Taking Away Mobility

NOTE:  A quick thanks for telling friends, relatives and neighbors about my site. I continue to work to raise awareness and ensure Seniors are safe, especially those with mental and physical challenges.

What is one of our greatest accomplishments in life? 

Being able to go from one place to another.

When we're babies, parents talk about "accomplishments" and can't wait (at least with the first child) for them to walk. 

It's a "bragging right" for parents when a child "walks" early; equated to intelligence and other socially valued abilities

Why do most Long Term Care Facilities move new residents who may arrive "walking" to a walker, then a wheelchair and welcome the "bedridden" as an asset to their facility?

MOBILITY REQUIRES MORE COSTS: observation, being vigilant, responding to people directly instead of to a "call button", having to "find them" to check vitals, administer meds or do one of a dozen things to "check on and "service" the individual are cost driven and eat into profits of "privately owned and operated facilities".

Wheelchairs need to be pushed or the resident has to have strength, coordination, determination to move a wheelchair.  

They can be rented from a supplier usually owned by the facility and therefore become an additional source of income.

NOTHING PROVIDED IN LONG TERM CARE IS FREE and everything provided is measured by: 

Limiting mobility reduces the amount of "space" they can get to and through, the chances they will "wander" or "go where they need to be located or removed from". 

Facilities see Self Driven "Chairs" providing a hazard.

A resident who arrives with a motorized "transporter" will have to prove frequently they have the physical, emotional and mental ability as measured by the facility to continue to have the "right" to use it.

There is no "standard" of measurement for evaluating and no LTC Facility guidelines as a part of recognized systems and procedures I've found outlining, as some States have,  for residency in Independent/Assisted/LTC facilities; each facility can therefore determine their own "standards".

Those 'in charge" constantly seek the "assistance" of family members to "encourage" the elderly to "give up" their wheels -- much the same as when they were driving a car.

Often the "powers" at the facilities "pad" reports and find ways to use language that seeks to discredit and minimize the true capabilities of residents in LTC facilities.

Especially for those in Medicaid beds, the facility believes they don't receive enough compensation and there's a lot of "creative writing".

Bedbound is highly desirable for those "in charge" in a Long Term Care facility. 

If you can medicate and keep as many residents as possible  "comotose" or "awake and aware" at disignated times with drugs prescribed by the Doctor to a "competent" resident -- you can have a lower staff to resident ratio, cut expenses and limit need to hire or employ.

QUESTION:  Ever ask yourself who reviews the medications a resident is "prescribed" by a Doctor -- one who is basically "employed by the facility"?  

Over all these years I've never been able to find any documentation, State or Federal, mandating disclosure to those with Medical POA's. 

But I do know from personal experience, how easy it is for a person focused on manipulating and controling to gain their confidence over time and showing "interest" through "private talks" how a person, even a Registered Nurse, can control and ensure the elderly does what they want, when they want, how they want. 

I still carry scars from mental and emotional damages done by Julia.

MOST DESIRABLE RESIDENT?  The one who is placed on Hospice in a facility that only allows "their own" Hospice program to be given to residents.

IS THIS LEGAL? That's a great question. 

As are so many other actions taken by LTC's but are practiced because WE DO NOT QUESTION, 

WE DO NOT RISE UP AND SPEAK OUT LOUDLY TO ALL 

Local, State and National organizations and legal departments responsible or interested in Our Aging Population -- how their lives are managed in living arrangements where they are under supervision by a group, organization or entity.

Back to the comparison of the "child" who is encouraged, supported and rewarded for actions that involve movement and "independence":

I realize the answer now, several years later, but let's start the questioning process:

The child is encouraged; it's a "rite of passage for parents" 

-- LOOK....WE HAVE A WALKER....NO LONGER AN INFANT.....NOW A "CHILD"

...getting ready to move about in the world, still needing help, needing assistance, but we've achieved their progression... unless, of course, there is a physical challenge...but then parents start to move heaven and earth, go anywhere and everywhere, whatever it takes...to gain some form of mobility, of independence...

KEY WORD ---  INDEPENDENCE  Wanted for a child; discouraged and removed from our aging population.

Read your State Laws and Definition of Long Term Care. 

The System. Those who write the Laws. 

They have determined "who can" and "with what needs" 

reside in LTC -- also Assisted and Independent Living. 

And, honestly, they're obsolete and as archaic as many other laws we once lived with and now see how detrimental they were for human beings.

It's about Fire Codes and Safety --  they'll tell you. 

Before my first child was born, I saw a poem in a Reader's Digest written by Helen Lowry Marshall:  Children Learn What They Live.

Adults also learn what they live and when they are denied independence, made to believe they are incompetent and live lives of more and more isolation and lessening of providing actions and activities that build self worth and ability -- they wither and .... you provide the word, it's still too sharp in my memory  to write.

Originally written Dec. 31, 2019 when we "turned the corner" into a New Decade and had crossed the threshold into the unknown life challenge of COVID-19.

The Plague, Cholera, Whooping Cough, Diphtheria, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Polio -- generations before have suffered from diseases that took many years to be controlled and eliminated.

WE ALWAYS SEE WHAT'S DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF US.

SELDOM DO WE THINK ABOUT WHAT'S FALLEN BEHIND.