While this song had a different meaning at the time, the generation who listened to it may well have the same sentiment.
In an article in todays Star we learn of the horror of ending up in a nursing home.
There you will be provided with the best meals that $5.57 a day can buy. But worry not! Over the “next several years” this will increase to $7 a day! This genius is topped by the $1.20 a day alloted for those with incontinence. Which means the average person is provided with 3-4 protective briefs per day.
Imagine the uproar if a parent left a child in soiled diapers changing them only 3-4 times a day. Why is it acceptable to do the same for adults?
It is a sad reflection on how business oriented every aspect of our lives is becoming when a persons most basic needs, including the need for dignity, is considered less important than saving a buck.
The extremity of the situation is compounded when you realize that most facilities only provide one bath per week. Leading to at the low end rash and at the top end sores. Can we call ourselves a civilized and caring society when we permit this level of abuse to continue as though it were a foregone conclusion that it must?
If there was one theme that emerged from public hearings into Bill 140, it was a demand for more staff. The average ratio is one front-line worker for 12 or more residents.
If you consider that a worker has a 12 hour shift, that would allow one hour per person per 12 hours or 2 hours out of every 24 for direct contact and personal care. And that would be if the staff could direct every minute of their shift to direct patient contact. Allowing no time for breaks, lunches or the inevitable paperwork.
At what point in that harried schedule does the worker have time to interact with the person they are caring for? Physical needs are given short shrift and emotional needs are not even on the radar.
It seems we find ourselves in a strange dichotomy. On the one hand we are reaching for immortality, trying to find ways to live for ever longer periods of time. On the other we have a culture which worships youth and is striving to do away with anything that reminds us of age.
Wrinkles, grey hair, and sadly it seems our seniors, are all things which our society finds as unpalatable reminders.
Things they do look awful c-c-cold
I hope I die before I get old
Source: The Star
April, thanks for your very good post.
I hope more read it—at least more in my age category (I’m fifty four years of age, at present).
Glenn
April, you also have a problem with your comment boxes.
I keep getting error messages when I post, but then, the post does go through.
Glenn
Here’s the error message:
“Error 403
We’re sorry, but we could not fulfill your request for /?p=294#comment-2025 on this server.
You do not have permission to access this server.
Your technical support key is: 186d-b09a-dfd9-b1ad
You can use this key to fix this problem yourself.
If you are unable to fix the problem yourself, please contact debrascot at gmail.com and be sure to provide the technical support key shown above.”
“Imagine the uproar if a parent left a child in soiled diapers changing them only 3-4 times a day. Why is it acceptable to do the same for adults?”
There’s a fundamental difference here. In the first case, the parents are legally responsible for the child, in the latter it’s the nursing home (which may in many cases be the state). Only in extreme situations do we remove the responsibility for children from their parents. Yet when it comes to the elderly, our society places no similar level of responsibility on “family” to care for them.
Maybe this is a more damning statement on us as a society than it is on government neglect or commercial greed. Why are so many people in nursing homes?