Health Support Services Week from October 19–25, 2025
This week, we’re celebrating Health Support Services Week, a time to honour the often unseen workers who keep our health-care system running strong. From the folks who clean the rooms and deliver meals, to those who handle laundry, maintenance, clerical work, and so much more, these are the people who keep hospitals, long-term care homes, community health centres and the Home Care sector working every single day. They are the quiet heartbeat of care in Nova Scotia. Every day, health support workers show up, short-staffed, overworked, and underpaid, yet they do their jobs with pride, patience, and compassion. They go above and beyond, staying late or covering extra shifts because they care deeply about the people they serve and the co-workers who count on them. They carry the weight of a system stretched too thin but still find ways to bring kindness and comfort to others. Health support workers are not just part of the team; they’re the glue that holds the system together. They do the jobs that others depend on to make care possible. Without them, our health-care system would grind to a halt.
These workers deserve more than a simple “thank you.” They deserve fair pay, safe staffing levels, and the respect that matches the importance of the work they do. They deserve to be seen and valued as the professionals they are. And most of all, they deserve a system that supports them because when health-care workers are supported, patients and families are too.
So this week, let’s lift the workers who keep health care moving: the cleaners, porters, laundry staff, dietary workers, maintenance crews, clerical staff, and countless others who make up the backbone of care in Nova Scotia. You do this work. You love it because you care about your co-workers, your patients, and your communities.
For that, we thank you: deeply and sincerely.
Through a Union Lens from Nova Scotia 