I’ve always been fascinated by people who dedicate their lives to changing the world by helping others. I try to be inspired by those people who add a bit of sunshine to the often dim landscape of daily news. Sometimes I imagine a completely different world in which we could talk about what’s going well to change the usual bad news.
behold The Press has the good idea of highlighting people we admire, so I’m jumping on this great opportunity offered to me to introduce you to Stéphanie Baby, who for me is a radiant sun that rises every morning to change the world . Stéphanie practices a profession little known to the general public: she is a tireless worker in the shadows who has been going to people’s homes with loss of autonomy for 17 years now.
Stéphanie is an ace of hearts in my opinion, the kind of hidden card that everyone should have in their game. I use this expression because Stéphanie practices the fascinating profession of auxiliary to health and social services (ASSS). It’s a bit complicated as a job name, so to put it simply, I prefer to say that Stéphanie is my favorite AS. In fact, the ASSS used to be called family auxiliaries. Although the name has changed, the profession of auxiliary has remained essentially the same for 50 years. They are still at the service of people with loss of autonomy who want to stay at home.
It must be said that Stéphanie has a very developed social fiber, which goes back to her adolescence and her meeting with the community worker Pierre Massie, founder of the organization Le Petit Peuple on the North Shore.
When I was in high school, I met Pierre Massie, pastoral animator, who picked up all the little bums school to bring them to his room. He made us peel vegetables for the soup kitchen. He taught me that there were good and bad leaders. Pierre allowed me to understand that I had good power and that I had to use it well.
Stéphanie Baby, health and social services assistant
Together, they will accomplish great things in their community, but in truth, Stephanie’s social commitment takes root in her childhood, when her parents trained her to participate in community groups in her neighborhood (Optimist club, Lions club, Knights of Columbus…). I too was lucky to have this kind of parents who were very invested in the community, which is why I identify with Stéphanie, because she likes to defend causes. Like that of home care to which she devotes her life.
Home Care
Did you know that nurses and doctors used to come to people’s homes? It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it, especially when you see the level of overcrowding in the emergency room. And yet, while Amazon delivers your purchases to your doorstep in less than 24 hours, know that Stéphanie offers an even more reliable and efficient service, since she shows up every day at the right time to provide care and services to those in need. Unfortunately, Stéphanie is a fairly rare commodity, because there are only about 7,000 auxiliaries who, with the support of CLSCs, provide home care throughout Quebec. Due to a lack of investment, nearly 20,000 people are waiting for a first home care service in Quebec.
The health system is a team. It takes hospitals, it takes CHSLDs, intermediate resources and it takes home care.
Stéphanie Baby, health and social services assistant
What’s especially amazing is that not only do ASSSs like Stéphanie travel to your home, but they’re also trained to offer you a variety of care and services. Although she is not a specialist, Stéphanie has trained as a health and social services assistant, which leads her to combine several skills that would otherwise be assumed by four people: an attendant, a nurse, an occupational therapist and a social worker. I find it a revolutionary approach, yet there is nothing new under the sun there.
Inherited from a distant past that dates back to the time when Émilie Gamelin devoted her life to sick elderly people, the profession of auxiliary (ASSS) is, in my opinion, the answer to the accelerated aging of the population. As you know, Quebec is aging rapidly. By 2031, we will have reached Japan since one in four Quebecers will be a senior (65 years and over). Beyond the statistics, this indisputable demographic reality forces us to rethink our ways of doing things right now.
Whereas in the past our grandparents ended their days in their homes, today it is clear that with life expectancy approaching 90 years, there are not enough places to accommodate the elderly in Autonomy loss. The waiting lists are getting longer every day and there are more than 4,000 people looking for a place in a CHSLD. We must therefore go back to encourage as much as possible the home care of people who are willing and able to stay at home, as is the case in the Scandinavian countries.
