... AND CARE HOMES
We saw, through the two torturous years of lockdown, how our elders suffered. Care homes in particular became a very necessary focus.
Throughout the lockdown our precious and vulnerable elders were isolated, through a policy of 'well-meaning' Government protection. Many were shamefully neglected. Many died of sheer loneliness.
BUT ... and please take this in ... this policy revealed the absolutely parlous state many of our care homes were already in and the staggering neglect suffered by the elderly. This fills me with almost unbearable sorrow and horror.
The British Medical Journal
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n3132
News
Covid-19: Neglect was one of biggest killers in care homes during pandemic, report finds
BMJ2021; 375doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n3132
(Published 22 December 2021)
"The pandemic has disproportionately affected people living in care homes, who accounted for an estimated 30% of all deaths from covid-19 across 25 countries despite making up only 1% of the world’s population, a report has estimated.1
The analysis was carried out by Collateral Global, a research group that says it is dedicated to reporting on the effects of governments’ mandatory covid-19 mitigation measures. The report said the pandemic had exacerbated long running problems in the care sector, such as chronic underfunding, poor structural organisation, staff undertraining, underskilling, and underequipping, and a “lack of humanity in dealing with the most vulnerable members of society.”
“Neglect, thirst, and hunger were—and possibly still are—the biggest killers,” the group said. They also said that care home residents faced barriers in access to emergency treatments during the pandemic."
Dying of neglect: the other Covid care home scandal
Out of sight, the elderly have remained out of mind during this crisis
From magazine issue: 6 June 2020
"The Covid-19 crisis has placed extra demands on care homes, many of which were already inadequately staffed after years of underfunding. Across Europe, as in Britain, outsourcing to private contractors (in many cases private equity firms) led to cost-cutting. During the pandemic, many carers became immersed in attempts to prevent the spread of infection. Contact between carers and residents was reduced, often as a result of the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). Less contact means less care and, therefore, more deaths ....
"..... It has taken a global pandemic to realise what has been going on in care homes: underfunded, under-resourced and understaffed, many were destined to fail. Simple restoration of fluids, nutrition, a little oxygen therapy and good supportive care can often save the lives of the frailest and most vulnerable. But with medical attention focused on slowing the spread of Covid-19 in the community at large, care home residents were denied basic care. Lockdown did nothing to impede deaths in the place where they were most likely to happen.
"Out of sight, the elderly have remained out of mind. Many homes were already not fit for purpose. The extra confinement which came with the Covid-19 panic has proved deadly. For the sake of a drink, in many cases, the elderly have died in their droves. We will, next time, learn lessons about what not to do. But we can help by being honest with ourselves about a scandal that is still ongoing."
THIS IS AN URGENT WAKE-UP CALL
Those of us who already baulked at the practice of giving over the care of our precious parents to institutions were vindicated when we were brought face to face with horrifyingly impersonal and systematic indifference displayed towards those who, not only contributed over decades to our society, but who gave us life. They were the ones who sacrificed, worked, and struggled to give and enable us our better lives.
I quote again this passage from The Spectator article shown above to emphasise the serious inhumanity older people are facing:
"..... It has taken a global pandemic to realise what has been going on in care homes: underfunded, under-resourced and understaffed, many were destined to fail .... many homes were already not fit for purpose."
Vulnerable now, old and infirm people depend (much like our children) upon the responsiveness and goodwill of those given responsibility for their lives. Has our easy trust in these (profit-driven) institutions been misplaced?
We know that our care homes range in quality. We know that the care given can be nothing other than standardised. How many care homes think it worthwhile to offer food that may enhance their residents' mental and physical well-being? Can a resident suffering dementia ever hope to be given individualised care, individualised nutrition to bring even some improvement to their health? I am not sure.
My questions are open, because I have only just become acquainted with the world of the 'care home'. If you want to make me cry, ask me about the day I delivered my father to a local care home for the respite fortnight he'd seen advertised on a brochure delivered in the post with all the other junk mail. He understandably needed a break from home after two years lockdown, he was too infirm to travel any more and he rather liked the description of food provided by the "5 star chef". And so he booked himself in. And I was the daughter who was responsible for driving him there, for settling him in and then leaving him.
It is a world I hope never to encounter again.
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