‘Nappies’ are simply abuse
Sir — It is a shocking indictment of the meaning of ‘care’ when we reach a point of degrading and humiliating treatment of our older population in alleged ‘care homes’ by putting them into ‘nappies’ even if they don’t require them.
As a retired social work lecturer in client protection (abuse), I taught staff that such practices amounted to abuse. This is not a staff issue, not a funding issue, not a care issue. This is plain professional negligence, abuse and a human rights violation. Let’s call it what it is.
However, the HSE in community, primary care also sanctions ‘nappies’ over a proper personal assistant (PA) for disabled people living independently in community.
As a 64-year-old, now disabled from a degenerative neuro-muscular disease and largely a wheelchair user, I had reason to ask for a full PA service from the HSE — as I was needing help to get to the toilet quickly outside of home, be it when shopping, on train journeys and so on (as well as other help). I was refused a full PA service but the community nurse quickly brought me ‘nappies’. This was my solution. I hasten to add, I am not incontinent, I just need to access a toilet quickly and, being disabled, that is not easy without help.
I am expected to sh*t and pee (no delicate way of saying this) into a ‘nappy’ and stay in it for the duration of my travels outdoor. I challenge any non-disabled professional to do this! They would not. I know disabled people living in community who are helped out of bed, washed, dressed, put into nappies at 8am and expected to stay in them until put to bed at 9pm — regardless of urine and faeces deposited.
Such bodily waste products burn. They are toxic to skin. Sores are common, genital area infections result, with further bladder and kidney infections which can be lifethreatening to compromised older or disabled people.
Skin breakdown, resulting in infected ulcers, is a real risk. Such infections can invade the blood system causing septicaemia and can result in death. In this regard we could actually call ‘nappies’ a death sentence.
I am still fighting for a full- time PA. I refuse the indignity, the humiliation of ‘nappies’. I refuse to be treated as a non-person, nonhuman. I refuse the risk of severe infection and death. Such alleged ‘professional’ practice is obscene. I thank the Sunday Independent and Maeve Sheehan for raising this issue.
We appear to have reached a point in the ‘care’ services where CARE is in fact a misnomer. No one should be humiliated and put at risk to save money. It really is unacceptable. Dr Margaret Kennedy, specialist consultant in disability and abuse, Greystones, Co Wicklow