NEWS RELEASE
HOME CARE ONTARIO
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Home-care workers go above and beyond to deliver outstanding care in every corner of this province.
They are there for us when we need them most. To honour them, Home Care Ontario has awarded 40 nurses, personal support workers (PSWs), therapists, and other home care professionals with Home Care Hero awards to recognize their exceptional dedication to our seniors and patients across Ontario.
“These front-line home care professionals embody what it means to be a hero to their patients. They offer compassionate, valuable, life-saving care and are incredibly deserving of this,” said Sue VanderBent, CEO of Home Care Ontario. “We want to put a face to these heroes and highlight the amazing job they do for their patients.”
In total 40 health-care workers were recognized provincewide today, all of them nominated by someone who witnessed their acts of everyday heroism. Local recipients include:
- Thera Green, a nurse from Barrie, for providing exceptional care and willing to accommodate patients’ needs and requests.
- Nancy Ashworth, a physiotherapist from Barrie, for her compassionate care and mentorship of other colleagues.
- Jennifer Lavereau, a PSW from Port McNicoll, for always going above and beyond and building a relationship with each of her patients to ensure their care needs are met.
The awards were handed out to home care staff who are among the tens of thousands of home care workers who provide compassionate care to patients across the province. All award recipients were nominated by someone who witnessed their acts of everyday heroism, including their patients and family members of their patients, co-workers, siblings, children, employers, and more.
The award winners were nominated through the www.morehomecare.ca website during a nomination period earlier this year as part of Home Care Ontario’s More Home Care campaign, which is calling on the Ontario government to invest $411 million a year for the next three years to increase compensation for front-line staff as well as provide ongoing specialized training and mentorship to support them as part of the upcoming spring budget.
“We have a rapidly aging population,” says VanderBent. “We need to massively expand our home care workforce to support these heroes and all the remarkable professionals to deliver more care where patients want it today and tomorrow — at home.”
“We owe these health-care professionals so much and these awards are all so well deserved,” concluded VanderBent. “For each person honoured today, there are literally thousands more who conduct themselves with kindness, compassion and professionalism to provide outstanding care each and every day.”
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