 30, 2024 and will need to be renewed before that date.

Why can’t you make pay day on Thursday? Organizations across the province choose different days of the week as their “paydays.”

For Circle of Care, Friday is the chosen day to pay our employees, and this occurs every other week. We understand that the selected day may be convenient for some of our employees, while it might be less so for others, and we sincerely empathize with any frustrations it may cause. As much as we’d love to accommodate everyone’s preferences, it’s challenging to find a day that suits everyone perfectly. We appreciate your understanding in this matter, and we remain committed to providing a respectful and supportive work environment for all our employees.

I’ve been working at Circle of Care for ten years. Recently, you’ve reduced my hours. My question is, why are you hiring new workers if you’re reducing current workers’ hours? I noticed there are almost 20 new PSWs/Homemakers that you just hired.

Yes, we have hired new workers, and will continue to do so, as we have a very large area that we provide services in, and the PSWs live in a variety of neighbourhoods within our service area. In general, scheduling workers is a challenging job to do. Depending on what your availability is, as well as the areas in which you are working in, there may be more or less available client hours to assign to you at various times. You may see a reduction in your hours due to changes with clients and their authorized hours. Sometimes clients go to the hospital or are on vacation and have their services placed on hold. Some clients also have a reduction in hours as indicated by our funders or are discharged from our services. Sometimes, after a client leaves our service, it may take some time to arrange your schedule so you have those additional hours added back onto your schedule with other clients. That being said, there is an upper limit to the number of hours that we prefer to schedule our PSWs for, so if you were working overtime, our procedure is to scale those hours back once we have other workers to give those hours to.

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We invite you to submit your questions or feedback below. Please note that it may take us longer to provide some answers, so if you’ve asked a question that hasn’t been answered yet, we will get back to you in the coming weeks.