One of Coroner Kamel’s proposals on the drama experienced in CHSLDs is to create voluntary civic service. I made this proposal in May 2020, exactly two years ago. I publish the contents in order to avoid another humanitarian disaster.
The health situation in CHSLDs in Quebec requires a permanent solution to deal with the COVID-19 virus and any possible pandemic situation. We can’t have recourse to the army every time we are short of manpower in the CHSLDs. Why not set up a voluntary civic emergency service?
The mission of this civic service would consist in mobilizing qualified human resources towards flash and occasional missions centered on rapid intervention. No more wasting time for qualification exams, letters of recommendation, authorizations from unions or professional corporations to negotiate wages or working conditions! How? The adoption of a public security law would regulate all the actions of volunteers participating in civic service.
In fact, the Ministère de la Sécurité publique already has civil security under its responsibility, an organization that deploys in emergency situations such as floods. Why not add a voluntary civic service centered on the rapid intervention of human resources in a crisis situation, particularly during a pandemic or in a situation of natural disaster?
Less bureaucratic red tape
This emergency civic service would make it possible to quickly mobilize qualified people to respond to exceptional situations, such as a pandemic or an ecological disaster. Its members would be trained to provide immediate aid for a temporary period, in order to limit the loss of human life. One of the current difficulties of the health system lies in bureaucratic heaviness, where it is difficult to quickly mobilize qualified human resources. Bureaucratic regulations and the work in silos of the various unions or professional orders complicate the mobilization of human resources.
Volunteers who would join this emergency civic service would come from various backgrounds: police officers, firefighters, paramedics, nurses, nursing assistants, beneficiary attendants, medical students, social work, psychology, sociology, police and nursing techniques, etc. . They would have up-to-date training, and a law would guarantee them their position after their mobilization for urgent actions.
Compulsory civics and civic training courses, supported by summer internships, could encourage, from high school, CÉGEP or university, the recruitment of young people who seek action while wanting to help people more disadvantaged.
Let’s get Quebec out of bureaucratic and corporatist paralysis by promoting civic engagement and community solidarity. The creation of an emergency civic service would allow the rapid mobilization of a brigade of volunteers working as a team and motivated to help the poorest in our society.
Jean Baillargeon, consultant in communication and strategic analysis