Health care and lifestyles are giving the opportunity for senior adults to live into their 90s and older in our world today. Fortunate are those adults who are able to care for themselves in their own homes. Other adults may stay in their home with family members or health care teams visiting and taking care of the details that they are no longer able to do. Some adults move in with family members who are there to help them.
A difficult decision to be made is to have a family member be placed in a residence physically. This decision is faced by many families today. It was a decision that my family members made several years ago for my grandmother. She has been in a personal care home for four years now. To read in the paper the recent article by Pennsylvania Auditor General, Robert Casey Jr., is disturbing. It angers me that our Department of Public Welfare has been "seriously deficient" in its oversight of personal care homes, and the article states that it "repeatedly has been putting the safety of residents at risk." Why would a state that has a large population of retired citizens allow such inhumane treatment to go on?
To go and visit grandma is an all-day trip, partly because I like to add in lunch and some shopping at the mall. Unfortunately, this all changed this past summer when visiting Grandma became just staying at the personal care home and talking with her there. I try to visit her as often as I can, but when I can't, I'm thankful for the mail service that allows her to receive a newsy letter or a decorated card about our family. I'm thankful for the home caretakers who make sure she reads the letters, or they read it to her.
I feel comfortable with the caretakers that my grandmother has. I keep in touch with them. I feel comfy with the clean and lovely decorated surroundings that my grandmother has to enjoy. She has opportunities to participate in outings and activities both at the home and in the community. The personal care home is considered a small home (six ladies) compared to many homes which I hear have between 15 to 25 residents.
A personal care home means that you as a person can usually do for yourself with limited assistance. The caretaker of the home usually makes sure that daily hygiene, exercise, meals and activities are part of each resident's day. Some residents may help in some small chores, such as peeling potatoes, or sweeping a porch. Each person has personal items and responsibilities (making their bed) in their own rooms to take care of.
As a resident's care needs change, sometimes a move is needed to accommodate the needs that they have, depending upon their conditions. This is where we are at this time with my grandmother's current condition. Unfortunately, with age and Alzheimer's disease, her conditions limit her ability to stay at a personal care home. Currently she can be maintained there, but for how long is undetermined. The unfortunate part is that our state legislators would rather pass laws and legislation instead of mandating that enough state workers be available to do the job that is on the books.
As the audit done recently states that the "welfare department is dangerously under staff, with 34 employees monitoring more than 1,800 homes across the state. As a result, almost half of the 1,172 complaints filed with the department regarding care were not investigated within 15 days as required by law. Of those, 20 percent of the complaints classified as "immediate threats" were not investigated within 24 hours as required by law, according to the report." How can we preserve human dignity when we have laws but insufficient state workers to check into the complaints?
What we need are workers to complete their jobs, not more mandates or state laws. One of the laws that I understand they want passed is for personal care home operators to have a four-year college degree. Is this going to make the conditions of the home better⢠I don't think so. Why put small business out of business⢠Why not have sufficient state workers to evaluate the homes and do the job that is on the books?
We need to have respect for all life, including the unborn and the elderly. It's a shame that Pennsylvania legislators don't value our "seasoned citizens." As more of us age in this direction, I think we need to demand that our state government provide funding necessary to insist that services are given that promote human life and human dignity for all of Pennsylvania's citizens.
Grenaldo is guidance counselor for Clifford N. Pritts and Springfield Elementary schools in the Connellsville Area School District.
