but it comes with responsibilities.
Yesterday there was a largely peaceful "protest" in the city but I was alarmed by how many people attended it. There were more than the usual number that such a protest would garner.
Ms W gave me a clue as to why.
"Some of the others are going."
"And you aren't?"
"No. They reckon I don't care but it is because I do care. They are just going so they can go out."
I waited and she sighed,
"I talked to Dad about it. He explained about how they closed off the APY lands to protect people. What if someone goes to the protest and gets the virus and then takes it off there?"
The traditional APY lands most certainly do not need anyone with the virus going in to visit. It would be catastrophic. They were isolated from the rest of the state even when we were in the most serious state of isolation. Rightly so too. There are already far too many health issues in those areas.
"Have you tried explaining that to the others?"
"Yes but they won't listen. It's just like something to do for them. It's like an excuse to go out. I mean like if they really cared they would always be nice - like you said this morning in the paper."
I had the lead letter in yesterday's paper.
"You know my friend S.... ,"Ms W went on, "Her dad has a heap of people working for him. There's a little bunch of them who are all different... two boys with Down Syndrome who went to that school down there and a guy in a wheelchair and then there is this big tall really skinny boy who comes from up north somewhere. He's from the lands. He's learning how to do things - like an apprentice - and Mr R.... says they are just as important as anyone else. He tries to get everyone to mix. I don't know if it works but it should be like that."
I agreed. I also agreed with her decision not to go to the protest. I left her sweeping up leaves.
On my way home I saw her father who was concerned by the whole protest going ahead. The government was not happy with it but knew all too well that to refuse to allow it would bring about criticisms of "racism". It was the job of the Police Commissioner to sanction it and he was, rightly, concerned about the potential for infection.
I wonder how many people would have gone to a protest if the situation had been normal? It is a long weekend here. Many people would have been away or going to sport or other activities. Social isolation is not likely to have changed attitudes or behaviour. Ms W may be right about some of them when she said, "They are just going to go out."
We need to change permanently.
Sunday, 7 June 2020
Saturday, 6 June 2020
Cutting down trees
is not something I like to see done. I know it is essential sometimes. The tree might be dead or in a dangerous condition.
In order to avoid that state of affairs Middle Cat sent her "gardening man" over with his chainsaw and wood chipper yesterday. It has to be explained here that Middle Cat's "gardening man" does not appear at her place on a regular basis. He comes in to do the things she cannot do and her husband does not have the time to do. (S....often works a sixty hour week - some of it at very odd hours indeed.)
But T.... arrived yesterday, late because he had left his chainsaw at home. "Blimey Cat - I'd leave my head behind..."
We looked at the bottle brush and the avocado. The bottle brush should be a bush but Mum let that one grow. She hated cutting back anything at all. Our regular "heavy gardening" man has been trimming it but there was a dead branch that was in danger of dropping into the driveway - perhaps on to the roof of a car.
"That bit needs to go," T.... said. I agreed.
"I can get at in round the back."
I agreed again. He looked some more, marked out some likely points. We stood back and looked. Yes, that seemed sensible.
The avocado tree came up by accident. Again, it was just left to grow. It's too high for me to reach any avocados that do happen to appear. The possums usually get those.
"Needs to get cut down a bit as well as back - all those dead bits can come out. I'll get rid of these three suckers. What about that bit?"
"That bit" goes across into the garden next door. Both the neighbour and I have been hoping that it might bear fruit. It never has. I explained.
"Best it get cut back because it will help this bit here."
I left him to it and tried not to cringe at the noise of the chain saw.
Four hours later the whole job was done. Our "green" bin was less than half full because he had used his wood chipper. The drive way was swept clear of all debris and he had gone to mow Middle Cat's back lawn.
The whole job cost us a tenth of what a "professional" tree service would have cost.
"Nah, I told your sister what it would cost. That's plenty," he told me. "Let me know if you need anything else like that done."
We will.
When he had gone I looked up at the bottle brush. The birds had gone back into it. And in the night the possums were back in the avocado tree. This morning I looked again. It was almost as if the avocado tree smiled at me and said, "Thanks for the hair cut."
