This may be boring, i hope not.

So today i went and did some clinical experience at a rest home in Huntly. It is a aged care facility where they have a hospital wing (just where more the serious residents that are immobile stay), the resthome wing (this is where the rest of the residents who are obviously nt able to care for themselves at home, but are slightly mobile) and then the dementia wing. (i will get to this later). Something to note is that this aged care facility is different to those marketed resort style residential places.

Something which interested me was how it was run. The facility is pretty much run by the registered nurses, and i specifically spent time with the head clinical nurse there. She showed me all the paperwork etc that is required for each resident. E.G the forms regarding their decision on being resusitated.

I spent alot of time in the dementia ward. This was .. hmm, how do i put it, quite moving. The crazy thing is every sort of 10 minutes is different, for them and for you. They have a good long term memory but their short term memory is absent. They think they are still in their 20’s. Listening to some of them talk to each other was just hilarious, but then at the same time, at around 4.30pm, i had this sudden feeling of emotion. Watching them, listening to them, i just felt really sad. Sad that this is how some of us turn out. One of the ladies (elizabeth) was telling me all about her beach house in waiheke island which she still thinks she owns, but then all of a sudden the conversation turned to “warning me of joining the anglicans church club, and not to trust a certain man with the keys”. I was lost, but continued to act intrigued and emotionally connected.

Also another giggle, was Mary, who was knitting. I asked her if she taught her children to knit, and she said “my kids are to young to knit, they only young”. Now Mary looked like she was eligible to be a great grandmother. Then there was Barry. Now Barry was quite abusive to everyone (particularly the caregivers). But then to me, he was really cute. I was the first person to ever get him to eat a lamington (an he said “that was lovely”) . Today was also happy hour where they got a glass of beer, or wine or sprite. I had this presumption that old people in rest homes dont drink. Who knew. Barry couldn’t stop telling me about how they keep telling him to vote, and then he started crying and said “i shouldn’t have gone down there”. I was again LOST. Lastly, Barry really made me feel really sad, was when he said “i love you, Barry loves you because you are honest, those other ladies not honest. please don’t die” and then he started crying.

bless them all.

“When I stand before God (or monkey if i reincarnate, or alla, or whatever) at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me.”