I’d like to share a message I received from a reader in reply to my recent post (How the Grinch Stole Christmas from Nursing Home Patients Who Won’t See Another One) in which I discussed the horrifying impact of the rapid testing fiasco on long-term care patients. Her message speaks volumes.
I have profound respect and gratitude for anyone who serves this population and does so with heart and compassion. People like this who are on the ground working in LTCs need to be consulted when it comes to policy-making. And they should never, ever be mandated to receive vaccines. Someone who is willing to serve this population and remain compassionate and kind despite low wages and (often) low respect for the profession should be trusted and treated with gratitude and respect.
Damn, months ago I said to a friend that I’d bet good money that most LTC residents, if polled, would vote against all these restrictions that have brought mass destruction to our society. They would urge gubmint NOT to destroy tens of thousands of small businesses and jobs, disrupt children’s education and socialization, destroy families, push people into despair-fighting drug and alcohol addiction while pretending to care for our health and well being.
Many years ago, when there were more state psychiatric facilities (early 1970s) I worked on an "extended care" ward. A significant part of my job was finding placements outside the hospital for folks who were mentally and medically fragile to just older cantankerous and institutionalized. Within a year all our patients had to go to other hospitals, LTCs or family. Most went to LTCs. I share this reader's frustration about lumping the more cognizant and less so together, then and now. Further limiting their contact with the few loved ones who understand them is dehumanizing. There is a lot of this going on. Age & illness strip away enough autonomy without politicians, administrators and bureaucrats compounding the problems. BTW, I was never a politician, but I have been an administrator and a bureaucrat. It did not have to be this way.
Thank you for sharing this heartrending message, Julius.
It reminds me of the obituary I shared for the heroic Inge Ginsberg in “Letter to a Covidian: A Time-Travel Experiment” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-covidian-a-time-travel). She survived the Holocaust, COVID, and countless other hardships during her 99 years, but it was the pain of isolation due to lockdown measures that finally took her life.
I urge people to watch her electrifying heavy-metal music video in that article as well as reading the courageous lyrics and her obituary excerpts.
That's right. I agree. I don't dispute for a minute that there is a death toll and a larger toll of people who get very sick. Awful sick.
But yes, that's true all the time anyway. With the common flu even.
And the flu is more loaded toward the young getting very sick and dying.
But the proportions effected in both cases, flu and covid, are small.
None of that means we shouldn't try to wipe out ALL bad effects if we can. No. I know.
But these measures are NOT wiping out ALL bad effects at all. And they are introducing a multitude of OTHER bad effects is the point.
And the greatest bad effect is the destruction of a free democratic society. You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone, they say. I've noticed since the 9/11 restrictions were imposed that most of the populace doesn't even seem to notice after they've gone.
People are effectively living in dictatorial autocracies under martial law and they don't seem to realise or care.
It is staggering. And I'm staggered by it. Have been for a long time now. You get into a state of numb, disbelieving desperation..
I appreciate her for writing that and you for sharing it. Rings very true. A few years ago mom, suffering from vascular dementia, wanted to die and had a DNR. Fortunately she got her wish after a few years.
Thanks for this! My Mom passed away in 2018 in long term care. At least 1 family member was with her everyday for visits and we stayed for hours at a time, so we saw alot of what happened in that facility. Everything this LTC worker is saying - goodness...this is exactly how we saw things as well. My Mom had severe mobility issues, but she was cognitively "there" 100% and it was really hard for her to socialize with the other residents because most of them had dementia at varying stages. Also agree with this LTC worker's comments about visitors. The majority of the residents that were on my Mom's floor did not have many visitors. Many would finally get a visitor when the resident was about to pass away. It was pretty sad...
Very enlightening. I did work as a nurse for a long time, mostly in acute care and many of my patients were in the older age group. I did a few shifts as an Agency nurse in a Nursing Home, but I found the work soul destroying and physically gruelling. I know a lot about quality of life. I am intimately acquainted with just how poor QOL can be and how it is often disregarded. If I were aged, bed bound, incontinent, suffering with the pain of arthritis, , fed pureed food by teaspoon, I WOULD WELCOME COVID 19 WITH OPEN ARMS.
