A West Island MNA says his experience volunteering at a Quebec long-term care residence (CHSLD) hit hard by the novel coronavirus pandemic will be hard to forget.
Liberal MNA Monsef Derraji was among those who answered the West Island health authority’s call for volunteers to staff Residence Herron in Dorval, Que., after an outbreak at the facility. He told Global News Morning that he felt a duty to serve.
“As an MNA, as a resident of the West Island, I took the decision that it’s now my turn to go and help my community and to help our seniors,” he told Global News Morning.
The pandemic has caused a crisis in Quebec’s CHSLDs, and for many, Herron’s outbreak will be remembered as being among the first. The facility was among the earliest CHSLDs identified as a hot spot of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Nurses working at Herron have since alleged they felt pressured by management to continue working despite displaying COVID-19 symptoms and not having access to personal protective equipment (PPE).
Katherine Chowieri, whose family owns the residence, told Global News in an April interview that staff at Herron struggled to both get the virus under control and keep the facility staffed, adding that the residence had asked the government for help procuring PPE.
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Residence Herron was put under the trusteeship of the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal, the West Island’s regional health authority, on April 10.
While the situation at Herron is now under control, dozens of Herron residents have died since late March, though only some of those residents had confirmed COVID-19 cases at the time of their death.
Derraji, first elected as Nelligan MNA in 2018, said he and others arriving to help at the residence found the scale of crisis before them overwhelming at first.
“At the beginning, it was very hard because it was a lot of organization, of everything,” he said. “So, the management of the pills, how to manage the positive residents versus the negative residents. And also to have more workers, because as you know, when the CIUSSS took management (of the facility), they had to ask for more workers. It was very hard to get all of the staff for the morning, the afternoon and the nighttime.”
After weeks of hard work, Derraji said “things are better now” at Herron. But he said memories of his time working there will be hard to forget.
Thinking back on his interactions with residents, he said, still leaves him emotional.
“Giving someone a cup of water or tea, having a chat with them, it’s very hard, and I’ll tell you why: this is a home, it’s not a hospital. And in the context of COVID, we have masks, and it’s not the same environment for them,” he explained.
“So they are, all the time, asking about the new reality. And they want to keep in touch with their families and they want to have time to relax in the dining room and to have a normal life” — something that Derraji knew simply wasn’t — and still isn’t — possible.
Derraji added that he now feels better armed as a politician to debate the path forward for Quebec after the outbreak finally passes.
“For me, as an MNA, going into the field to see what’s happened and to work closely with our professionals, for me, it’s a good experience,” he said. “And for sure, for (new policies) regarding CHSLDs and regarding our relationship with our seniors, it’s going to be different.
“They need more than just buildings.”
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