Shelter from the storm
Thousands of people flocked to emergency shelters when their homes became unliveable during Quebec's January ice storm. Caring for the health and psychosocial needs of these shelter residents was not part of any emergency measures plan, says nurse Charline Dupuis, program coordinator of general services at the Centre Local de Santé Communautaire (CLSC) in Montreal's Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood, but that's just what her CLSC was called upon to do.
At the shelter, nurses from the CLSC evaluated residents' complaints while physicians, including regular CLSC staff and volunteers who live in the area, visited 3 times a day. The nurses ensured that people received needed medication on time. When they didn't have the medication with them, a volunteer went to the home to get it or a pharmacy delivered it.
The shelters housed many elderly people, as well as people with mental health problems or who are intellectually challenged, and families with small children, babies and adolescents. "A good proportion of the elderly were not very mobile," says Dupuis. "They live independently but need some support at home, so we had to provide that support in the shelter." She says the elderly found it especially difficult to adjust to being in a room with 250 people. The CLSC's mental health nurse worked the evening shift, since the nighttime produced the most anxiety.
CLSC staff also tried to ensure that residents and volunteers stayed healthy. Signs in the bathrooms reminded people to wash their hands, and nurses asked people with bad colds to wash their hands and stay away from small children. The advice continued as people prepared to leave: on their way home, they received instructions about the food items they could keep and the food that would have to be thrown out because of the power failure.
