Northern Health expands home support in Quesnel

QUESNEL—Residents living in Quesenel will benefit from the expansion of 24/7 home support with coverage by a team of eight people on day shift and four in the evenings. Additionally, Quesnel has two community health workers (CHWs) available for overnight home support between 11 p.m. and 7:30 a.m. Overnight home support can help people come home from the hospital sooner, and also helps them live at home as long as possible

“There’s no way I could have gone home from the hospital and stayed home for as long as I have without the nighttime visits,” says Linda, who receives home support each evening for help with personal care. “I would definitely recommend the nighttime home support to other people in Quesnel.”

As part of adding care during the overnight hours, more support was added of CHW’s as well as more predictability for their schedules, which not only benefits the community but provides the staff with a better work life balance.

“If our workload is too heavy, it’s now easier to schedule two workers, and if I have a concern about a specific client, I can contact the on–call nurse and discuss my concerns,” says CHW Wendy Miller. “I especially like that everyone has to take their turn at weekend work.”