Was it just a few years ago when we were cheering our “essential workers?”. Those were the people who went to work in the dangerous nursing homes and assisted living facilities to care for the sick and elderly. The pay was low, the protections minimal but still they went in. The facilities did next to nothing to protect the residents and workers and many died alone in the homes isolated from their loved ones. It was a dreadful time and the stories of bodies piling up in some facilities was a page out of the great bubonic plague.
Big signs were hoisted on building cheering our essential workers who went into hospitals to save the sick and dying. In New York City residents isolated in their apartments banged pots and pans out the windows to cheer those who tried to help and save us. I still see the sign “Heroes work here”. So much for our heroes. Most of the nursing homes and assisted living facilities are owned by private equity firms and always look to the bottom line for their investors. The workers are truly secondary. The workload is very hard and the pay is low and cruel. None is unionized. The rotation of staff due to harsh working conditions and low pay continues to create a revolving door of employees with constant shortages of workers. It is a disgrace for this country but not a surprise.
For all our caring, we are still indifferent to the aged in our society. We have just moved on from this hooray for our heroes to “heroes who?”. Why were we and are still unmoved by the plight of our aged and fragile citizens. These are our family members, friends and neighbors. We basically cannot raise the same sympathy for our senior citizens as we do for the children who are sick and dying. For example during the height of the Polio epidemic back in the 1950’s there were 3,000 deaths in the US. The national response to this was enormous. Not so for the elderly and sick patients. Politicians have not helped by calling them “old and sickly”. So, it continues. Years ago my Saudi friends wondered why we build “houses of death” for our family, friends and relatives. I had no answer other than the obvious, a lack of interest by our leaders and our citizens. He called nursing homes and assisted living facilities the warehouses of the dying. Not far from the truth. He couldn’t understand why family members would put their parents, relatives in these places.
How our about meat packers and farm workers. How about those who work in tight conditions such as assembly lines. How about no pay for sick days. So we go to work sick. These essential workers who keep the engines of our society moving and are mainly invisible continue to be the forgotten workers. They had their 5 minutes of fame but Americans have moved on.
Unfortunately, those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. We as a society, were lucky to have only 1.2 million people die of covid instead the possibility of 10 million. We are lucky to have swift, successful vaccines to turn the numbers around. Still, many of us experience long covid and covid itself is not done with us. It is still a risk and affects all of us, not just the elderly. There are many futures opportunities from strange sources to afflict our society. How about climate change affects exposing us to more respiratory diseases, Ebola, MERS, West Nile and even diseases that are currently contained within animals and somehow migrating to humans. We need to be on alert for possibilities and prepare our elderly, our essential workers and those who are more susceptible to diseases.
Perhaps, as our leaders age, they may be more sympathetic to the aging and frail. So far, there seems to be no movement in this area to subsidize long-term care for the aged, or regulate and enforce the major for-profit companies who control these places. The same goes for our “essential workers.” Maybe we should put signs on nursing home and assisted living facilities that say “Profitable Warehouses for the Dying.”
I predicted long, long ago that the elderly will probably share private housing with other elderly to pool their limited funds, and help and care for each other as able. I had predicted it would also provide some element of social connection. Given what you and others have written here, I think that prediction may be on its way to coming true. Perhaps that lifestyle will be more rewarding and healthful.
My uncle was murdered in a facility where his children stuck him. He was beaten to death while seated in his wheelchair at the age of 97. His wounds were so bad that bones were sticking out through his skin. I know this because I have his autopsy report. Nobody cares about the elderly. My Dad is 96 and thank God my brother moved in with him and takes care of him. I am disabled, or I would have gone to stay with him. Our father will NEVER be put in a facility. Never, never, never.
Hello Gail, I ahve known since the 80s that our government do not care for women and chidlren. And hate anyone who is infirmed in anyway and ignore their medical concerns and treat the ill as criminals or second citizen. Politicians are rich and have forgotten that people struggle in this society if they do not make $100,000. a year. I worked as a Chemical Dependent Counselor and I found out that I was paying them to let me work as one-the pay was so low and I ended up using my money to supply the things I wanted to share with the patients. And coming from a welfare background I learned that the program was created to fail. Although my widowed mother was able to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads becasue she babysat, washed and ironed for the neighbors, and cooked to make ends meet. I look forward to the coming year when the people will prevail and women take positions of power to turn this government around. Thank you for acknowledging the essential workers.
“Perhaps, as our leaders age, they may be more sympathetic to the aging and frail.”
The irony, of course, is that our many of our so-called leaders are aging and frail. At the end of the day, they are interested primarily in two things: power and money.
Empathy and care are humble pursuits, rightly with no bragging rights. Big egos, whether old or young, pursue that which gives them bragging rights, fleeting as those are.
My gratitude is for people devoted to service for the benefit of the greater good. That’s really the only hope humanity has left.