Will the Truly Neglected Please Stand Up!

by Matthew Pepol

Most of the recent attention has been on the violence of the youth in our communities. Having grown up on the southeast side of Chicago, I’ve witnessed enough violence to write a book. In fact, most people I’ve talked to, young and old have openly shared that they too witnessed violence as a normal part of their existence growing up in Chicago.

There is one difference, however, today…technology. Technology (cell phones, internet) has allowed the rest of the world to peep in on the violence that black youth have lived through from one generation to the next. Unfortunately, it seems to take a brutal slaying of one of our young to catch the attention of people. I pray that at least now, maybe technology can be leveraged as a tool to expose the lurking dark side of our communities and positive changes can be made with our lost “young”.

What I hadn’t witnessed before now, however is the silent crimes committed against the people on the opposite end of the age spectrum, the seniors. While the vitality and fierce passion of the young will always broadcast a signal loud and clear to the world about what they’re experiencing, our seniors, many of whom, have lost the fire and passion they once had in their youth, are more docile and the inequities committed against them, more often than not go unnoticed.

Especially, the seniors that may have experienced and lived through extreme violence in their youth. Then they also have lived through racial discrimination that we cannot even fathom today, during their adulthood. And today, live in silent desperation as their health declines and very few people seem to notice what’s happening.

Having worked in our communities dealing primarily in the healthcare of our seniors, I’ve identified the culprit…neglect. Neglect has so many faces in this phenomenon that I will only discuss the health oriented ones. The first neglect: self neglect. While our seniors are living longer lives, they are afflicted with more chronic ailments, such as diabetes, heart disease, high-blood pressure. Neglect showed its face first when our seniors didn’t pay close attention to what they put in their bodies. Our selection of “soul food” has, and still does, douse the flame of our vitality with every forkful.

Unfortunately, the eating habits of our seniors have been so ingrained through repetition over their life that it is very hard for them to change their diet. Their doctors and healthcare providers can’t even convince them now.

And that brings me to the next neglect: healthcare system neglect. Our healthcare system has neglected our seniors and set them up to die a long, slow death. But a long slow death is a profitable case to the healthcare system. Here’s why. Self neglect (the first neglect) has put our seniors in a position that makes them extremely dependent on the healthcare system to “save” them. Their savior comes in the form of prescription drugs to “treat” the various diseases they are afflicted with to the tune of hundreds of dollars each month. These monies go two places: manufacturers and distributors.

The manufacturers are the drug companies like Merck and Pfizer and the distributors are the doctors. It’s that simple. But are the seniors really getting healthier? No. The drugs are just band aids and never address the true problem. The drugs however are a very lucrative, monthly income stream that runs into the billions for the drug manufacturers. The last neglect: community healthcare neglect. This is the one that I’ve witnessed first-hand. Given the situation as it is, our seniors, despite the other neglects are in desperate need of high quality healthcare. It’s unfortunate, that even at this most basic level of healthcare need, neglect rears its ugly head. Due to lack of education, financial resources, and adequate support of family or friends, our seniors have been easy targets for a specific type of healthcare service: home health care.

“Home health care is the provision of health care services, to a person in their home for the purpose of restoring and maintaining their maximal level of comfort, function and health.” Essentially, when our seniors make a visit to the hospital for say, a fall, the doctor determines that they will need additional services when they leave.
These services are coordinated by either the Social Services dept or the Case Management dept. This is a standard process. What’s not standard, and not talked about, outside of the industry, is the neglect that sometimes occurs once our seniors are at home.

As mentioned, our seniors are very susceptible to neglect. A home health nurse is supposed to make a visit to their patients within a reasonable period of time after a patient discharges from the hospital. This period of time should be no more than 48 hours. I’ve heard accounts of nurses not showing up for a week! The nurse’s initial visit should be a comprehensive session and should take about 45 minutes to an hour. I’ve heard instances of nurses making assessments in 15 minutes!

While this clearly can happen, and probably does, in any community, the prevalence is much higher in our communities. Why? Lack of education and support of family. Think about it. Do you think a healthcare provider, that’s regulated by the state, would act in such a way if there was a family member heavily involved in the care of their elderly mother, father or grandmother? Of course not. The family member would immediately recognize an issue and address it. What happens when there is no family member? Nothing. Neglect occurs and the senior doesn’t want to ruffle feathers because due to their loneliness and isolation, they are happy to have anyone visit. Even if it’s only once a month!

This kind of neglect must be stopped! We must protect the elders of our communities from such neglect. How? We must empower through education. We must educate the seniors and their caregivers on the rights they have when it comes to their healthcare. And most importantly, we must educate the healthcare providers that are caring for our seniors, that they MUST treat our seniors with respect and dignity.

Matthew Pepol
Director of Business Development
CareCollaborative Home Health

Photo: Metropolis/Leila Khaled

(l-r) CareCollaborative's Director of Business Development Matthew Pepol, President & CEO Antoinette Hardy-Waller, Doctor of Internal Medicine and former primary care physician to President Obama, Dr. David Scheiner