Advertisement 1

Braedley: Our long-term care system is failing because we're ageist

Article content

All it took was mass death.

As we have experienced the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic and seen it sweep through nursing homes, infecting residents and staff, there has never been more support to improve the long-term residential care system.

But how did we in Canada let this happen? How did we permit our governments to plan systems that are woefully underfunded and unable to provide safe, respectful and dignified care? Why has the work of providing this specialized care been so poorly rewarded, despite longstanding labour shortages?

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content
Article content

Let’s be honest: at least part of the problem is that we are ageist. As a society, we tend to devalue and denigrate any adult who is unable to look after themselves, develops disabilities, or cannot “keep up” with the onslaught of rapid social change. We do our utmost to stay “youthful,” while also denying that most of us will experience some frailty before we die.

We don’t like seeing older faces and bodies, we stop listening to older voices and minds. We don’t like thinking we will be old and don’t like reminders. That is ageism.

Let’s be honest some more. Our society has had a bad attitude toward care work. We have told ourselves it is work that “anyone can do,” or that it comes “naturally” to women and especially women from specific cultures.

That is completely wrong, and this crisis shows it.

It takes training and experience to learn how to develop relationships with people who are in pain, confused, or feeling acutely vulnerable, lonely, and scared of death.

It takes knowledge and skill to understand how to safely alleviate all of the different varieties of suffering, how to reassure and befriend, how to wash and tend stiff, aching, fragile bodies while ensuring people’s respect and comfort, how to engage someone with advanced dementia in meaningful, even joyful activity, how to feed someone with problems swallowing while also encouraging them to enjoy the social aspect of mealtime and the flavours of the food.

Advertisement 3
Story continues below
Article content

It is highly specialized work to know how and when to clean spaces, surfaces, clothing and linens to prevent cross-contamination in residences where the consequences for mistakes are misery, disease and death.

It takes a whole other skill set to sleep well between shifts when you need to recover from the heavy physicality of helping people with bathing, toileting, dressing, eating and moving, and the emotional work involved in supporting residents and, very often, their families.

This is challenging and often rewarding work that is absolutely necessary. We need many more people to do it and do it well.

Just like those living and dying in nursing homes right now, some of us will need 24/7 specialized, trained care workers to support us through dementia, disability, and chronic disease when our needs exceed what can be offered at home.

We need to act like we understand this reality. Let’s admit and address our ageism, our fears, and the policy mistakes we have tolerated. Let’s take seriously public responsibility for care and stand with older people and care workers for the long term, instead of ignoring or dismissing them.

We have an opportunity to learn, address our past mistakes, and shape a system that offers safety, dignity and respect to older people and care workers. We will be glad we did.

Susan Braedley is an associate professor at Carleton University who has been doing research on how to improve long-term care for the past 10 years.

Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Latest National Stories
    This Week in Flyers