In order to avoid that state of affairs Middle Cat sent her "gardening man" over with his chainsaw and wood chipper yesterday. It has to be explained here that Middle Cat's "gardening man" does not appear at her place on a regular basis. He comes in to do the things she cannot do and her husband does not have the time to do. (S....often works a sixty hour week - some of it at very odd hours indeed.)
But T.... arrived yesterday, late because he had left his chainsaw at home. "Blimey Cat - I'd leave my head behind..."
We looked at the bottle brush and the avocado. The bottle brush should be a bush but Mum let that one grow. She hated cutting back anything at all. Our regular "heavy gardening" man has been trimming it but there was a dead branch that was in danger of dropping into the driveway - perhaps on to the roof of a car.
"That bit needs to go," T.... said. I agreed.
"I can get at in round the back."
I agreed again. He looked some more, marked out some likely points. We stood back and looked. Yes, that seemed sensible.
The avocado tree came up by accident. Again, it was just left to grow. It's too high for me to reach any avocados that do happen to appear. The possums usually get those.
"Needs to get cut down a bit as well as back - all those dead bits can come out. I'll get rid of these three suckers. What about that bit?"
"That bit" goes across into the garden next door. Both the neighbour and I have been hoping that it might bear fruit. It never has. I explained.
"Best it get cut back because it will help this bit here."
I left him to it and tried not to cringe at the noise of the chain saw.
Four hours later the whole job was done. Our "green" bin was less than half full because he had used his wood chipper. The drive way was swept clear of all debris and he had gone to mow Middle Cat's back lawn.
The whole job cost us a tenth of what a "professional" tree service would have cost.
"Nah, I told your sister what it would cost. That's plenty," he told me. "Let me know if you need anything else like that done."
We will.
When he had gone I looked up at the bottle brush. The birds had gone back into it. And in the night the possums were back in the avocado tree. This morning I looked again. It was almost as if the avocado tree smiled at me and said, "Thanks for the hair cut."
Friday, 5 June 2020
The planned protest march
here should be abandoned.
I know many people will disagree with me. They will have the say "we have the right to protest". I agree. There is a right to protest.
It has to be done legally and sensibly and without risk to other people. Provided those things are taken into consideration then there is a right to protest.
Right now though people have been told they may not gather in large numbers. It is not sensible to do it and protestors are risking the health and safety of other people as well as themselves.
The lives of my friends, whatever their racial background, matter to me but I won't be going out there to protest. There are better ways of showing them I care, of showing that I care about all people.
A couple of days ago at the shopping centre I was undoing the lock on my bike when I heard a warm, "Hello Cat, haven't seen you for a while." I looked up to see my friend J.... She is Muslim, wears the hijab and dresses traditionally. We met long ago over a discussion about biscuits when her youngest child was still not going to school. Both her children are now at university. Ours is the sort of casual friendship where we don't visit one another at home but have sat and had a cold drink together on a hot day and a hot drink on a cold day. We know about each other's families. I have met her children more than once and her mother once.
It still saddens me that there are people who seem to think there is something wrong with this. "You shouldn't talk to her," I was told once. Why? I talk to young hijab and jeans wearing students about their coursework in the same way and often in the same place. What's so different?
Chatting to J... and sharing some time over a drink is a better form of protest than going on a march.
I didn't get a hug from my friend M... when I saw him recently. He usually gives me the best sort of bear hug but hugging is not allowed right now so we gave each other a non-contact high five and laughed about it. The bank clerk did not look impressed.
"Do you know him?"
I wanted to say, "What business is it of yours?"
Instead I said, "Yes, I've known him since my teens. He's been like a brother to me."
I hope my tone of voice told the bank clerk, "It is none of your business and would you have asked if the colour of his skin had been different?"
M... has been a friend for more than fifty years and, were it not for the wretched virus, we would have hugged. Doing that in public is a much better form of protest than going on a march.
I could add examples from the lives of people I know. They care every bit as deeply and passionately about others as those who want to go out and protest. They are just getting on with the business of being friends, being supportive - and sometimes assertive.
If everyone who went out to protest actually did that in public every day then perhaps we would not need those sort of protests.
