So this is my second first blog for my new website, so spent the last few days wondering what I should write about. Lots of different things have been roaming through my brain. Yesterday I was driving across the province I live in through old communities, back roads and byways instead of the busy main thoroughfares of today. It made me think about a lot of things, like how I feel like I’m somehow shrinking, becoming smaller and smaller in this world, I thought about how we all end up one day just a pile of ashes in a little cardboard box that’s handed off to anyone ( if there is anyone) who wants to claim us as theirs. Just a cardboard box and ashes, that to me means all the more reason to put such effort into today, being present, finding joy, despite my diagnosis, to live today, for tomorrow may be my turn to be the box of ashes.
Wow that’s quite the path of thought while driving, maybe all the historic towns and buildings made me think about who were the people from then. But I have been thinking about the life cycle a lot.
Other things on my mind, is the crisis in Long term Care, no Covid, did not create it it’s been there for a long time, everyone just always felt justified in reasoning that it’s not that bad, wonder if people would feel that way if they were sent to live like that for a month? And why do me need more meetings, more reviews, we need to start rebuilding our care homes, make them small housing units within communities, staff would end up with more job satisfaction, less stress and bullying, they would feel like they are making a valuable difference to someone’s life, instead of feeling like “ it’s the best we can do”, buried under mountains of paperwork which have created zero improvement in the quality of life for those living within the confines of the walls, small 6/8 bed units, that enable instead of disable that encourage involvement, that has adequate outdoor space that is secure but encourages people to enjoy fresh air, gardening, all those things a vital to quality of life. Turn the long term care homes into rehabilitation units for drug/alcohol, turn them into day care, turn them into housing for the homeless, and those who have mental health issues who were recklessly tossed onto the streets years ago. Let’s not fix the disaster has it is let’s not waste millions looking at what we need to do, let’s get back to putting some good old fashioned common sense and values into it. Let’s start providing as part of our medical planning, more Occupational therapy, physio, rehabilitation programs, in the home, let’s help people enable themselves, instead of putting them into facilities where they immediately are no longer able to even make themselves a cup, let’s encourage them to help one another, have staff working with them, to better their lives not shorten them. From food to programs that are designed as if the elderly and people with dementia are stupid, and do and provide meaningful engagement. Let’s also throw out the old image and understanding of Dementia and Alzheimer’s, let’s start showing how much people with Dementia are still capable of, let’s give them the resources to thrive, let’s stop making it something people fear, and hide, this promotes the rapid decline in those living with rather than having them remain valued members of our communities, that still have much to contribute. Let’s start by working with people living with dementia to help design impactful and practical training for all those in the various medical fields, let’s make it mandatory for anyone working directly with dementia clients to have specific dementia training that is relevant. Let’s just start over and let’s do it right. Let’s stop trying to fix something that is so badly broken and start doing the right thing. It’s long past time. The last four days my voice is going wonky again, never know if it will return, it scares me, trying to use my voice while it still allows.
Chrissy's Journey 