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DAY 51

10am: we arrived.

As has been pointed out by one of my observant Swedish readers, I was in fact absent this day, as I was sick. I wrote ‘we’ but I meant ‘A’. Apologies for my mistake. And is it worth questioning who would know that I was absent unless they worked at The Facility?

Y was up at the table in the communal room, eating a bowl of yogurt for breakfast. A sat with her briefly, talking by translating phrases into The Language Of The Country and showing her the translation on his phone, so she could read them. She was unresponsive, being silent and looking away, much of the time, but she responded when he asked if she would like to speak to X on the phone. He called X, and Y spoke to him at length, crying. X asked if she wanted him to come in and visit, she expressed ‘yes’, then X said OK, asking her to hand the phone back to A, which she did. Meanwhile, 15 had approached A, and asked him if she could talk to him. Here follows a summary of their interaction:

15: Take the phone away from Y.

A: No, she’s talking to X and hasn’t finished yet.

15: You’re not allowed to sit here.

A: I’m just wishing Y good morning, I’m on my way now, and X is coming in.

15: The residents don’t like any of you being here.

A: We have made friends here, been invited for coffee in people’s rooms, asked for help, etc. They seem to like us. U even asked us to walk him to the store.

15: We would prefer if you did not let the residents buy you things.

A: He didn’t, he bought his groceries and we carried them home.

15: The staff don’t like you here, they know you are recording them in writing, and this makes them uncomfortable.

A: If we are recording, surely you recognise a problem. We wouldn’t have to take notes of what you or the staff say if you didn’t deny, twist words, and lie later.

15: According to the care plan…

A: I have that care plan right here, I translated it. More than half of this stuff does not happen. And how do you justify such long periods of enforced bed rest, sedation, and isolation in the dark? I’ve also read about nurse burnout, when patients start to look just like obstacles. Your staff are trying to make their own lives easier by locking up and sedating residents, it’s not in the residents’ interests.

15: We had a specialist in to look at Y’s feet on 25^th October. Your friend wrote to The National Health And Social Care Inspectorate, complaining that Y’s feet were not taken care of, on 4^th November. So that was not true.

This comment pertains to the friends who visited us about six weeks ago, who noticed the skin and toenail infections on Y’s feet. These had been untreated for some time, and are still untreated.

Also, it seems strange to me that the facility manager is able to recite word for word information passed on to this Inspectorate. I am informed this is standard practice, for the Inspectorate to relay any reports back to the facility concerned, on the assumption that those healthcare professionals have somehow accidentally missed something and will immediately rectify it. As I will elaborate in a near-future post, this system only works if all parties are honest, professional, and have patients’ best interests at the heart of their decisions: not the case here, where mistreatment is intentional.

A: I haven’t looked at Y’s feet so I can’t comment.

15: X is different when he doesn’t have visitors watching him. He never visits his mom, he shows up for five minutes late at night to tell the staff how awful they are, he refuses to come to appointments and meetings with therapists, etc.

A: That is not the X we know, and have known for a long time. He loves his mom. And there are no appointments/meetings with care professionals, as far as we have seen.

15: We had a physical therapist here for Y every day at the beginning, who wanted to show X what exercises he could do to help Y, but X refused to come to meet her.

A: Do you have documentation of that?

15: (shouts in The Language Of The Country, then, in English) I don’t want to talk with you any more! (storms off)

A left. Meanwhile, X had arrived, about 10.30, and taken Y away from A and 15’s conversation. Y was low in energy, but was very happy to be with X. They walked around a bit, at Y’s request. They met U in the corridor, and he asked X to come into his room and help him make a couple of calls to his bank and fix his cell phone. Y was happy to be involved, U entertaining her with stories and objects. 15, having just left A, marched in and complained at X that he was not allowed to hassle residents, and that he was not allowed in that room. She pulled Y’s wheelchair away, twisting Y’s left arm back over her shoulder, hurting her (Y had still been holding X’s hand). They returned to Y’s room, where X tried to calm and reassure Y.

X left at 12. A called in at 5.15, to ascertain that Y had been taken out to the communal room for dinner; she had. X returned at 7.30 to wish Y goodnight; she was locked in her room, sitting in her wheelchair. After 10 minutes staff member 2 arrived, opened the door but refused to let X in, and went in herself. (X could see Y through the open door.) Y screamed as 2 closed and locked the door behind her. At 8pm, X was finally allowed into Y’s room. He saw that residents’ rooms were almost all locked again (most people were locked in, but R and P were locked out); staff explained that there was too much running in and out of other people’s rooms, so all would be locked from now on. U, whose door was not locked, informed X that in fact 15 had told residents that A and I were not allowed in any of their rooms, and he (U) was upset about this behaviour, asking us to ensure it was publicised. X left at 9pm, when Y was asleep.