www.oakvillebeaver.com · OAKVILLE BEAVER Thursday, July 15, 2010 · 16 More social service workers needed, says Tory By Nathan Howes OAKVILLE BEAVER STAFF Even though former Ontario PC leader, John Tory, only went back to school for an hour on July 12, the issues he addressed to students in the Social Service Worker program at Sheridan College will be around for years to come. Tory resigned from politics in 2009 and afterwards was appointed voluntary chair of the Toronto City Summit Alliance, and now hosts the CFRB (AM ch1010) radio show The Live Drive. He made a special appearance at the Trafalgar Campus to deliver his message regarding social issues. One of the issues he discussed is what the future may hold for social service workers since the aging baby boomers are starting to retire from the workforce in numbers. Tory says more long-term care workers will be needed to meet this demand. "Well, the problems aren't getting any smaller. The aging of society is going to present the need for more long-term care workers, and more people who are homecare (with) workers who help look after older people in their homes," said Tory. "We have to do a better job in being more efficient in the administration of these programs, where far too much of the money is spent on administering the programs, on management and on paper pushing and fill- "Well, the problems aren't getting smaller. The aging of society is going to present the need for more longterm care workers." John Tory, former Ontario Conservative leader ing." The retiring baby boomer generation will not only have an impact on the demand for social workers, but could also hurt the economy, as well, said Tory. "The same reality says there's going to be a shortage of workers of some kind because there just isn't enough people of the next generation trained to do certain things to fill in those jobs," said Tory. Tory explains the shortage will have an impact on two fronts. "One is that it will produce labour shortages in some areas, thus causing an increase in the number of retirement age," said Tory. "Secondly, it's bound to have some impact on the consumer economy because if you have all these people living on retirement incomes, those people are going to be able to buy fewer things whether it's cars or TVs. Tory says the government will have to make sure there are lots of trained people ready to fill the void caused by retiring baby boomers. That's where the Social Service Worker program being offered at Sheridan comes in. Two of the students in the program looking forward to joining the workforce are Michele Mullins and Julie Gillhoolley, both first-year students in a condensed two-year program that goes straight through the summer. They both started in January this year and will graduate in April 2011. Mullins joined the program after a few years of raising her children at home. She is not yet ready to retire and is looking for a profession that will help others. "Looking to see what I would like to do, I was by no means ready to retire from working. I volunteered many years before at a woman's shelter downtown called Street Haven," said Mullins. "I always thought I would sort of like to get into the helping profession. There's certainly a need for it. "I bring a lot of life and work experience with me and I just felt like I wanted to do something with the rest of my life that would actually help make a difference." Mullins had previously worked in the IT industry, as a systems analyst for K-Mart and before that, she worked with Guardian Insurance and IMG insurance. Once she graduates, Mullins hopes to specialize in the Gerontology field. Starting in September she will be teaching seniors to use computer technology at the Sheridan Elder Research Centre on Trafalgar Campus. "If some sort of job came out of that, it would be a perfect blend for me to combine my sort of IT or computer background (previously) with a gerontology background. It would be great for working in various seniors' centers (and) communities." Gillhoolley was a sales manager before she came to Sheridan for the program. Because of her full-time schedule previously, she was unable to take the course until now. She had become interested after taking some social work courses online five or six years ago. "I really enjoyed it, but because I was working full-time, there was really no time do them, so when I was downsized last fall, closer to December, I decided to go back to school. I've always been interested in helping people," said Gillhoolley. "Help (seniors) make their lives a little bit better for the time they have left." Tory hopes the governments will heed the same message he gave to the students. 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