I know many people will disagree with me. They will have the say "we have the right to protest". I agree. There is a right to protest.
It has to be done legally and sensibly and without risk to other people. Provided those things are taken into consideration then there is a right to protest.
Right now though people have been told they may not gather in large numbers. It is not sensible to do it and protestors are risking the health and safety of other people as well as themselves.
The lives of my friends, whatever their racial background, matter to me but I won't be going out there to protest. There are better ways of showing them I care, of showing that I care about all people.
A couple of days ago at the shopping centre I was undoing the lock on my bike when I heard a warm, "Hello Cat, haven't seen you for a while." I looked up to see my friend J.... She is Muslim, wears the hijab and dresses traditionally. We met long ago over a discussion about biscuits when her youngest child was still not going to school. Both her children are now at university. Ours is the sort of casual friendship where we don't visit one another at home but have sat and had a cold drink together on a hot day and a hot drink on a cold day. We know about each other's families. I have met her children more than once and her mother once.
It still saddens me that there are people who seem to think there is something wrong with this. "You shouldn't talk to her," I was told once. Why? I talk to young hijab and jeans wearing students about their coursework in the same way and often in the same place. What's so different?
Chatting to J... and sharing some time over a drink is a better form of protest than going on a march.
I didn't get a hug from my friend M... when I saw him recently. He usually gives me the best sort of bear hug but hugging is not allowed right now so we gave each other a non-contact high five and laughed about it. The bank clerk did not look impressed.
"Do you know him?"
I wanted to say, "What business is it of yours?"
Instead I said, "Yes, I've known him since my teens. He's been like a brother to me."
I hope my tone of voice told the bank clerk, "It is none of your business and would you have asked if the colour of his skin had been different?"
M... has been a friend for more than fifty years and, were it not for the wretched virus, we would have hugged. Doing that in public is a much better form of protest than going on a march.
I could add examples from the lives of people I know. They care every bit as deeply and passionately about others as those who want to go out and protest. They are just getting on with the business of being friends, being supportive - and sometimes assertive.
If everyone who went out to protest actually did that in public every day then perhaps we would not need those sort of protests.
Thursday, 4 June 2020
We are now "technically in recession"
apparently - and the Opposition is having a field day about the "mismanagement" of the economy.
Is it really that bad?
I was talking to a neighbour yesterday. She is a retired economist who once held a quite senior position in the public service. Her view is that things could be a lot worse than they are. She feels the present government has actually done a good job balancing out keeping people as safe as possible and stimulating the economy.
I said "but a lot of people have lost their jobs and businesses have closed". Her response was,
"Cat, some of those businesses were going to close anyway. The way things were they were not going to survive. This has just caused it to happen sooner rather than later."
I do not pretend to understand economics - apart from the very basics of "I have enough money to buy this but not that" and "if I want to save money then I need to spend less than I get".
There have been times in my life when I was not getting any money. I watched my savings, such as they were, dwindle to almost nothing. I have never been homeless and I have always been able to think, "I can eat today" although I have sometimes wondered how long that would last.
What I don't know is what it feels like to pour everything into a business you believe in only to lose everything. Two of the businesses in our shopping centre have closed for good. The manager of a third spoke to me yesterday - to thank me when I had picked up something that had fallen from a rack outside. We chatted for a moment and she said, "We aren't bringing in any stock for winter this year." I know part of that is a supply problem - most things in that shop would come from China - but I also wondered how much of it is a different problem. They seem to have had a "sale" of one sort or another for the entire year to date.
Even the manager of the supermarket has told me that, apart from the panic buying, the pattern has been different of late.
My brother and his partner moved house last year - out of the city and into a much smaller country town. It is still close enough to the city to be accessible but the cost of living there is going to be less. Further still and they might have the additional costs of living in a rural area but this seems to be a nice balance between the two for lifestyle without the added expenses. The house is small and there is presently no space for a workshop. It has cost my brother almost $20,000 to date to get the necessary permissions to build a room on to the house to be used as one until it needs to be turned into another bedroom or a "granny flat". He can and will do the actual work himself with some help from his son-in-law who works in the industry. Unless he did that he simply could not afford to do it.
