Goddamn nursing home
The Angry Gimp on a March visit to her grandmother in the nursing home:
I'm angry because the nursing home staff doesn't seem to give a crap. After she got back to her room after our visit in the day room, she had to go to the bathroom. Bad. Probably because the nursing home had been feeding her dairy products all week, and she's lactose intolerant. My mother asked the nurses if they were feeding her dairy, and they claimed they had no idea she couldn't have it. . . .
And the situation goes downhill from there . . .
Read the full entry. It's well worth it. A blog entry not to miss: The Angry Gimp: Goddamn nursing home
Not only are many persons in nursing homes ignored but those in the MR population in Texas are denied a real life too. Who wants to be herded around with 3 or 4 others whereever you go?
Who wants to be required to go to a state daycare where there is no teaching or training and where many people sleep away their days? At least once in Texas there was an initiative to transition people who wanted a better life back into the community.
However, those with mental retardation, autism and the like are getting less and less chance to transition into the community where they can work and there's money to support that work opportunity. And, people in agencies, where is the money to give people the chance to go to the store alone to buy a dress or a man to buy a shirt.
I have seen people working in huge agencies for the mentally retarded with a list like santa claus and saying, "Let's see, John, needs a shirt. What color do you think he would like?"
"Jane needs a bra...what size did you say she is?"
So where is choice, where is self-determination, where is money following the person, where is a real LIFE?
Posted by: Martha Moyer | May 18, 2006 04:06 PM