{"id":7572,"date":"2024-07-08T18:47:50","date_gmt":"2024-07-08T21:47:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/?p=7572"},"modified":"2024-07-09T14:32:39","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T17:32:39","slug":"deficit-forces-queens-home-support-to-cancel-home-care-contract","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/2024\/07\/08\/deficit-forces-queens-home-support-to-cancel-home-care-contract\/","title":{"rendered":"Deficit forces Queens Home Support to cancel home-care contract"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The board that operates Region of Queens Home Support in Liverpool has given notice that it will terminate its contract with the Nova Scotia government to provide home-care services. (Rick Conrad)<\/p><\/div>\n

UPDATED 2:30 p.m. Tuesday<\/span><\/p>\n

A non-profit group that delivers home-care services in Queens County has decided to terminate its contract with the provincial government partly because of a \u201csubstantial\u201d deficit.<\/span><\/p>\n

Region of Queens Home Support has been providing services like personal care, respite care and meal preparation for people in their homes for more than 40 years.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Queens Home for Special Care Society operates the agency. The board gave six months\u2019 notice recently to the province that it would no longer run it. That means a new provider needs to take over by January.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Christopher Clarke, the society’s chairman, says its 174 clients in Queens and Lunenburg counties won\u2019t see an interruption in service, and employees will keep their jobs.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor the clients, it will mean they will continue to get service,” Clarke said Monday in an interview.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We have a strong commitment from government that they will continue to get service. For the employees, they will be working for another employer, but they will be providing service to the same clients as we currently have.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

A Facebook post<\/a> from someone who said they have worked with Queens Home Support for more than 20 years was widely shared on Monday. She said she is a continuing care assistant and that staff were told on July 4 that Queens Home Support would be closing.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLet me be clear before I say what\u2019s on my mind – to any clients or family with clients under Queens Home Support – the transition is supposed to be smooth without much upset to the (clients\u2019) routines, themselves or their daily care,” the post said in part. “They will continue to receive care as usual.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The post also claimed that Queens Home Support’s deficit is $1.5 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke confirmed that the agency has run a deficit the past two years. But he said that it isn\u2019t as high as $1.5 million.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a deficit, yes. The number is incorrect, but we have a deficit. I\u2019m not going to go into that. It\u2019s substantial, so we have to work through that with government.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He said the deficit is one of many reasons why the board decided to end its contract with the province.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a number of other problems too, but that\u2019s the main issue that caused us to make the decision,” he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not prepared to go into them in any sort of detail.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of the funding for Region of Queens Home Support comes from the province. Based on clients\u2019 income and the kind of care they need, other costs may be paid by the client.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke said the agency\u2019s income dropped because their service hours decreased, but its expenses didn\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe got compensated on the basis of service hours, those are hours that we actually service our clients. But there are a lot of overheads in addition to that, and those overheads don\u2019t change even though your service hours diminish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Clarke emphasized that clients will continue to get care. And he said the approximately 60 employees will retain their jobs.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

“Government has assured us that they will continue to provide the services we provide under another agency. \u2026 And the employees will all be virtually employed by whatever the new agency is.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Kim Silver, director of home and community care with the provincial Department of Seniors and Long-Term Care, said Monday that when an agency notifies the province it\u2019s winding down, officials immediately start looking for options to ensure services are maintained.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Obviously, it\u2019s concerning for clients and staff. For clients, they should know that there will be no impact to their care. The acting administrator has been in there for a little while now. She knows the organization well and she’ll continue to operate that organization until there’s a solid plan in place where we can seamlessly transition clients. In terms of staff, the plan certainly includes considerations for staff. We want to make sure everyone is treated fairly.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Annette Hartlen, the agency\u2019s executive director, is on leave. Kerry Hobbs, executive director of Lunenburg Home Support, is the interim director in Queens.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have options thankfully,” Silver said. “We’ve got a number of agencies in the province. Typically, we would have conversations with ones that make sense to see if they would be interested in taking over geographies. … We\u2019re looking at other agencies in the area to support the clients.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Silver said various factors could contribute to a reduction in service hours.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgencies are funded based on the number of service hours that they deliver on an hourly basis. So if service hours are lower, the funds the agency\u2019s paid are lower. It could be a drop in clients, it could be that some clients have different care needs that might take a different amount of time. It could be that there\u2019s more travel time involved. There are a whole lot of factors that can play into it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As for Queens Home Support\u2019s deficit, Silver said that will be worked out between the province and the organization.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really about the sustainability of the organization. It\u2019s a deficit that\u2019s built up over time and would continue to be added to if the agency kept going.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Queens MLA Kim Masland posted to her Facebook page<\/a> on Tuesday morning and said that she’s working to make sure there’s no interruption in service.<\/p>\n

“I commit to updating the community frequently as plans become finalized,” she said. “I want to be very clear that government did not cut funding!”<\/p>\n

Clarke said that cancelling the home-care agreement was a tough decision for the board to make.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, it\u2019s not a decision that the board made lightly and obviously none of us feel good about it, but it\u2019s something we had to do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Silver said they should have more information for clients and staff in the next few weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working with the board to put a plan in place, to make sure people continue to get care, and that employees are treated fairly. Our primary focus obviously is our commitment to client care, so we\u2019re working on solutions to make sure that we can continue that and have a smooth transition.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Most of the agency\u2019s clients live in Queens County, but a few live in neighbouring Lunenburg County. Clarke said that\u2019s left over from when the agency had too many employees for its Queens County clients, so it took on some from the county next door.<\/span><\/p>\n

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Listen to the audio version of this story below<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/queenshomesupportjuly824.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

UPDATED 2:30 p.m. Tuesday A non-profit group that delivers home-care services in Queens County has decided to terminate its contract with the provincial government partly because of a \u201csubstantial\u201d deficit. Region of Queens Home Support has been providing services like personal care, respite care and meal preparation for people in their homes for more than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,5],"tags":[415,1225,1241,2437,1595,416,2440,2436,39,2439,1991,294,2438,1224,2435,2434,1235],"class_list":["post-7572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-news","category-news-posts","tag-annette-hartlen","tag-christopher-clarke","tag-department-of-seniors-and-long-term-care","tag-elder-care","tag-health-care","tag-home-care","tag-kerry-hobbs","tag-kim-silver","tag-liverpool","tag-meal-preparation","tag-non-profit","tag-nova-scotia-government","tag-personal-care","tag-queens-home-for-special-care-society","tag-queens-home-support","tag-region-of-queens-home-support","tag-respite-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7572"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7572\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7580,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7572\/revisions\/7580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.qccrfm.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}