The cost to my brother far exceeds the cost of providing what few services have been provided. He expected this - although it has now exceeded even his down to earth expectations. Everything has gone up in price because of the twin disasters of the bush fires and now Covid19. More regulations have been brought in. There are different ways of doing things. He commented that they had budgeted for this and that not being able to take a planned holiday means they can afford the extra cost. In the end it will add value to their home. It's a calculated risk that will pay but, like me, he is watching businesses go to the wall and wondering what it is like to lose everything.
Looking at the empty shops yesterday though I was reminded of Mr Micawber,
Is it really that bad?
I was talking to a neighbour yesterday. She is a retired economist who once held a quite senior position in the public service. Her view is that things could be a lot worse than they are. She feels the present government has actually done a good job balancing out keeping people as safe as possible and stimulating the economy.
I said "but a lot of people have lost their jobs and businesses have closed". Her response was,
"Cat, some of those businesses were going to close anyway. The way things were they were not going to survive. This has just caused it to happen sooner rather than later."
I do not pretend to understand economics - apart from the very basics of "I have enough money to buy this but not that" and "if I want to save money then I need to spend less than I get".
There have been times in my life when I was not getting any money. I watched my savings, such as they were, dwindle to almost nothing. I have never been homeless and I have always been able to think, "I can eat today" although I have sometimes wondered how long that would last.
What I don't know is what it feels like to pour everything into a business you believe in only to lose everything. Two of the businesses in our shopping centre have closed for good. The manager of a third spoke to me yesterday - to thank me when I had picked up something that had fallen from a rack outside. We chatted for a moment and she said, "We aren't bringing in any stock for winter this year." I know part of that is a supply problem - most things in that shop would come from China - but I also wondered how much of it is a different problem. They seem to have had a "sale" of one sort or another for the entire year to date.
Even the manager of the supermarket has told me that, apart from the panic buying, the pattern has been different of late.
My brother and his partner moved house last year - out of the city and into a much smaller country town. It is still close enough to the city to be accessible but the cost of living there is going to be less. Further still and they might have the additional costs of living in a rural area but this seems to be a nice balance between the two for lifestyle without the added expenses. The house is small and there is presently no space for a workshop. It has cost my brother almost $20,000 to date to get the necessary permissions to build a room on to the house to be used as one until it needs to be turned into another bedroom or a "granny flat". He can and will do the actual work himself with some help from his son-in-law who works in the industry. Unless he did that he simply could not afford to do it.
The cost to my brother far exceeds the cost of providing what few services have been provided. He expected this - although it has now exceeded even his down to earth expectations. Everything has gone up in price because of the twin disasters of the bush fires and now Covid19. More regulations have been brought in. There are different ways of doing things. He commented that they had budgeted for this and that not being able to take a planned holiday means they can afford the extra cost. In the end it will add value to their home. It's a calculated risk that will pay but, like me, he is watching businesses go to the wall and wondering what it is like to lose everything.
Looking at the empty shops yesterday though I was reminded of Mr Micawber,
Wednesday, 3 June 2020
Access to the internet
and the ability to use a computer seems to be taken for granted. It should not be.
There is a letter about that very topic in this morning's paper but I was reminded of it last night. A friend rang me to say that a mutual friend had fallen and injured herself. Could I please let someone else know? Why? Because the person who phoned me does not have internet access and had no way of finding as much as a telephone number. You look those up on line now - and that only works if it is an old "land line" sort of number. Mobile numbers are nowhere to be found.
Once there would have been a telephone book with a print size you could actually read (if with a little difficulty) and she would have made the call herself.
This morning's letter pointed out the increasing insistence on doing business through a website or contacting a government department or other service through a website. I immediately thought of all those people who depend on spending time at the library to use the computers there. Many of them are older unemployed people who do not have access to the internet. They do not have the sort of mobile phone plan (if they even have a mobile phone) that allows them to make endless calls and "hold the line" for minutes on end. If they need to make contact with Centrelink (our social welfare service) then they need to go and make an appointment to - wait for this - make an appointment. They have cut the number of offices for Centrelink so many people have to travel further.
The past few weeks must have been a nightmare for such people. They would still be expected to show they were searching for work and those who were already seeking help are now competing with those newly out of work but with the advantage of recent experience.
