Minding the living and the dead

‘DEAR Family Members.”

No one likes those letters.

Lots of family members got a letter last week. It was to tell them that of the 80 residential centres for the disabled run by John of God’s, Hiqa is not happy with 33 of them. And John of God’s are “experiencing difficulties in arriving at compliance” in some centres.

Hiqa met the board of John of God’s last month and “expressed its concern about the lack of progress”. John of God’s “acknowledged our failures”.

Can you imagine those poor people getting that letter, in the fortnight we’ve had in this country?

They’re already thinking about Grace and worrying themselves sick about letting their loved ones out of their sight, They’re already worrying themselves sick about what’s going to happen when they themselves die.

And then a letter to say, “We are failing. Half the places where your family members live aren’t up to scratch. But we acknowledge our failure.”

The past matters. And the dead matter. But the living matter more.

And the present isn’t comparable with the past, a time, we are realising, when church and state and society colluded in a mass-scale system of human slavery and child trafficking.

But we can do a lot more about the present than we can about the past.

Are we happy that we farm out the care of our disabled to charities and organisations that are, to put it kindly, imperfect. Remember Bungalow 3 in Aras Attracta? Where Hiqa said they had seen big improvements? And then we all saw people who lived there being force fed, screamed at and dragged around.

Of course, it should be said that Hiqa refuses to certify centres for many reasons and there is no suggestion that what is going on in John Of God’s is abusive. And there are many great people doing great work in places like John of God’s.

A lot of people wondered last week why no one shouted stop about mother and baby homes. But it’s hardly a mystery. That’s just the way things were then. People went along with it.

And why would the HSE farm out Grace to somewhere she might be in danger, and effectively forget about her? Because that’s just how it was done in Grace’s time.

And why are so many homes for the disabled not up to scratch? Because that’s just how it is. We know we can’t trust the HSE. We know we can’t trust charities. But that’s who the Government has farmed it out to now, and that’s just how it is.

And some day someone might say. “But why did the Government farm this important job of looking after these citizens out to people who didn’t do it properly?”

And someone will say that it’s surprising no one said anything.