Just Another Day in Paradise

What a day at work. I'll have to make up names for people to protect the innocent.

I work in a residential/teaching facility for adults with MR/DD (mental retardation/developmental disabilities). The home in which I work has two sides that share a kitchen and laundry facilities. There are men on one side of the home and ladies on the other.

In no particular order, the pseudonyms of the ladies are: Coldstream, Corbin, Eminence, Guthrie, Jenkins, Newport and Sadieville.

In no particular order, the pseudonyms of the staff are: Bolivia, Japan, Jamaica, Sumatra, and France.

Today I worked with Jamaica and Sumatra and an OT staff. Luckily the OT was from our home, so she was familiar with the ladies and the bathing requirements. (All of our ladies have problems with mobility and require special lifts and tubs for bathing.)

One of the residents, Jenkins, has a walking program. She used to live in another home, but for whatever reason was moved to ours. Another resident there had a walker, so Jenkins decided that she needed one ... and she got it. They also allow her to use a wheelchair for long distances; I believe this is more because she takes so long to walk, rather than actual need ... but that's just my opinion.

Sumatra was the staffperson assigned to Jenkins today. Jenkins, as she often does, hemmed and hawed and tried to get out of her walking program - which is to walk back and forth in the hallway twice every two hours. She got loud - screaming at the staff. Sumatra had to raise her voice to be heard.

A nurse back in the med room took exception to the tone of Sumatra's voice and turned her in for "verbal abuse". Sumatra was pulled from the floor and sent to the investigator's office. This left us short-staffed. Now, if/when I see abuse going on, I stop it. That's my job, but it's more than that. The residents are like another family ... they are my sisters or daughters. This is not meant in a demeaning manner, but some of them are functionally at the age of toddlers. If someone tried to harm one of my children, I would be up in their shit so fast they wouldn't know what hit them. I feel the same way about my resident-sisters.

Now, as the nurse truly felt this was abuse, it was her duty to turn it in. She also took it upon herself to call Jenkins' family and tell them that Jenkins was abused.

An investigator came out to our home and asked us questions. I had been in the kitchen fixing the food trays at the time of the "incident". I told him that I had heard Sumatra's voice, but not the words she said. He asked what kind of employee she was and was Jenkins hard of hearing. I said I would work with Sumatra any time, and that Jenkins was not hard of hearing to my knowledge, but that I had heard she was going to be getting hearing aids at some point. (The way it was put to me was that the audiologist asked her if she thought she would need hearing aids and Jenkins replied that she would.)

I believe that that is an attention-seeking behavior on her part. She did not need the walker when she came to our home, but someone else had one ... so she wanted one too. I don't believe she realizes that she is undermining her own independence ... and the administration and medical/psychological staff is allowing her to do so. But they don't call that abuse.

Back to the investigator ... from the way he spoke, I hoped that Sumatra might be allowed to return to the home the same day. (When someone is pulled from the home, most often they are escorted from the grounds by security and on unpaid leave until the investigation is completed.)

She did get to return. YAY!

Sumatra said that the first question the investigator asked her was did the nurse have a beef with her. Apparently, this nurse is turn-in-happy. This is easy for me to believe.

When I worked in a different home, one male resident was "going off" so radically that it took four staff to keep the resident from harming himself or others. Some of this included hands-on physical restraint. The psychologist reminded us that we were only allowed to hold the resident for 5 seconds, then we had to release him. When he started flailing again (as he did for some time), we were allowed to hold him again. She also wanted to check to see if we were allowed to hold his legs at all. This resident wound up injuring all four staff that night and the nurse in question informed us that "I better not find one scratch on (the resident)".

It is so frustrating sometimes.

A couple other things that happened today.

Corbin is supposed to receive an allergy shot periodically. She is to receive it on day shift, as there are plenty of doctors around then. On 2nd shift, they are on-call, but not on-grounds, so we are not allowed to administer the shots then. Corbin should have received a shot today, but did not.

Eminence had been receiving antibiotics for a UTI (urinary tract infection). The first shift nursing staff was supposed to have gotten a "pure" urine sample by straight catheter from Eminence today, so it could be sent to the on-grounds lab while it was open. Of course, they did not. So the second shift nurse, myself and Sumatra had to obtain the sample. It now has to be stored overnight and sent to the lab in the morning, delaying possible cessation of the strong antibiotics in Eminence's meds. Eminence, who at 72 is the oldest resident on the facility was not happy. I am a fairly strong woman and it took just about everything I had to hold Eminence in such a way so no one got hurt. She wailed and cried and her face got really red. We felt really bad for her. (Ok, we also felt bad for us, because we shouldn't have had to cath her in the first place.) We gave her a snack of ice cream afterwards and she "forgave" us.

Jamaica and Sumatra are off tomorrow, and the rest of the crew will be there. It should be interesting.

I have applied for two positions at the same facility but not in the homes: one is for a librarian at the facility library and the other as "supportive employment specialist" to assist those residents who are able to obtain and maintain off-grounds jobs in their employability.

Mother Freedom is Ringing Her Bell

I decided to start an "anonymous" blog because there are some things I need to get off my chest, and I sure don't want my real life intruding on my internet truth spree.

"Mother Freedom" seemed like a great name as I am a mother and the stunning lack of freedom in most people's lives has all but crushed me in recent weeks. Not that I was naive before, by any means, but I was, nonetheless hopeful ... even optimistic at times. And, those people who will disagree with me can call me an "m-f-er" and, well, it fits .... Mother Freedom, M F, get it?

Four things in particular are bugging me today:

1) An "Intermediate Care Facility" for adults with Mental Retardation, Developmental Disabilities and other medical and psychological diagnoses with which I am acquainted. They look at their people (resident or staff) as numbers and not people.

When did we slip into a world where caretakers can do this to their charges and get away with it?

2) The in-fighting amongst the associates where I work. As it happens, all of my direct co-workers at this time are female. They all complain of various physical ailments as a reason why they cannot take on much work on any given shift. (I do not exempt myself from this ... there are days when Mother Freedom is an mf-er of a very different sort.) Then "they" all complain about having to do all the work themselves, because nobody else does ANYthing. Blah, blah, blah.

When did we slip into a world when women turn their energy on each other instead of the real problem (and no, I don't mean men)?

3) A nurse who is a friend of a friend has been injured at work THREE times in the past year. The first two times the company doctor said she was not injured seriously enough to merit time off work. The 3rd time, her injuries were so severe that her choices were either immediate surgery or face a lifetime of paralysis below the neck. She had the surgery. Now Worker's Comp is DENYING her claim!??! What's THAT about? The icing on this cake is that she was informed that if she was not released with NO restrictions to return to work at her weekly doctor's appointment this week, that she would no longer have a job.

When did we lose the right to be taken care of when injured on the job?

4) This whole Jena 6 deal. I wish I had more information on both sides of the story, but there does seem to be a definite racial bias to this situation. How can white teenagers not be arrested when they commit offensive acts towards people of another color, when teenagers of color are. Prior records do not determine guilt or innocence of a particular alleged crime. Records are of use, however, in the sentencing phase of prosecution.

What ever happened to "we the people"? Notice it does not specify: in/sane, in/capable, fe/male, white/black ....

Well, I could go on FOREVER ... believe me. But just as MF's spirits have taken a beating the last little while, so has her body. So, she is going to rest for a while, until the children wake noisily up for another day.