There are all sorts of little issues that come up. Some of them are relatively simple. Even I can sort some of them out - mostly because I am used to reading forms and trying to work out what the writer intended and how the relevant legislation might be applied. There are things however that confuse me completely. I simply do not understand how the mind of the so called "public servant" worked at that point. I have seen legislation applied in very creative ways and for very creative reasons. It does not help when you log into a website and you are faced with a range of options and not one of them applies to the problem. Phone them? The same options might apply - or there might be fewer options. Go to the wrong option in the hope of talking to someone, anyone? No, that doesn't work. It is not their responsibility. They cannot give you an answer. You will need to contact.... And so it goes on.
Perhaps it is time for some smart individual to set up a service which allows people to say, "I need to actually talk to a real person" and get them through to someone who can help.
Is it time to stop relying on computers and starting to rely on communicating instead?
There is a letter about that very topic in this morning's paper but I was reminded of it last night. A friend rang me to say that a mutual friend had fallen and injured herself. Could I please let someone else know? Why? Because the person who phoned me does not have internet access and had no way of finding as much as a telephone number. You look those up on line now - and that only works if it is an old "land line" sort of number. Mobile numbers are nowhere to be found.
Once there would have been a telephone book with a print size you could actually read (if with a little difficulty) and she would have made the call herself.
This morning's letter pointed out the increasing insistence on doing business through a website or contacting a government department or other service through a website. I immediately thought of all those people who depend on spending time at the library to use the computers there. Many of them are older unemployed people who do not have access to the internet. They do not have the sort of mobile phone plan (if they even have a mobile phone) that allows them to make endless calls and "hold the line" for minutes on end. If they need to make contact with Centrelink (our social welfare service) then they need to go and make an appointment to - wait for this - make an appointment. They have cut the number of offices for Centrelink so many people have to travel further.
The past few weeks must have been a nightmare for such people. They would still be expected to show they were searching for work and those who were already seeking help are now competing with those newly out of work but with the advantage of recent experience.
There are all sorts of little issues that come up. Some of them are relatively simple. Even I can sort some of them out - mostly because I am used to reading forms and trying to work out what the writer intended and how the relevant legislation might be applied. There are things however that confuse me completely. I simply do not understand how the mind of the so called "public servant" worked at that point. I have seen legislation applied in very creative ways and for very creative reasons. It does not help when you log into a website and you are faced with a range of options and not one of them applies to the problem. Phone them? The same options might apply - or there might be fewer options. Go to the wrong option in the hope of talking to someone, anyone? No, that doesn't work. It is not their responsibility. They cannot give you an answer. You will need to contact.... And so it goes on.
Perhaps it is time for some smart individual to set up a service which allows people to say, "I need to actually talk to a real person" and get them through to someone who can help.
Is it time to stop relying on computers and starting to rely on communicating instead?
Tuesday, 2 June 2020
A colleague in Minneapolis
has left me the following message this morning,
"Hi Cat, we are safe but everyone is confined indoors. It is not safe to be out on the streets. Hoping the situation will calm down soon and I can at least get some groceries."
I had asked what the situation was with his family. He has two teenage boys who, from all accounts, seem to be very decent and hardworking boys. There was another message from his daughter, aged about eleven, a similarly nice child. She sent me several emails last year when she was doing a school project and always said "thank you". In it she simply said, "I'm scared and T.... and S.... are scared too." (T... and S... are her brothers.)
An eleven year old should never have to write that. I would be "scared" too. They are African-American or "people of colour" or, as they like to say, "just American". Their father is a doctor, their mother is a biochemist. They are all intelligent and able people who go to church, pay their taxes and try to do the right thing by other people.
Right now it is not safe for them to be out on the streets of their own home city because they live in an area where the worst of the rioting has occurred. Other parts of the city may well be safe but it is not safe for them yet.
Over the weekend we had two incidents here. One involved a twelve year old and a fifteen year old, both girls. They rammed a shopping trolley into the window of a bank in a shopping centre. When asked "why" the younger one apparently just shrugged and said, "Because..." Did they think they were going to rob the bank? It would all have been caught on security cameras. If that had happened in Minneapolis right now I wonder how the police would have responded. Would the twelve year old have been given bail?