I have profound respect and gratitude for anyone who serves this population and does so with heart and compassion. People like this who are on the ground working in LTCs need to be consulted when it comes to policy-making. And they should never, ever be mandated to receive vaccines. Someone who is willing to serve this population and remain compassionate and kind despite low wages and (often) low respect for the profession should be trusted and treated with gratitude and respect.
Those who made these rules are sadistic.
Please thank your reader for her thoughtful perspective. I learned a few things from her words. And thank her also for the much-needed work she does.
Damn, months ago I said to a friend that I’d bet good money that most LTC residents, if polled, would vote against all these restrictions that have brought mass destruction to our society. They would urge gubmint NOT to destroy tens of thousands of small businesses and jobs, disrupt children’s education and socialization, destroy families, push people into despair-fighting drug and alcohol addiction while pretending to care for our health and well being.
Many years ago, when there were more state psychiatric facilities (early 1970s) I worked on an "extended care" ward. A significant part of my job was finding placements outside the hospital for folks who were mentally and medically fragile to just older cantankerous and institutionalized. Within a year all our patients had to go to other hospitals, LTCs or family. Most went to LTCs. I share this reader's frustration about lumping the more cognizant and less so together, then and now. Further limiting their contact with the few loved ones who understand them is dehumanizing. There is a lot of this going on. Age & illness strip away enough autonomy without politicians, administrators and bureaucrats compounding the problems. BTW, I was never a politician, but I have been an administrator and a bureaucrat. It did not have to be this way.
Now multiply that email by thousands. It is so very wrong.
Thank you for sharing this heartrending message, Julius.
It reminds me of the obituary I shared for the heroic Inge Ginsberg in “Letter to a Covidian: A Time-Travel Experiment” (https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/letter-to-a-covidian-a-time-travel). She survived the Holocaust, COVID, and countless other hardships during her 99 years, but it was the pain of isolation due to lockdown measures that finally took her life.
I urge people to watch her electrifying heavy-metal music video in that article as well as reading the courageous lyrics and her obituary excerpts.
That's right. I agree. I don't dispute for a minute that there is a death toll and a larger toll of people who get very sick. Awful sick.
But yes, that's true all the time anyway. With the common flu even.
And the flu is more loaded toward the young getting very sick and dying.
But the proportions effected in both cases, flu and covid, are small.
None of that means we shouldn't try to wipe out ALL bad effects if we can. No. I know.
But these measures are NOT wiping out ALL bad effects at all. And they are introducing a multitude of OTHER bad effects is the point.
And the greatest bad effect is the destruction of a free democratic society. You don't know what you've got 'till it's gone, they say. I've noticed since the 9/11 restrictions were imposed that most of the populace doesn't even seem to notice after they've gone.
People are effectively living in dictatorial autocracies under martial law and they don't seem to realise or care.
It is staggering. And I'm staggered by it. Have been for a long time now. You get into a state of numb, disbelieving desperation..
Got to try to rise above it... :)
Excellent. Thank you.
I appreciate her for writing that and you for sharing it. Rings very true. A few years ago mom, suffering from vascular dementia, wanted to die and had a DNR. Fortunately she got her wish after a few years.
truly heartbreaking that the very core people they are 'trying' to protect they are doing harm!
Thanks for this! My Mom passed away in 2018 in long term care. At least 1 family member was with her everyday for visits and we stayed for hours at a time, so we saw alot of what happened in that facility. Everything this LTC worker is saying - goodness...this is exactly how we saw things as well. My Mom had severe mobility issues, but she was cognitively "there" 100% and it was really hard for her to socialize with the other residents because most of them had dementia at varying stages. Also agree with this LTC worker's comments about visitors. The majority of the residents that were on my Mom's floor did not have many visitors. Many would finally get a visitor when the resident was about to pass away. It was pretty sad...
Very enlightening. I did work as a nurse for a long time, mostly in acute care and many of my patients were in the older age group. I did a few shifts as an Agency nurse in a Nursing Home, but I found the work soul destroying and physically gruelling. I know a lot about quality of life. I am intimately acquainted with just how poor QOL can be and how it is often disregarded. If I were aged, bed bound, incontinent, suffering with the pain of arthritis, , fed pureed food by teaspoon, I WOULD WELCOME COVID 19 WITH OPEN ARMS.
Thanks for the in-the-know reply. We would never get anything this solid from the regular news.