Caregiving

Rosalynn Carter said there were four kinds of people:  people who had been caregivers, people who currently are caregivers, those who will be caregivers and those who will need caregivers.  In other words, we have been, are currently or eventually will be affected.  No one escapes this reality.

The pandemic affected caregiving in ways we had not imagined.  Nursing homes struggled to find staff.  As restaurants and other businesses raised wages trying to attract staff, nursing homes, reliant on Medicaid funds, could not compete.  Nursing homes became more susceptible to covid and people were not able to visit their loved ones due to the need to isolate residents from the possibility of infection.  This seems to have triggered a move away from nursing homes.  The last number I heard quoted was that Montana has closed 12 facilities.

  “This current data, as well as recent trends, suggest low demand and an overbuilt, underutilized nursing facility system in Montana,” said Jon Ebelt, of the Department of Public Health and Human Services, who noted the vast majority of closures included high vacancy rates.

“Rose Hughes, executive director of the Montana Health Care Association, said low reimbursement rates play a large role in whether a facility can accept residents and operate.

“According to the association, Medicaid accounts for 63 percent of the payment source for nursing homes. And preliminary data show nursing homes are being underpaid by more than 30 percent, said Hughes, who responded to questions via email.”  (Information obtained from article in the Daily Montanan November 20,2022.)

I can recognize that this issue is a complex one.  However, I am appalled at how blithely the state government here refers to “research that indicates the elderly want to stay in their homes.”  Well, of course they do.  Why wouldn’t they?  But so many need care not possible in their own homes. 

As a society faced with an aging population we must do better.  It is commendable to make more in-home services available, if in fact there is a plan in place to do so and funds are made available for said services. But this simply must not preclude adequate nursing home and assisted living facilities for people when living at home is no longer a viable option.

May we be bearers of hope, the “wait staff” of Hope’s Café for each other and all those we encounter.  Shalom, Kate 

Hope’s Café Bonus:  This blog was inspired by an article on “Johnny Rotten,” otherwise known as John Lydon, who was the singer in The Sex Pistols.  Lydon, 67, was a caregiver for the last six years of the life of his wife Nora, who died in April at age 80.  He talked about using humor with her and said they “laughed at the world together.” 

“Of course,” he relayed, “it reached its inevitable conclusion, but the last several years were probably the most fantastic experience that both of us could have had.”

I’m not sure how much difference there is in caring for a dying spouse than in caring for a dying parent.  But his description of “the most fantastic experience that both of us could have had” echoes my own thoughts in the months I cared for my father before his death.

“Caregivers are the heart of the healthcare system. They are the glue and the heart of care.” Dr. Ronald Adelman