The other incident was even more serious and involved three teenagers, one of whom was caught on camera earlier this year seriously injuring a younger girl. This time she has allegedly been involved in the bashing of a taxi driver and then driving the taxi two hundred kilometres to a country town. She was caught there with two young accomplices also alleged to be involved. It would seem she is seriously disturbed and out of control. It was her behaviour which prompted me to inquire as to the safety of my colleague and his family.
I have tried not to watch the news footage from America. It is too disturbing. While the vast majority of the country is probably as quiet as usual people must be on edge and wondering whether trouble could flare up where they live. It makes me realise how easy it is for such things to get started. It also makes me realise how easy it would be for innocent and decent young people to be adversely affected or - worse - become involved because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or went to the aid of someone else.
I just hope they stay safe.
"Hi Cat, we are safe but everyone is confined indoors. It is not safe to be out on the streets. Hoping the situation will calm down soon and I can at least get some groceries."
I had asked what the situation was with his family. He has two teenage boys who, from all accounts, seem to be very decent and hardworking boys. There was another message from his daughter, aged about eleven, a similarly nice child. She sent me several emails last year when she was doing a school project and always said "thank you". In it she simply said, "I'm scared and T.... and S.... are scared too." (T... and S... are her brothers.)
An eleven year old should never have to write that. I would be "scared" too. They are African-American or "people of colour" or, as they like to say, "just American". Their father is a doctor, their mother is a biochemist. They are all intelligent and able people who go to church, pay their taxes and try to do the right thing by other people.
Right now it is not safe for them to be out on the streets of their own home city because they live in an area where the worst of the rioting has occurred. Other parts of the city may well be safe but it is not safe for them yet.
Over the weekend we had two incidents here. One involved a twelve year old and a fifteen year old, both girls. They rammed a shopping trolley into the window of a bank in a shopping centre. When asked "why" the younger one apparently just shrugged and said, "Because..." Did they think they were going to rob the bank? It would all have been caught on security cameras. If that had happened in Minneapolis right now I wonder how the police would have responded. Would the twelve year old have been given bail?
The other incident was even more serious and involved three teenagers, one of whom was caught on camera earlier this year seriously injuring a younger girl. This time she has allegedly been involved in the bashing of a taxi driver and then driving the taxi two hundred kilometres to a country town. She was caught there with two young accomplices also alleged to be involved. It would seem she is seriously disturbed and out of control. It was her behaviour which prompted me to inquire as to the safety of my colleague and his family.
I have tried not to watch the news footage from America. It is too disturbing. While the vast majority of the country is probably as quiet as usual people must be on edge and wondering whether trouble could flare up where they live. It makes me realise how easy it is for such things to get started. It also makes me realise how easy it would be for innocent and decent young people to be adversely affected or - worse - become involved because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time or went to the aid of someone else.
I just hope they stay safe.
Monday, 1 June 2020
"Home care packages" for the
elderly have been much on my mind in recent days.
Some time ago the GP ordered a new ACAT (Aged Care Assessment Team) visit for the Senior Cat. This was to see whether there was anything new he needed and whether he would be eligible for a place in an aged care facility.
As I expected nothing has come of this visit. It is thought we are "coping". We don't want the Senior Cat to go into care if we can avoid it and the sort of help he needs is not the sort that can be readily provided by any sort of "home care package". It looks as if he will continue to be provided with help to shower three times a week. For the rest it will be up to us - mostly Middle Cat and myself.
His great friend K... now has Alzheimer's and is being cared for by his wife. K is 91 and his wife is 89. They live near their daughter. She works full time but the government package they get works in such a way that she is still expected to provide assistance for them and for her husband's in-laws. Her husband does help and help more than many do but it is still difficult for them. In other words the government is relying on families to "do the right thing" and care for their own.
I have no argument that it is the responsibility of family to care for each other. Our clan is close knit and we do just that. It is not simply parents and children but siblings and cousins who care for each other. While it may not be constant or consistent they are there and, in an emergency, they will help.
