Essential Workers: Care home worker
Words by Liam Stretch. Art by Anna McRobb.
As we sit down for cup of tea number seven today, wistfully awaiting our freedom, some are serving theirs; all the while performing a vital role for some of the most vulnerable in our society. The ongoing COVID-19 crisis has exacerbated this vulnerability. I’m, of course, referring to the care workers and nurses at rest homes, retirement villages, and hospice centres the length and breadth of the Land of the Long White Cloud.
We knew with the onslaught of COVID-19 that it did discriminate. It impacted the elderly and immunocompromised more than any other demographic. Unfortunately, this has where we have seen most of the deaths occur in Aotearoa – though few so far, they are still significant.
As part of this series, we needed to talk to someone within this high-risk environment, caring for our grandpas and grandmas while we bake lockdown loaf and whip coffee.
Meet a ray of sunshine, Lily. She works at a rest home in Otepoti. Her usual week would consist of "looking after the golden oldies of the area".
"As a care worker for residents who predominantly require hospital-level care, a normal day consists of assisting those who need help eating, dressing, showering and most likely anything else you can think of! Family members would move freely throughout our floor, and we would likely bump into co-workers from the other three units in the home. As the job title suggests, my work means I have to care a whole damn lot about the residents that fill the halls.”
A lot has changed with COVID-19 – the most unwelcome of visitors – knocking on our doors; not only teaching our grandparents how to FaceTime and Zoom so they can stay in touch with us but also a raft of updated safety measures and changes to care.
“As you can imagine, strict precautions have been put in place to protect those at St Andrews, all of whom fall under the most at-risk group. We have adopted a policy of no visitors unless the resident is palliative; workers must change in and out of uniform at work, and PPE (Personal Protective Equipment, i.e. facemasks, gloves) precautions are observed where necessary. We are also to remain in our respective units so that we can keep our bubbles as small as possible.”
This more intense approach to work has resulted in Lily creating some changes in her life at current.
“I feel fortunate to have my work life carry on as usual; it brings me financial security, purpose, and variability. To know that the work you’re doing is so important to other people’s lives is reason enough to happily head off to work each day. Before the lockdown, I had become accustomed to using my time wisely before work started at 3pm. Shift work forces you to utilise the time you have either before or after work if you hope to get anything done, now my life mostly revolves around work and the time in-between is happily spent doing a whole lot of sweet nothing with no guilt attached.”
An unsurprising thing to me was the toll that such work can take on an individual, even in times of ‘normalcy’, so I was intrigued as to whether Lily was bearing the weight of her role more so with the added pressures of this coronavirus.
“Even before the lockdown care working could so easily wear you down emotionally, the vulnerability of the residents and the relationships you build with them means that we often mirror the emotions their feeling whether its sadness, pain or defeat. The biggest challenge with the lockdown has been that the residents can’t see their family and friends, this kind of isolation from loved ones can cause a vulnerable elderly person to deteriorate much faster than they usually would. For our residents that are reaching the end of life, the idea of their families not being able to see them every day is soul-destroying. The best way we can overcome this is to do our best to be the family they need and the support network they’re currently forced to go without. By being vigilant with our procedures, we can keep our residents safe and have them reunited with their loved ones in no time at all.”
Personally, I have always admired the work of those in aged care. I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing a few people involved during my journalistic career, and the overarching response to those in residence is care – yes, those larger corporates may have motivations of revenues, but overwhelmingly, those at the forefront of it all are some of the most gentle and kind people to grace this planet. I mean, I type for a living – I’ll never have to go near a bedpan or a catheter. You have to be a special person to do this on the daily. Lily takes everything that comes with her job in her stride and hasn’t looked back even with COVID over her shoulder.
“Fear isn’t a feeling I’ve felt during this time, perhaps because I’m at relatively low risk of catching the virus and perhaps because those that I’m serving are far more vulnerable than I. It’s easy to focus on them and put any of my worries to the back of my mind.”
Despite the changes that Lily has come up against, there are aspects of the last four months’ time that has ensured a smile remains on her face.
“For the most part, I have been proud of people’s ability to accept the circumstances and forfeit many of their freedoms for the greater good of society. Most people can empathise with those that would be most affected by this virus and thus adjust their actions to keep people they might not even know safe. I’m proud of our community’s ability to support one another in a new and unprecedented way, and it fills me with hope for the future, post-pandemic.”
You’re probably asking yourself this question: Wow Lily; you spend a lot of time looking after other people, do you get a chance to look after yourself? Well, rest assured, she does.
“…Starting work at 3pm means I have much of the day to spend as I like, one of the perks of not being able to take your work home with you! I’m pretty variable in how I like to spend my time; listening to vinyl, cooking ridiculously scrumptious snacks, catching up with loved ones, and heading down to the beach for some fresh air and a brain break."
As the last in our series on essential workers in this pandemic, Lily’s thoughts on how she may change the way she is living following the end of our lockdown period ring true.
“Honestly, I was already living my life in a somewhat similar way to how I am now, a big focus on spending my time doing the things that bring me joy and doing them with the people that mean the most to me. Although I look forward to my bubble exponentially expanding and my adventures reaching a little bit further, I really hope that the human and community connection that we’ve fostered during this pandemic can be maintained and built upon because it is truly beautiful and what the world needs more of.
You see, she’s right. We have built something beautiful; we’ve displayed what community means and treated each other with kindness – a rarity in these modern times. We had a swift and intense response that I liken to a tree in full blossom. The world around us is this tree; the standard parts of life, all that we are sacrificing. There were other nations so afraid of losing that beauty, that they cut a branch off so they could own the beauty. The blossom is the now; the party, the coffee date, and the haircuts. Some couldn't deal with letting go and waiting the flowers return the following spring, and the severed branch wilted and died with time. But, if you leave that branch there, the fruit will hang come summer; the blossom will return. Our response has let the tree bear fruit, and we will harvest it in abundance when this is all over. We let the tree be a tree; we let our Earth be as such; we became human again.
It’s been my absolute pleasure sharing with you some of the heroes of the last month or so – I write this with a tear in my eye as I have been inspired by all those we’ve covered; I’ve had a reality check. We’re lucky to have this world; I haven’t taken as much time to appreciate it until now. I implore you to do the same. So, here are my last words: slow down, smile, and say thank you.