Cost of Caring
Lately there has been a great deal of talk, about the Harper Economic Plan, and the Tax Cuts he is doling out, for those who plan to renovate their homes. And yet, I wonder, if that is practical, or even helpful, because in order to get a tax savings of a grand or more, you have to spend a fair amount of cash. Now I get the idea, to get people spending, but what about putting the money to where it can actually help people out?
Tax Cuts are okay, when they provide help, relief to those in need. I mean giving a $100 a month for daycare, means zip if the family is earning over a hundred grand, yet can be helpful, if the family earns under thirty grand, but what about home caregivers?
Frankly, I have given up working, other than online, in order to properly care for my Mother. I don’t mind that, in fact in some ways, it is good, because I think my temperment is better suited to being my own boss, but you know, the costs involved in looking after a person, is not cheap.
Take for example a package of depends for women. You get about 16 or 18 pads, depending on the absorbancy, for around $20 per package. With an average change of 4 times per day, a super absorbency package of 16 will last 4 days. That works out to just over SEVEN PACKAGES PER MONTH or $120.00 plus per month.
THAT IS OVER FOURTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS A YEAR FOR DEPENDS ALONE!
Add into that, sanitary gloves that you need, for changing, for insuring you dont spread any infection to them, or them to you, at about $10 per hundred, and already the bill for the year is rising. Keep in mind, you need 2 gloves for every depend change, which would be at least 8 gloves per day. That means you need at least 2 boxes per month, which is another $20, or $260.00 per year.
ADD into that extra cost for laundry supplies, and bleach, because you have to insure that you kill any germs from urine or feces in her clothes, and you don’t want to spread that to the rest of the household. Factor in the added energy costs for doing more laundry, because you need to use HOT WATER instead of COLD.
Then there is the cost of sanitary garbage bags. I mean you can’t put soiled depends into grocery plastic bags, can you? Not without having a lot of added clean up everytime you empty the special garbage container. They run about $6 per package of 30, which is less than a month’s use. Then there is the need for antiseptic air freshener. I mean the smell is not pleasant, and it does fill the whole household, so you do need a can of lysol or something similar, and that is about $5 per can, and you do use a lot of it.
And yet as a family member, and primary caregiver for my Mother, I cannot claim any of those essentials off my taxes, either Federal or Provincial. I can’t claim the added energy costs, which our Hydro charges me extra for, because I use more than the average household. Like I am going to wash urine soaked nightshirts in cold water? Or not do laundry most every day, because she goes through towels, nightshirts, and housecoats more often, due to her incontinence?
So tax cuts to make your home more valuable, is nice, but what about us, the people in the trenches, who have to give up our jobs, who have to run up and down stairs several times to do laundry, that never seems to end? How about us, who have to figure out whether we can afford a $30 a month video rental fee, or buy that extra package of depends. Both are for her, but sometimes, it gets that close.
WHEN DO WE GET A TAX CUT?
Flu Season & Old People
It is the Flu Season, and perhaps even more of a risk this year, than in many past years. This is especially true for those at risk, such as Health Care Workers, Seniors, & Young Children. And yet our Federal Government is spending 5 times more of our money on promoting it’s unrealistic tax cut program, than on informing us about Swine Flu.
I suppose many will say, so what, it is just advertising, but the truth is simple. KNOWLEDGE IS KEY TO SURVIVING. The more you and I know, the better we can plan and better we can protect ourselves. Sure there is a ton of information on the Internet, but how much of that is true? Lots in the newspapers too, on radio and television, but again, how much of that is true, and HOW MUCH IS JUST HYPE TO SELL PAPERS, RAISE RATINGS?
We need an authoritative site, or organization, to give us the facts. One would suppose that would be our Government, but the fact is, they are more concerned about projecting their image, than they actually are in caring. Least that is the case with both the Harper Conservatives in Ottawa, and the Campbell Government in Victoria.
And what about our health agencies?
Why has VIHA not given us, the families of elderly patients, some information on this, on how to protect our loved ones? OH WAIT I KNOW WHY, IT ISN’T IN THEIR BUDGET BUT THE OLYMPICS ARE ON TRACK.
Point is that I have a support worker coming to my home daily, and they also go to other homes, daily. HOW SAFE AM I & MOM? I mean, are they getting shots to keep them immunized from the Flu, or is the vaccine worthless? What do I do, to protect mom? Should I be taking other precautions, or what?
While the Press creates worry, and makes one afraid, should we be afraid? After all, the Government did send a bunch of body bags to the reserves in Manitoba, so do they know something we don’t, or were they, not just being callous, but paranoid too? So much has been made of this flu, and yet truth is, it doesn’t appear to be any more dangerous than other strains, or is that also hype?