I do however have an issue with people who have worked all their lives and paid taxes not being able to get assistance at all. I also have an issue with others being expected to give up their own careers to care for members of their family because there is no assistance available even if they are prepared to pay for it.
Two years ago an elderly friend had heart surgery. She lives alone. Her home is not far from ours.
Her daughter lives several hundred kilometres away in a small town where she is the local nurse. There is no doctor there and of course no hospital either. She has been very good about travelling backwards and forwards to see and help her mother. As her mother is no longer allowed to drive the neighbours and I have been helping out with shopping. Her mother gets a taxi to go to the doctor. The neighbour they have been paying to clean and help her with her laundry is leaving. The other neighbours work and do not want to help in this way.
Her son is a doctor who works very long hours in another rural community. He does what he can too.
Trying to get her the help she needs seems almost impossible.
"All we can suggest is that you live with your daughter or that your daughter comes to live here," she was told. I have seen the letter in which that suggestion was made.
It in no way takes into account that her daughter is married and that her own children live and work in the community surrounding the small town. It does not take into account the need for regular visits to the GP and to the cardiac specialist.
"I could cope Cat if they would provide someone to clean and help with the sheets a couple of hours a fortnight even." She probably could. It isn't a lot to ask for someone who was widowed young, brought up two children alone and paid taxes all her life. She will be expected to pay for the help she receives but it needs to be provided through the aged care system so that she is not relying on private individuals. Of course she might be lucky and get an "angel" who really does care but it is unlikely. She needs to have a package that can be relied on.
There is something so very, very wrong about all this.
Some time ago the GP ordered a new ACAT (Aged Care Assessment Team) visit for the Senior Cat. This was to see whether there was anything new he needed and whether he would be eligible for a place in an aged care facility.
As I expected nothing has come of this visit. It is thought we are "coping". We don't want the Senior Cat to go into care if we can avoid it and the sort of help he needs is not the sort that can be readily provided by any sort of "home care package". It looks as if he will continue to be provided with help to shower three times a week. For the rest it will be up to us - mostly Middle Cat and myself.
His great friend K... now has Alzheimer's and is being cared for by his wife. K is 91 and his wife is 89. They live near their daughter. She works full time but the government package they get works in such a way that she is still expected to provide assistance for them and for her husband's in-laws. Her husband does help and help more than many do but it is still difficult for them. In other words the government is relying on families to "do the right thing" and care for their own.
I have no argument that it is the responsibility of family to care for each other. Our clan is close knit and we do just that. It is not simply parents and children but siblings and cousins who care for each other. While it may not be constant or consistent they are there and, in an emergency, they will help.
I do however have an issue with people who have worked all their lives and paid taxes not being able to get assistance at all. I also have an issue with others being expected to give up their own careers to care for members of their family because there is no assistance available even if they are prepared to pay for it.
Two years ago an elderly friend had heart surgery. She lives alone. Her home is not far from ours.
Her daughter lives several hundred kilometres away in a small town where she is the local nurse. There is no doctor there and of course no hospital either. She has been very good about travelling backwards and forwards to see and help her mother. As her mother is no longer allowed to drive the neighbours and I have been helping out with shopping. Her mother gets a taxi to go to the doctor. The neighbour they have been paying to clean and help her with her laundry is leaving. The other neighbours work and do not want to help in this way.
Her son is a doctor who works very long hours in another rural community. He does what he can too.
Trying to get her the help she needs seems almost impossible.
"All we can suggest is that you live with your daughter or that your daughter comes to live here," she was told. I have seen the letter in which that suggestion was made.
It in no way takes into account that her daughter is married and that her own children live and work in the community surrounding the small town. It does not take into account the need for regular visits to the GP and to the cardiac specialist.
"I could cope Cat if they would provide someone to clean and help with the sheets a couple of hours a fortnight even." She probably could. It isn't a lot to ask for someone who was widowed young, brought up two children alone and paid taxes all her life. She will be expected to pay for the help she receives but it needs to be provided through the aged care system so that she is not relying on private individuals. Of course she might be lucky and get an "angel" who really does care but it is unlikely. She needs to have a package that can be relied on.
There is something so very, very wrong about all this.
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