there lacks a sense of compassion

[rato_do_perigo]

Over the weekend i was working short of staff, as  per usual on the weekend on a wing of the home that is quite heavy. As in there are quite a few residents who are bed-ridden or need to go to bed right away as they can not tolerate being up in their chairs for long periods of time. The day was crazy as there were only 2 of us working with the LPN

Comments

[seegwa]

That is the saddest thing I've ever heard. People are so terrible to their elders these days.

[rato_do_perigo]

our culture has little reverence for elders. Especially the modern day north american culture.

I see it with the residents who have no visitors.

[rato_do_perigo]

yes we have volunteers at the home. They visit, serve tea, take those who can out for excursions when the weather is nice. Or just sit and talk with them.

These people are all memory now. They're at the end of their lives so most of it is spent remembering.

They'd love to have you there. It's the hard part of my job that I just don't have the time to sit down and talk to them. So i try to do it when i'm caring for them.

[morrigan_loa]

That is horrible, how heartbreaking.

I try to consider that he elderly may not have always been nice when they were younger, and maybe certain treatment wouldn't be as horrible as it seems if everyone knew all the facts, but this isn't how you deal with it.

But then again you have the ones who were excellent parents and are wonderful people to be around, and get treated like this.

I have a couple deceased family members I have no doubt would have pulled something like this with their father if they thought that could have gotten away with it. They pulled some pretty despicable shit regardless. They died slow painful deaths of natural causes and I have no sorrow for them.

[rato_do_perigo]

There is this one lady there, Margaret. She's so mean she has most of the staff refusing to go into her room or has the new staff in tears. But i can understand (mostly) why she is like that. She's outlived her peers, her family doesn't want her around because she's like that and she used to be very independant.
She's 97 now almost 98 in the next couple of months. She was an excutive in the local hospital, at the age of 65 she moved to Africa to teach nursring. She's travelled all over the world. Now's she's confined to a wheelchair and can't get up from the toilet by herself.
On the otherhand there is Katherine who is 101 and is the sweetest woman around. Even when we are so far behind and don't get her to bed until 9:00pm she's still nice to us.

I can't even imagine my parents in a home. I'd rather slip my dad some drug and I know he'd feel the same.

[morrigan_loa]

I don't want to end up in a home. My surviving grandfather is in a home, but it's a private home with only 7 other patients. He has advanced Alzheimer's, my aunt and uncle tried to take care of him for as long as she could, and my parents helped out as much as they could since they don't live close and my aunt and uncle are retired - at the time my parents weren't. He gets up every 15 minutes, they were scared he walk out of the house one night while they were in bed, or what he might do unknowingly while he wandered about the house during the day. It was just exhausting and they weren't sleeping or doing anything else so there was no choice, he's happy, and active, he relives his childhood for the most part

[rato_do_perigo]

That's usually what happens. The family are just no longer able to care for their parents. It becomes a health issue for both sides.

Fourth stage Alzheimers is a hard stage. Actually all stages are difficult for family.

I don't want to end up in one either. I made Garth swear not to put me in one. Otherwise I'd come back and haunt him :-)

[theladyskye]

This story breaks my heart. People can be so cruel :(