IT IS THAT UNCERTAINTY, WHICH MAKES IT NECESSARY TO SPEND MONEY ON ADS, TO INFORM THE PUBLIC, NOT CREATE FEAR OR PANIC, BUT TO GIVE US THE FACTS. YET HOME RENOVATION TAX CUTS ARE MORE IMPORTANT TO OUR FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
Old Person Smell
Back in the day, when I was a kid, people would comment on the ‘old person smell’ and it used to be the butt of many jokes. I can remember them, but today, I notice it, and frankly it isn’t funny at all. It is just one more sign, of a person’s body decaying, coming to the end of its road.
I notice smells more, these days, and it isn’t pleasant. Changing depends, three to four times a day, is never fun, it is intrusive into the daily routine, though honestly, it is becoming more and more, part of that daily routine.
Trips to do laundry nearly on a daily basis, is part of that routine now, and unless one purchases a lot of the essentials, it will only grow.
See old people, are just that. They have issues with muscle controls, like holding it in until they can get onto the toilet, becomes a battle, not just physical, but mental. And that takes its toll.
I look at mom, and see a lady who was very independent, who married and moved from a city to a true backwards and rather uncivilized neck of the woods, all because of love. I wonder, as I watch her struggle to not void in the depends, how it must of felt, to leave the safety of family and familiar surroundings, to go to a place, that was really just a dot on the map, where the people were rough, weather beaten.
History is there, of living in an area without running water, where daily showers were unheard of, and where you looked forward to the mail order catalogues, not for shopping ads, but for extra toilet paper for the outhouse.
And now you’ve sort of come full cycle, but in a different way.
Now, the running water is there, but your body, your strength isn’t, to get you onto that toilet, to use that shower hear with all its fancy jets to soak you and massage you at the same time. Now, you use strong perfumes, not to smell pretty, but help cover the smell from the undergarments, from the urine and poop, until you can get them changed.
That ‘Old Person Smell’ isn’t funny, it is a grim reminder, that life is drawing to a close.
Erosion of Resistence
I wonder, if the real goal behind all the red tape, all the delay tactics, by Government, is simply to wear a person down? Do they care, that they endanger people’s health, by their refusal to treat people with dignity? Do they care, that one day, they too will be in their nineties, and possibly in need of help or support?
WE ARE RUNNING OUR HEALTH CARE SYSTEM AS A BUSINESS, INSTEAD OF IT BEING A NECESSARY PART OF LIFE.
Adrian Dix is the health critic for the provincial NDP, and still no reply from him, on the policies his party have, in regards to private contracts, or health care.
Ida Jong, our Liberal MLA, has decided, apparently, that the issue of private contracts has been settled, because Beacon Community Services agreed to provide regular health workers, and so to her, it seems the fire is out.
The Times Colonist has yet to reply, despite already having a reporter looking into the growing issue of complaints about Beacon Community Services, and the VIHA contract to them.
Strange isn’t it, until you realize:
ITS ALL ABOUT THE MONEY, NOT THE PEOPLE.
Standards are Bad
Myself, I believe we are lowering our standards, simply out of convenience. I don’t know, not everyone can score a 100% on a test, but I was taught by mom & dad, to go out and do my best, whatever that was. If I got a 40%, that is what I got. They also taught me, that I should always strive to improve, so that if I did get a 40%, I should try to better that next time around.
It wasn’t easy then, still isn’t easy, because life is always grading you.
The more I reflect on the meeting of September 3rd with VIHA & BEACON, the more pissed I am. I mean, they didn’t like me hovering, checking on the care being given to Mom, but shouldn’t that actually be a standard practice? TO HOVER that is.
THINK ABOUT IT FOR A SECOND » A government agency, responsible for health care, sends you a person to aid in the help for a senior citizen. Those people being sent, are from a private firm, not the actual government agency. WHY ARE WE EXPECTED TO AUTOMATICALLY ASSUME THESE PEOPLE ARE PROPERLY TRAINED?
Now I don’t know, but when you hire a new employee in the work force, there is a period called PROBATIONARY, in which anyone new is automatically place on. It is during that time, that the employer has an opportunity to observe the new worker, to insure they are going to be able to do the job, they were hired for.
Stores will add to these new worker’s nametag, ‘TRAINEE’ and usually there is a supervisor or trained experienced worker with them, to help them if difficulties arise. Not only that, but most major business firms, will have staff go in, as customers, to test the service being given by their employees, both new and old.
SO HOW COME I CAN’T DO THAT FOR MY MOTHER?
I would think that any company, committed to giving home support, would be supportive of any family member, who will check on the staff being sent, to insure they know the basics. I mean, by my HOVERING, I know I have prevented some accidents from occurring. I KNOW IT, and yet somehow, according to VIHA & BEACON, that is unimportant. It is a distraction, it isn’t helping the workers.
