How the elderly are treated should scare you
Iam 72 years young and I have worked in the health-care system for 47 years as a professional physiotherapist, and over six years as a private caregiver.
I have worked in hospitals, nursing homes and private physiotherapy clinics. I have seen the rise and fall of our health-care system, but never have I been as scared as I have been the past six years. I witnessed the decrease in the care and respect for those living in health-care facilities. They have become a place to warehouse the elderly, the mentally ill and disabled till they die.
In the 1980s, we lobbied for the elderly so all health-care facilities had full services and access to geriatricians, specialists, all rehabilitation services, as well as social and recreational activities. Those were the good years, when the elderly weren’t afraid to go to lodges, nursing homes and auxiliary hospitals when needed.
Then, in 1993, everything changed and all these services were reduced. The number of professionally trained people in the long-term care facilities was reduced. Registered nurses were reduced to supervising staff and locked behind desks doing paperwork. Licensed practical nurses, with their limited training, were now performing the roles that RNS once performed.
Nursing assistants found they had less time to give quality care and respect to the individual patient. Rehabilitation services were reduced to non-essential services and the elderly could no longer attend private clinics when they needed a little more help to remain independent.
All care facilities that once had rehabilitation departments were closed. Therapists now visit once or twice a week to assess and leave instructions for nursing assistants to follow. Occupational therapists barely have time to obtain the necessary equipment for the patients and often do not have time to assess it as the right equipment, or if adaptations have to be made. Gone are the special groups run by recreational therapists that helped maintain cognitive skills, memory, hand dexterity and social skills for the elderly.
What I have witnessed is a recreation program run from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., where the recreation person (I’m not sure if she has special training or is simply a volunteer) helps feed patients breakfast till 10 a.m., then has a break before she runs a 20-minute repetitious exercise program in a monologue tone, never changing from day to day and never interacting with the patients.
She then helps get patients to the dining room for lunch and helps feed them. After lunch, she runs a short, boring session for two or three patients who might show interest till 3 p.m., and then there is silence in the facility as all of the patients are in their rooms alone.
This is what our government calls providing adequate services and care for the elderly. Our elderly population is growing and the government tells us this every day in the newspaper; yet, they are doing nothing to prepare for this increase of elderly persons who will need care in these facilities. Our hospitals are overcrowded with the elderly waiting for admission into care facilities. The mentally ill, who once had their own hospital, now are being placed into the community, into beds that were once for the elderly, or into group homes that are equally poorly funded, so they can’t provide the care these people need. Don’t get me started about what is happening to the home care system for those who are stuck in their homes waiting
Our nursing staff are overworked because there aren’t enough of them
for admission to health-care facilities.
Yes, I am scared, and you who read this should be, too. Everyone needs to lobby for the elderly now. Your future isn’t far away and it takes times to get prepared for the future. We all need to get involved, to lobby our government to put more money into the health-care system for the elderly now.
All facilities and services for those needing extra care need to be supported by the government, so quality of life can return to these facilities. We need to educate the young people to get involved or there won’t be a future for them. The very young need to be taught that the elderly need their respect and care, for they are the ones who helped to build the world they now enjoy.
What are you doing about changing what is happening in the long-term care facilities where your loved ones now have to live? I have heard horror stories and I have witnessed the unnecessary rough care that patients receive, drug er- rors, falls and over-sedation just to keep the patient quiet. Our nursing staff are overworked because there aren’t enough of them, not because they don’t get paid enough.
Patients get bathed once a week if staff have time, and if there is an incontinence problem, patients are placed in diapers that get changed twice a shift if there’s time, instead of being placed on the toilet. Facility funding is reduced so that even the maintenance of the buildings is poor; toilets are only cleaned once a week, and kitchen staff is reduced to a minimum, so special diets cannot be provided unless family bring in their own food.
As for laundry, don’t bring in any of Grandma’s favourite things, as they will disappear or get destroyed in the washer and dryer. It is sad that all care and respect for the at-risk elderly is being lost and nobody cares. Do you?