Home health care provider wants pets locked up when staff visits

[Catherine]

A home health care provider in BC has put in a rule that all pets must be shut away when one of their staff visits.
They say they are doing this to ensure staff safety.
An elderly woman who regularly receives help is very upset. She does not want to shut her two dogs away. No staff has ever had trouble with her two dogs. The new rule doesn't make sense to her. 

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news...ack-family

As some of you know I work as a support worker, mostly with seniors and some younger handicapped people. Many of them have pets. My job has dangers, but people's pets are not one of them. I have never been endangered or felt threatened by a pet. I love my clients pets and enjoy seeing them.

I can't imagine what the agency thinks it is doing. It sounds like a random rule that someone came up with so that they can say that they are doing something about worker safety. If you protect someone from something that isn't a danger, you haven't really protected them.  The people making the rules don't actually know much about the job as it is actually done. This is sad because it is going to cause distress to many elderly people who count on their pets and will be distressed by having to shut them away. That means the time they spend with a worker will be distressing to them. It could have been pleasantly supportive, but now the clients will be distressed about their pets the whole time a worker is in their home.  They will no longer look forward to the workers visit and some will refuse to accept help.
This is so unnecessary and unfair.