Mark James

5 yrs

To : Gov. Jon Bel Edwards

It isn’t COVID-19 killing the elderly. It’s depression.

Imagine this.
You haven’t seen a single family member or friend in 6 months. You missed your 70th wedding anniversary. You need new glasses but you can’t get an appointment to get them. For the 400th meal in a row, you ate in the exact same location alone. For 180 days, you’ve left your room only a handful of times. You use high-flow oxygen and can’t breathe with a mask on. You haven’t heard the sound of laughter filling the dining room. You haven’t smelled the food being prepared in the kitchen. You haven’t been in a vehicle. Your first great-grandchild was born in April and you haven’t seen them yet. Your granddaughter graduated college, the first in your family, and you missed it. Your sister died and you couldn’t go to her funeral.

Even without visitors, face to face appointments, group activities, and communal dining, the elderly in nursing homes are STILL being infected by the coronavirus. These restrictions have slowed the spread, but they haven’t stopped it and they never will. What these restrictions have stopped amongst nursing home residents is freedom, joy, dignity, conversation, fellowship, and the opportunity to make memories.

Nursing homes should continue to be vigilant and mindful of infection control procedures, but to what end? Is attempting to “stop” the inevitable worth the lives of those who don’t survive the isolation and depression. People without even contracting the virus are dying of COVID-19. The loneliness and isolation caused by quarantine is killing them and I am confident that this will become much more prevelant as we hit the holiday season.

Mr. Governor, have you looked into the eyes of the elderly person that has completely given up because you have stripped them of all rights? Have you forced a dementia patient to be tested for COVID and heard them as they scream? Have you worked in a nursing home with staff so exhausted that they contemplate walking out every single day? Have you been subjected to two COVID screens a week? What type of dinnerware did you eat on last night? Was it styrofoam covered in tinfoil? Was it on a bedside table in front of the TV? Was it alone, staring at the same wall you have been for 6 months? When was the last time you saw your wife? Was it in March? How would you want to spend the last years of your life?

Have we forgotten (or even noticed) that those who laid the groundwork for us are living in prison right now? At what point do the rights of the elderly come into play? At what point will their pleas for freedom be heard? When will these human beings be treated as such?

Pray for your local nursing home. They need it.

#elderlylivesmatter.
Written by a Friend