Home care workers on Vancouver Island say their employer, the local health authority, is putting them at risk for COVID-19.  The workers say Island Health has refused repeated requests to require clients' household members or visiting friends and relatives to wear masks when the home care worker is present.  Jennifer Aubichon is a home care worker in Nanaimo.  She says home care workers have filled out numerous Hazard Reports, detailing instances when social distancing was not maintained in the private homes where they work and asking that masks be made mandatory for everyone present.  She says Island Health has told them it will never ask family members to wear masks.  Aubichon believes that violates COVID safety plans.

Aubichon says masks are required at all Island Health offices and there are WorkSafe labour policies that ban dogs, guns, smoking and alcohol consumption in clients homes when home care workers are present.  In a statement, Island Health does not directly answer why it does not require mandatory masks for those present in clients' homes.  However, it does say "home care staff screen clients and those in the home for COVID-19 symptoms upon arrival.  All home care staff are provided with tools and clinical supervision to determine what steps should be taken to protect both themselves and the client."  Aubichon says she has refused to work when she has felt at risk by others but she says it does not serve the client when the only alternative is to refuse to work.  She says that puts unnecessary pressure on caregivers to abandon their clients.