Chaplain's Corner

We live in a time and in a nation where human rights important. A few months ago I was visiting one of the many people who were in hospital who are designated “Awaiting Placement”. It is interesting how in a society that values human rights and the dignity of the individual that we devalue individuals by relegating them to an impersonal category like “Awaiting Placement”.

Some might counter, “These folks have dementia, what difference does it make?” That kind of thinking belies the problem. Dementia does not strip a person of their personhood, of their “self”. Sometimes it does just the opposite. I have at times seen dementia unveiling personhood. Some individuals who experience dementia actually are able to shed some of the “masks” that we all tend to wear and become more authentically who they are.

One gentleman I have had the privilege of getting to know who is experiencing the early stages of dementia spoke of his stay in the hospital “Awaiting Placement” as “incarceration”. He wasn’t permitted to leave the unit of the hospital where he was roomed. He was fitted with a “wander guard” that set off alarms should he get too close to an exit of the unit. To add insult to injury he was deemed to be infected with one of those antibiotic resistant germs that placed him in isolation, restricting him not just to a “ward” but one room.

Unable to recall the name of the “bug” that places him in the isolation category he laments the strange reality that in free country like Canada, law abiding citizens like himself are being imprisoned and not allowed to returned to their homes simply because they have gotten a bit forgetful. His dear wife is a gem, she is not able to care for him at home, never-the-less she has learned to navigate the strange realities that have been thrust upon them as a couple while allowing his lament and sympathizing with his predicament.

Sadly, the staff at the hospital unwittingly perpetrate the dehumanizing and disrespectful treatment of this law-abiding Canadian citizen that is “incarcerated” because he is “diseased”. Now, as I have pondered this reality, I do not believe the problem has anything to do with insensitive, disrespectful staff. I know these people and they are good care givers, they try hard to care well. I believe the problem has to do with the fact that this man and many like him are being cared for in environments in which the setting and the training of the staff will in all likelihood always leave persons with dementia feeling disrespected.

A medical, surgical or rehab hospital unit is no place for people with dementia. They are not “sick”. The environment is too institutional. Often, especially if they are “busy” in their dementia, staff find it impossible to “keep track” of them and often the incarceration is compounded by confining the person to a broda chair. A broda is a chair that often is fitted with restraints, a lap table, and brakes that effectively keep the individual imprisoned in the chair. Some sit in them most of the day, every day, seeing nothing more interesting than the hall of the hospital unit. They become obvious but invisible. Their chair becomes one more obstacle to be dodged, like a medial cart or an empty wheel-chair.

Forgive me if I am painting a tragic picture, but it is not my picture. It has been painted for me by men and women with dementia that end up housed on hospital units for months because we have no better place to care for them. Their voice deserves to be heard, I simply wanted to speak for those who feel like prisoner and who cannot understand how in a country like Canada, something like this could happen. Maybe we can’t change things – but we can understand.