Cocooning our older citizens sounds great, but let’s think again
Ireland’s over-70s need protecting from the virus but locking them away is not the only solution, writes Larissa Nolan
MARY O’Ro- urke voiced the feelings of many of Ireland’s golden oldies when she spoke out about cocooning.
The 82-year-old former politician said: “It is the loveliest sounding word, comforting and nice. But that is not what I am experiencing. In reality, cocooning means not going anywhere, not doing anything.”
The debate over the effective house arrest of those over 70 — a particularly vulnerable group due to age — ramped up this past week.
Although it is based in science — and undoubtedly in the name of good — many affected understandably regard the policy as paternalistic pigeon-holing. They point out it is unfair to force sprightly, self-sufficient septuagenarians to stay at home the entire time, dependent on others to fulfil their basic needs.
The Government has since clarified cocooning is advisory, and not mandatory, and there’s no fear of granny being locked up. But she might already feel like she’s in jail: a captive in her own home. Most older citizens won’t break the curfew, criminal sanction or not, as they want to be part of the national effort and do whatever is asked of them.
I fully agree with Leo Varadkar, who says that protecting “our most vulnerable and precious” is paramount. But I can also see why this is one restriction that needs to be adjusted.
Gabriel Byrne is 70 next month. Pat Kenny is 72. Mary Robinson is 75. When you think of the elderly cocooning, you don’t picture such a vibrant crew.
Of course, it doesn’t matter how fit and able they are, you might say, they are more at risk of the virus by dint of when they were born. True.
But there are two aspects to such health matters: physical and mental. Both are as important as each other.
And God, what a drag you’d feel on society now if you happened to be older, and heretofore delighted to be in full health later in life. Accustomed to flying around the place; dynamic, independent, useful.
But suddenly, everyone has to act like they’re an invalid, when you’re the most capable person. Your presence has been erased from society. It risks treating our older generation like Nagg and Nell, confined to bins in Beckett’s Endgame.
Perhaps you look forward to going up to the local shop, buying your bits and pieces for yourself. If we’re honest, doesn’t that give meaning to all our lives? I trust the over 70s, who have so much more at stake, can do this as responsibly and restrictedly as the rest of us.
There’s a balance to be struck with minding our parents and grandparents and mollycoddling them en masse to the point the mental health deficits threaten to outweigh the physical health protections.
In this current crisis, knowing you can get fresh air and a new vision within your 2km zone is keeping many of us sane. It seems pointlessly punishing to deny all the over 70s that same relative “freedom”, purely on the basis of being born before 1950.
As it stands now, the blanket restrictions on the over 70s are having too harsh an effect on their quality of life and their mental health.
You wouldn’t know it, because they have resilience and resolve of those half their age, and will never complain. But treated like children for too long, they might just give up.
Tweak it. Allow shops to open at certain times solely for those in that age group.
Dedicate a time of the day for exercise as being for the over 70s only. Mary O’Rourke said she loved it when she got to skip the queue at the bank, as the earlier banking hours were reserved for older customers before cocooning was introduced. My local butcher took phone orders from his older customers and had their meat ready when they came to the shop. This made them feel prized, not patronised.
Let us mould our lives to fit their needs; instead of the other way around. After all, they’re the main reason why we’re going to all this effort in the first place. We’d all be more than happy to go the extra mile to ensure they’re included, not excluded.
The Government says restrictions will be unwound “in reverse order” — meaning those services that closed first, like bars and restaurants, will be the last to re-open.
Cocooning for the over 70s was one of the most recent measures to be brought in, so hopefully, in the May 5 review, it will be the first places we look at a new way of doing things that fully respects — and protects — our elders.
‘Let’s mould our lives to fit their needs, not the other way round...’