TAKING CARE OF …

What’s in a word?  How often we hear that.  Many words have multiple denotations and connotations.  And the words we stress in any sentence, can completely alter the meaning usually within a given context.  Example:

We drove to London …. they drove somewhere else.

We drove to London …. they took the train.

We drove to London …. we came back by train.

We drove to London .… not to Manchester.

Sorry, it’s like being back at school!  The word I’m looking into today is CARE.

CARING CONTACT

It’s been in the news a lot recently.  The meaning will, of course depend on the context but basically:  I am a CARER, someone who cares for or looks after someone,  I don’t CARE if I live or die, means it doesn’t matter to me which, I wouldn’t CARE to take tea with Trump.  They would appear to contradict each other – the first meaning to look after, the second to dismiss and the third to express distaste at an idea.  Oh the vagaries of the English language.  However, enough of the semantics even though they are in question when we are considering having someone TAKEN INTO CARE as in a CARE HOME.

No, I’m not thinking about putting LEAF into one, I’m thinking of all those families who have had to make that decision, or chosen to make it and how they must be feeling with the latest news from the UK and no doubt from many other countries.  Old folk have been shut away in their rooms to shield them from the virus.  No family visits, in some cases, not even contact through the window, and staff coming in from time to time wearing protective kit.  How terrifying!  How inhumane!  It’s no surprise that so many have died – died of loneliness, fear and utter hopelessness.

COLD AS STONE

On a practical level, the ‘authorities’ would say they had no option.  They were told they had to, presumably by the government.  Where the medics are on this issue is hard to gauge, there is so much dissention and contradiction in their ranks that an ever-increasing number are speaking out.  The most courageous will not only risk being censored but will also be prepared to jeopardise their careers, they feel that strongly.  Many of these ‘whistleblowers’ are contacting independent investigative reporters rather than the mainstream media by whom they most definitely will be censored if even given airtime.  All must stick to the official narrative or else.

IT TAKES ENORMOUS COURAGE

What could humanely be done if, as we are told, there’s a second wave or even more?   Assuming that most of the homes are taking good care in the first place and the staff are adequately protected, here are a few suggestions which I would be hoping for should, in the worst world, Leaf HAVE to be taken into care.

• visitors would be allowed
• restrictions on the number
• formal visiting hours
• visits, where possible, to take place out of doors
• no visitors allowed inside the building unless absolutely necessary
• visitors could be asked to keep direct physical contact to the minimum
• some form of hand-washing facilities should be made available

In the case of bed-ridden inmates (as my mother used to call them), visitors to be accompanied to the room and asked to use their common sense!  If someone is clearly dying, no restrictions on the visit.

HAND SANITISER

What has gone on so far has done so much damage and caused so much heartache to so many, that it can’t continue or ever happen again.  Can it?  I would expect family members to be kicking up one hell of a fuss about the way their loved ones are being treated now and fight to make sure they don’t have to go through further nightmare scenarios.

Care homes are, by their very nature, depressing places and making them even more depressing is a sure way to speed up the death rate.  Poor souls shut away to die with no family with them in their final moments.  I know there are, across the world, utterly horrendous deaths, but surely this virus cannot be so severe as to justify what has been done (latest from the paper we love to scorn, the DAILY MAIL!!!).  As we are already discovering, the damage caused by all the ‘so-called’ protection measures, is taking a toll far beyond anything we could have predicted.

IMAGINE BEING CONFUSED AND LOCKED UP IN A TINY ROOM

On a positive note and without any inside knowledge, I think it would be relatively easy to keep residents entertained for the manager/owner of the respective homes to:

• maintain eating communally as long as there is no reason to think any of the residents might be infected
• restrict television viewing which is, nowadays, such a source of bad news and mindless programming, enough to depress anybody, but instead …
• show dvds of old and uplifting movies
• show nature and travel dvds – there are loads online or find such channels on tv
• play cd’s of favourite songs from the eras of the residents’ youth
• organise some fun activities

I would have thought many home supervisors would be doing this sort of thing already but to distract from what is going on in the outside world and hopefully to allay the natural worries old folk might be harbouring, notching up entertainment would surely be a good idea.

There will be other things that could achieve this without bringing in outsiders and with little extra work.

DASHING AND THOROUGHLY WHOLESOME!

With the demands of the modern world, far fewer family members are looking after their elderly relatives themselves and, admittedly there are those older people who are happy to go into a home.  Especially those who have the money to take their choice.  However, considering what has been going on in old people’s homes during the lockdown, how many families will, in future, feel comfortable with their aging parents going into care?  I’m sure many will make an extra effort to come up with another solution. For instance, as a large number of people have found working from home is possible, surely they would be able to find room, particularly those whose children have grown up and moved on.  Let’s hope so.

A TREASURED FAMILY MEMBER

Despite the shock tactics that have been employed in the ‘fight to contain the virus’, maybe we will all be prompted to be less selfish and kinder towards our old people in the future.  To become more CARING so they feel genuinely CARED FOR.  We none of us want to die alone in an institution and neither do they.  Being put away to spend the remaining days of one’s life apart from family and friends needs to become a last resort rather than a convenience.

We must believe there’s a sea change on the horizon and be part of that change.

Readers please note that the adverts on my posts come with the provider.  I receive no money for them.