Covid-19: the war against the elderly in uncaring "care" homes A view from Canada
https://www.ukcolumn.org/article/covid-19-war-against-elderly-uncaring-care-homes by Patrick Corbett Saturday, 2nd May 2020 Every death even the cruelest death drowns in the total indifference of Nature *Peter Weiss in Marat/Sade.* Except that for death in the time of Covid, indifference is manifested by a system-wide hysteria about the danger to *everyone but the elderly* in senior care facilities. While governments literally yell at people to stay at home, going so far as to arrest some intrepid joggers or park walkers they systematically ignore the charnel houses senior care facilities have become. In Spain soldiers entered <https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/world/europe/Spain-coronavirus-nursing-homes.html> a care home to find residents, unfed, unwashed, some lying in their own waste, others already dead from neglect. Every disease brings its heart wrenching stories. There is never a good time for a loved one to go. But we don’t make policy on individual stories — we can’t. We need to put resources where there’s the greatest need; it’s what the field of epidemiology is all about. But as a society we have made a commitment, however imperfect, to take care of each other when we get old. Often that means the institutional care of the elderly, for whatever reason, usually illness, economic necessity or both. Most would prefer to be independent or live with their family. But working class people are frequently too time and budget constrained with their own children and work commitments to take care of their old folks or attend to complicated medical needs. Thus we have seniors’ long term care facilities. They are part of the health management system, which are either private, government funded or a combination of both. In the last decades most of them, especially the government-run institutions have suffered from the same austerity measures that have hit everyone below the economic level of the wealthy and highly paid professionals. Take the Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver BC for example: they have a mix of private and public funding. Most of their residents live with chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, dementia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). It is why they are there. The painful truth is that in the past several years, austerity has hit care homes hard. Funding and resources have been repeatedly cut resulting in a steady drop in quality of care. At Lynn Valley <https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-how-the-coronavirus-took-north-vancouvers-lynn-valley-care-centre/> the healthcare workers had their union decertified when the work was outsourced to a private company. Wages and benefits were cut and, crucially, sick days were drastically reduced. I’ll return to this story later. Most readers know the Covid-19 story by now, mysterious outbreak in China, dire predictions of a “Spanish Flu type outbreak killing millions”, our healthcare controllers moving fast to lock us down to “save lives”. Decisions were made around the world to prioritise Covid-19 response. Elective procedures were cancelled, hospital beds were freed up and emergency rooms were cleared. Having chest pains? Take deep breaths but don’t bother the front line Covid workers. But did the healthcare authorities simply forget or disregard epidemiology 101, regarding senior care facilities? It seems so. Because no apparent thought was given to their situation. Vulnerable people, elderly, most with serious comorbidities, living in close contact with each other and their caregivers. What could possibly go wrong? As it turns out, a lot. *Click on the link for the rest.* -- If you appreciate News From Underground, please consider making a donation — either a one-time gift or a monthly subscription: http://markcrispinmiller.com/support/ Thank you for your support. Ways to unsubscribe: 1) send a blank email to [email protected] PLEASE NOTE: you must unsubscribe using the SAME email with which you subscribed 2) go to http://groups.google.com/group/newsfromunderground and click on the "Unsubscribe or change membership" link in the yellow bar at the top of the page, then click the "Unsubscribe" button on the next page. For more News From Underground, visit http://markcrispinmiller.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "News From Underground" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/newsfromunderground/CAGxB6W_Gv13boG_i2ziUuKCD%2BorhKhnA3Sn8raCZ7DsUKwUE0g%40mail.gmail.com.
