I wonder how many of the general public are aware that our provincial health care services, or lack thereof, contribute to incontinence in our most vulnerable population of seniors: those in complex care facilities who are unable to advocate or speak up for themselves and their needs?
The practice is, for those in wheelchairs and suffering cognitive decline and/or brain injury, and who can not speak up or express their needs, to simply let them sit in their own excrement and urine, the result of insufficient staffing to regularly check and ask residents if they need to go to the bathroom, and to assist them in doing so.
Perhaps the minister of health and the CEO and senior staff of Interior Health should experience wearing a brief/diaper all day and, instead of using a toilet periodically, let everything gather in the brief, as their policies and practices force so many seniors in their care to do so.
Perhaps they will then realize not only how uncomfortable that is but also how unhygienic it is and how it may explain the high rates of bladder and urinary tract infections in this most vulnerable population, especially in the female population.
If I sound disgusted and angry it is because I am. My wife is one of those vulnerable people in complex care.
Perhaps our local MLAs could take a break from their photo-ops and actually visit and learn first hand what they and their government are doing to these people in our name.
Robert (Bob) Hagman
Enderby
