Re: Our personal support workers need better support, Opinion, July 21

Shyloe Fagan is absolutely right in demanding that we take better care of personal support workers, not only because we will all one day rely on them, but also because the work they do is of inestimable value to our society.

She reminds us that PSWs look after the sick, disabled and elderly at a fraction of the cost of institutional care by keeping them at home, where they want to be.

And she drives home the point that the work of PSWs is undervalued through poor wages, non-existent benefits and untenable working conditions that make half of them leave their line of work for greener pastures.

The problem, in a nutshell, is that the work of caregivers, paid or not, is undervalued and held in low esteem. It is disgraceful that Fagan will likely make a better living from bartending than tending to the vulnerable and needy.

As paid caregivers leave their profession in great numbers, when the demand for their services is set to increase dramatically due to our aging population, it will be to our great loss.

Then it will be up to the unpaid family caregivers to pick up the pieces, and we already know that most of them are either burning out or drowning in despair — despite saving our economy $25 billion per year.

We must take better care of our caregivers, both paid and unpaid.

Salvatore Amenta, Stouffville

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2019/07/22/we-must-take-better-care-of-our-caregivers-paid-or-unpaid.html