Disability support worker Amanda Hodgkins says a “staffing crisis” at Community Living Essex County in southwestern Ontario has her “pretty close” to her breaking point.
In June 2022, Hodgkins said, she worked 35 hours straight at her designated group home as there were no other staff members who could relieve her. She said she was given no notice that she’d be required to work multiple consecutive shifts, and she missed out on her children’s end-of-year soccer tournament.
“We have a passion to create change in the lives of people we support, but we are not being acknowledged or appreciated, and we don’t have that work-life balance,” she