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Just heard my sister is finally going to get her first vaccination on Wednesday. She's a care worker providing supported living for disabled adults in Preston, so she's spent the majority of the last year in almost total lockdown to protect the people she cares for. 1/?
Talking to her over the last year has been eye-opening, not least in terms of the differences in how she, as a worker for a private company supporting vulnerable adults in the community, has been treated compared to NHS workers or people working in care homes for the elderly. 2/?
Obviously everyone in care is doing a heroic job at the moment, but there seems to be a distinct hierarchy to how policies and media attention are directed. She's been consistently at the bottom of the list for everything from PPE to regular testing to the vaccine. 3/?
One thing I would love to come out of this pandemic is a recognition of care workers who are in the community rather than hospitals or care homes, as well as other social care. They are just as vital to the health of our society as the NHS and deserve to be treated as such. 4/?
Yes, the company that she works for is responsible for supporting her, and perhaps they could be doing more, but my sister has been on the front line of this pandemic since Day 1 and social care workers have hardly ever been mentioned in govt policy or thanked for their work. 5/?
She also does all of this on a criminally low wage, so perhaps next time Starbucks are giving out free coffee or Dominos are sending free pizza to NHS workers, community health workers could also be included? 6/?
If, as a society, we can reassess the truly essential jobs in the aftermath of this pandemic and start treating (and paying) them accordingly, something good truly will have come out of this time that's been awful for so many. 7/7
