{"id":23028,"date":"2019-02-21T12:57:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-21T17:57:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23028"},"modified":"2019-02-21T12:57:58","modified_gmt":"2019-02-21T17:57:58","slug":"personal-support-worker-flips-script-to-provide-support-for-psws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/personal-support-worker-flips-script-to-provide-support-for-psws\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Support Worker flips script to provide support for PSWs"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Personal Support Workers (PSWs) dedicate their working lives providing care and support for those who need it.
\nBut who, at the end of the day, supports the PSW?
\nFor Sheri-Lyn Steele, it\u2019s a question that needed to be answered.
\nThe former Aurora resident has founded the Canadian PPE Network, an organization that takes its name from a term familiar to just about every person in the health care sector: Personal Protective Equipment.
\n\u201cYour mask, your gown, your gloves \u2013 these are the things that are meant to protect you,\u201d says Ms. Steele. \u201cThat\u2019s what PSWs do and that\u2019s what we do \u2013 PSWs have to go to each other because they don\u2019t have anyone else.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are driven by a single goal: to do our part in making the world a better place for all PSWs and front line health care workers \u2013 at ground level,\u201d she says. \u201cIn a world where society is aging at an alarmingly rapid rate and PSWs are leaving the field at an equally alarming rate because of feeling devalued with chronic understaffing, unfair minimum wages and pay scales, and often overworked, we need to ensure that our PSWs that provide these critical care services are staying in the field and are taken care of properly at a personal level to be able to ensure that the care bring provided is the best, top-quality care possible. We want to help our PSWs and frontline workers feel valued and like they matter \u2013 because they do. Truthfully, health care as we know it would crumble without them.\u201d
\nThe goal of The Canadian PPE Network is to provide mental, emotional, physical, spiritual, social, personal and educational resources, supports and programs to frontline workers at little to no cost to them through memberships, partnerships, donations and more, so they can continue to develop as PSWs, individuals and succeed professionally and personally.
\n\u201cThe reason we decided to start this up was because there are no supports,\u201d says Ms. Steele. There are no resources and nowhere for PSWs to turn. They turn to each other online in Facebook groups, throw ideas around and try to console and support each other. I really started to notice a need for something just for PSWs. There is no governing body, we\u2019re not regulated, we\u2019re literally out there on our own. Nurses have [several organizations] and PSWs have nobody, not one single person. There is not one entity out there that provides support for PSWs.
\n\u201cThey need somewhere to turn when they say, \u2018I\u2019m really struggling. I need bereavement counselling. Can you help me?\u2019 The way that we have structured it is it is membership based, so, as a member we are able to get you educational programs that are free or discounted. I have a program right now set up through Alzheimer\u2019s Ontario that we\u2019re going to be offering for educational resources for PSWs for Alzheimer\u2019s. It is kind of like a subsidy-type program as well.
\n\u201cWe believe that by giving this to them we can impact their morale, their pride, their competence, and in turn that is going to be passed on to the people they care for. PSWs love doing it but they can\u2019t afford to live. If we can give them something to want to stay in the profession, and bring more people into the profession, then it is just going to be all round better for everyone else \u2013 the people getting the care and the people providing the care.\u201d
\nThe PPE Network was soft-launched online in October, followed by a formal launch at the Aurora Public Library attended by now-Mayor Tom Mrakas the following month. In that time, memberships began rolling in, as have partnerships.
\n\u201cIn the two months we have been doing this, we have already made a huge impact,\u201d says Ms. Steele. \u201cIn the next 12, it is going to be much bigger. Our main goal is to do Ontario first and by the time we\u2019re across the Province we\u2019re then going to want to branch out across Canada over the next three years.
\nFor more information on The Canadian PPE Network, visit www.ppenetwork.com or call info@ppnetwork.com.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Personal Support Workers (PSWs) dedicate their working lives providing care and support for those who need it.
\nBut who, at the end of the day, supports the PSW?
\nFor Sheri-Lyn Steele, it\u2019s a question that needed to be answered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-5Zq","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-22 18:20:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23028"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23028\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}