N.S. care workers say company scrambling to replace staff as long-standing workers leave

Workers at a buck private companion the Nova Scotia regime contracts to give care for deep vulnerable people say Arden Professional Client Care is scrambling to replace some of its most experienced staff. 

“There are always a range of employees. You have new people that are less experienced. And the only way to get experience is to get experience,” said Steve Keddy, a current Arden worker who is now going public about his concerns. 

Keddy is concerned that quickly adding many workers who are new to the organization could cause safety issues for workers and clients, and could compromise care.  

“I think a lot of the people that we're losing and are thinking about quitting are these people who offer a lot of that guidance and leadership and experience to make that organization function as well as it has in the past,” he said.

When contacted, Arden declined to comment on this story. 

The company performs care work for the province, at a cost of millions of dollars every year. Its workers are responsible for disabled adults and children in government care. 

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In late March, the company started posting job advertisements on sites like Career Beacon, Workopolis and Indeed. 

“It speaks for itself that they're in need of people,” said Keddy, who is on Arden’s roster but is thinking about moving on after working there for about seven years. 

Keddy said in his experience he has never known Arden to post job ads and the company often hires new employees through recommendations from existing staff. Generally staff work in a ratio of two workers to one client.  

“You need to be able to count on your partner,” he said. “So you want someone with some experience and someone that hopefully has some ability and some training to go along with that.” 

The new ads offer $20.50 an hour, do not guarantee hours, and state that “behavioural and safety risks” are involved.

Keddy says many clients have complex behavioural or mental health challenges, and can get violent. 

“If you're paying $20.50 an hour, it's going to be hard, I think, to find people that have those abilities and experience and qualifications,” he says.

Until the recent announcement, there was a widespread belief among those independent contractors that they were exempt from paying tax on income earned at Arden. 

Keddy outlined their concerns in a petition that’s been signed by hundreds of workers. They’re asking the federal and provincial governments to clarify the workers’ tax status, and for any taxes to apply from the time they learned about the audit, not retroactively.  

When they learned their wage of approximately $20 an hour was actually taxable, Keddy says, many workers quit.

WATCH | Minister responds to questions about Arden Professional Client Care:

A week later, Adams reiterated in the House of Assembly that the clients are receiving “excellent” care, to the standards set by her department. 

“The suggestion that they’re leaving in droves, that simply isn’t true,” Adams said.

But workers keep speaking out about their concerns, said Kendra Coombes, an Opposition NDP member who questioned Adams about Arden. 

Coombes said workers told her they’re “exhausted” and “understaffed,” and sometimes forced to work solo, which has them worried about their safety. 

“Also they're working very long hours, oftentimes without breaks. I've heard over 36 hours without a break,” Coombes said. 

“Nobody should have to work that long.”

“Anything that might impact safety and well-being is a concern for the department — not just for our participants, but for the staff who support them, too,” the statement said, adding that the department will always follow up with the service provider and take “corrective action” if necessary.

Steve Keddy, the Arden worker, believes the organization is losing some of its “critical core” of experienced workers.

He’s become a touchpoint for many of the workers, and he says their mental health is suffering. 

He says he’s seen company schedules listing open slots, and talked to his co-workers about the long hours and solo shifts they are accepting. 

Keddy says in the past he’s personally had to de-escalate violent situations with clients. 

“If you bring someone in, brand new, who hasn't been in those situations, it can potentially be dangerous,” he said. “You don't have time to think and you don't often have time to call someone.”

Arden’s requirements include a clean criminal record and child abuse check. The ads ask for experience with youth or adults with “complex behaviours” but aren’t specific about what counts as experience.

According to Keddy and other workers within Arden, those are similar to the requirements the company has used in the past.  

Keddy says some workers arrive from professional backgrounds in justice, education or health and have significant experience from the start, but others arrive with little background in those areas and need experienced staff there to “guide them.” 

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The workers said that, after hiring, Arden offers some training courses including first aid, food safety and non-violent crisis intervention. 

Keddy says in his experience, this does not always prepare people for the reality of working with some of the most challenging clients. 

“We have had some folks with not much experience and they've decided very quickly that this wasn't for them,” he said. 

Former social worker Brian Crawford also says he’s concerned about the limited qualifications Arden required. 

Crawford worked for 35 years in child welfare at the Department of Opportunities and Social Development before his retirement in 2022. 

As part of his duties, he paid visits to Arden houses to check on young people who were in the company’s care due to their behavioural issues. 

Crawford often talked to Arden staff and asked them about their backgrounds. 

“One woman told me she used to work in a yarn shop. Some of them I knew because they were sheriffs, I'd see them at youth court. So they're just working at Arden making some extra money,” he said.

Crawford knew licensed group home providers used by the department have requirements for staff’s professional qualifications, but temporary care providers like Arden are different. 

Under provincial policy, the arrangements are supposed to last no more than seven days unless there are “exceptional circumstances,” but Crawford said they can be much longer. 

“I've had kids in them for two years,” he said. “I don't know if I'd call that temporary.”

As for Steve Keddy, he doesn’t know yet what the future holds for him, or if he should continue at Arden. 

Keddy came to Arden after retiring from 32 years of experience educating young people. He was a teacher and consultant, and enjoyed roughly two decades working as a school principal in Wolfville. 

He doesn’t want to give up on his vulnerable clients and he’s worried about how they will be affected if he leaves. 

But he felt the pay was worthwhile when he believed it was non-taxable, and now he isn’t sure anymore. 

“I know money's not everything,” he said. “I enjoy what I do and I have a lot to offer, but I also don't want to do that for nothing, right?”

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