Rest Homes

The image of rest home life in people’s minds is often a negative one: sad, lonely, confused and forgotten old people living in drab, smelly quarters, eating boring ‘institution’ food and treated in an offhand manner by unskilled staff. The report of an elderly woman having her mouth taped shut by a rest home worker will have reinforced this image. While not wanting to minimise the appalling nature of this incident I would like to paint a different picture of rest home living. If we are going to ‘name and shame’, I feel we should also ‘credit and praise’.

Imagine a community float parade where the most applauded float is the one carrying a beautiful 103-year-old fairy and a number of pre-school elves. Picture a gentleman in his nineties busking with his banjo on a Saturday morning at the local market. He is raising money for Starship Hospital and the local kindergarten. He was very keen to busk for the rest home where he is a resident, but the manager gently explained to him that this would be a ‘bad look’. Picture another elderly gentleman taking his fishing rod around the rocks and returning with a snapper that the rest home staff cook for him. He then presents it to his special friend who is waiting for him and wears a particular dress and cardigan because she knows he likes the outfit.

Picture this poignant scene: elderly residents nervously awaiting the arrival of the District Health Board Assessor, dressed in their good clothes, trying as hard as they can to appear sprightly, alert and, most of all, mobile. Their fear is that they will be considered to need full hospital care and will have to leave the place that has been their home and where they had hoped to spend all their remaining days.

Such images are not shown on television, much less the more mundane daily events such as a caregiver kissing an elderly woman goodnight, a musical duo singing old-time songs or a small busload eating fish and chips on the beach. Nor is the predicament of rest homes reported on whereby they are increasingly squeezed for funding, but are required to do more and more under the terms of their contracts.

This week we feature the second part of an article on policy issues affecting woman. The funding issue for rest homes is one that I feel merits attention in the run-up to the elections. We will all be old one day and the majority of rest home residents are women.