If Quebec missed the shift to home care, it is quite simply because it took the CHSLD highway by adopting a type of accommodation modeled on the hospital model. Québec even ranks first among OECD countries for the resources devoted to long-term accommodation to the detriment of home care. This explains why a good number of elderly people with a loss of autonomy go through the emergency room and then have to wait on a hospital floor for a place to become available in the residential and long-term care network. In other words, with the current hospital model, the elderly are forced to end their days in care environments rather than in living environments. This is not only unacceptable humanly speaking, but when we know that a place in a CHSLD costs the State approximately $100,000 per year, we can imagine the economy of scale that this would represent if we adopted a model based on home care.
I placed my mother
If I’m telling you about this, it’s because Stéphanie takes care of people like my mother, which makes it possible to delay their move to CHSLDs.
At 88, my mother suffered from cognitive loss, but even though she was considered semi-autonomous, I had to place her because the private residence for seniors (RPA) where she lived no longer wanted to care for her. . In Quebec, the model based on the profitability of private residences obliges elderly people with a loss of autonomy to move when they require more than one hour of care per day.
Because the profitability of RPA comes mainly from the rental of living spaces, while care requires human resources, which represents investments. The bill is therefore transferred to the public system. And seniors who need care must register on a list to wait for their place in the public accommodation network, either in an intermediate residence (RI) or in a CHSLD which, unfortunately, is already occupied at full capacity.
This is at least the story that I lived with my mother Madeleine and that I tell in the film I placed my mother which you will see, I hope, to get a better idea of what many seniors and their families are going through in Quebec (and I’m not talking about the 24-hour period that the CLSC gives you when you are called to move your mother).
By providing home care, auxiliaries like Stéphanie not only help unclog emergency rooms and hospitals, but they also allow caregivers to have a moment of respite. Especially since they can offer services up to two or three times a day, which is very reassuring for families who can follow the evolution of the level of autonomy of their loved ones. These are just a few of the reasons we need to move quickly to home care.
I have eight visits tonight and for each person I have to assess the situation every day. If the person is in pain, we have to decide if they should go to the hospital or if I call the children, so we are really alone in the world.
Stéphanie Baby, health and social services assistant
The importance of recognition
Stéphanie is patient, but there are limits to the fact that the profession we practice is so little known to the general public.
In order for the situation of home care to evolve in Quebec, as is the case in other civilized countries, Stéphanie works tirelessly so that the profession of auxiliaries emerges from the shadows. This is what led her to found the ASSS Now or Never group in 2020. “It has to change quickly,” Stephanie told me during our conversation, and I understand her call to want things to change.
The home care aides are the only ones who were on the front line throughout the pandemic crisis and who were not thanked during Prime Minister Legault’s press briefings. Recognition is non-existent.
Stéphanie Baby, health and social services assistant
Before being re-elected last fall, Prime Minister François Legault spoke of initiating a major shift towards home care. In fact, in March 2022, it mandated the health and well-being commissioner, Joanne Castonguay, to evaluate ” the performance of government programs to improve home care and support services”. The tabling of this report is expected for the end of 2023, but by dint of studying and piling up the reports, Quebec does not realize that it already has a well-stocked deck of cards in its hand. filled with aces of hearts.
The cards are no longer hidden, Mr. Legault, listen to the auxiliaries who are at work while Quebec continues to age in CHSLDs. Thank you, Stephanie Baby, you are my ace of heart!
Who is Denys Desjardins?
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Denys Desjardins
- Born in Montreal in 1966
- He did his doctoral studies in semiology, was a beneficiary attendant to finance his studies and taught cinema and communications at college from 1991 to 2004.
- Filmmaker and producer of some thirty films, including My eye for a camera, In the land of the settlers, The Castle, The industry of the old$$e, I placed my mother and several web experiences, the most recent of which is 2031.quebec, which addresses aging in an immersive way.
Who is Stephanie Baby?
PHOTO CHARLES WILLIAM PELLETIER, SPECIAL COLLABORATION
Stephanie Baby
- Born in Charlemagne in 1982
- Obtained in 2006 a DEP in family assistance to people at home
- A health and social services auxiliary to home care for CLSCs, in 2020 she founded the ASSS group Now or Never, which promotes the role of auxiliaries providing home care in Quebec.