Does the mission of public health departments also include the assessment of the impact of health restrictions linked to a pandemic on the overall condition of the elderly regardless of their living environment? I shouldn’t have to ask myself this question. When a loved one claims to prefer to die rather than continue to live in isolation for a long time, to which saint should the caregiver dedicate himself to put an end to the torture?
Posted at 10:00 a.m.
After two years of a pandemic, I have the feeling that the fate of the elderly has not always been on the radar of Public Health or the Legault government. When, even during the fifth wave, we lock up and isolate residents supposedly for their own good, without taking into account the extent of the harm caused to them (perhaps irreversible), ignoring the alarmed observations of caregivers, requests from users’ or residents’ committees, it cannot be said that Public Health, which issues and modifies health directives, kept an eye on things.
It is clear that the fate of seniors does not weigh heavily in the balance between potentially serious disadvantages and beneficial effects.
Without the work of journalists, the disarray, even the distress of vulnerable people and caregivers would remain a too well-kept secret. The worst thing is that a scandal resembling abuse must come to light, through the media, in order to make elected officials, ministers and public health react.
I was immersed in reading Marie Charrel’s essay entitled Who’s afraid of old women? at the time of the press briefing by Minister Marguerite Blais accompanied by Dr Luc Boileau. I savored a quotation at the beginning of a chapter: “Contrary to a widespread opinion, old age is the age of discoveries”, Benoîte Groult, The Star Touch2006.
Well, discoveries, there have been during this long pandemic, for us, right, the elderly? As of March 2020, old men and women, i.e. those aged 60 and over, were all vulnerable, therefore to be locked up by having to obey orders dictated in a paternalistic and infantilizing tone. This has more or less continued until today with few essential interruptions.
For too long, confinement and discarding have prevailed for residents in CHSLDs, RIs (intermediate resources) and RPAs (seniors’ residences), with more or less essential services, without stimulation, with little contact with loved ones. and the outside world. Home care has become a basic service subject to constant load shedding, with the exclusion of leisure and day centres.
And too bad for the mental health of all these beautiful people.
According to a large and recent American study, we know that for aging people, isolation has proven to be worse than the risks associated with COVID-19.
When we isolate and lock them up more than necessary, is it really to protect them or because we don’t have time to develop strategies to offset the risk of regression?
When will we stop infantilizing the elderly, treating them as sub-citizens, forgetting them? I want to continue to grow old by making only beautiful discoveries.