At a time of year when the message is of peace, love and goodwill toward others, Madonna Neville Martin has another message to get off her chest.
She is reminding anyone who has a family member in a long-term care or private-care home in the province to regularly check on them to make sure they are getting the care they are supposed to receive.
Her message comes after an incident involving her mother — who was suffering from dementia — in one such home a year ago that has caused her to carry both anger and heartbreak inside since.
“I visited my mom on Christmas Day 2017 to find her almost lifeless in her bed. It took me two hours or more to get some nourishment and fluids into her body,” Neville Martin said. “She was wiped out and dehydrated. She drank several glasses of water and then was revived. It was obvious she was not receiving the level of care she was supposed to be receiving.”
Neville Marin said it appeared to her family that as her mother’s dementia worsened, the level of care and attention she received lessened.
A doctor who saw her mother, she said, told the family it was the worst case of dehydration he’d seen in nearly 20 years.
Neville Martin said her mother, whose health was slowly deteriorating, died in February 2018.
The Christmas season brought back the feelings and prompted her to want to speak out.
She said her family had meetings with officials from the health authority and the home involved about the dehydration and level of care, and there were a number of issues raised and new policies were to be imposed — but some of them, she said, were common sense and that she thought were already in place.
Neville Martin said while she is aware that many staff members provide exceptional care, there are others she believes do the minimum to get by. That can be devastating for residents, she noted, who can be neglected when staffing numbers are lower due to people being off work for Christmas holidays.
“I’ve known staff members who were very dedicated and compassionate, and go above and beyond for the residents,” she said. “I just wanted to address the issues of complacency and perhaps inadequate training and inadequate staffing and the repercussion of all this on the most vulnerable.
“It hurts to the very core to have witnessed this personally with my mother. It has torn the heart right out of me.”
Neville Martin said she wanted to express her concerns so other families would not have to go through the same kind of thing. If family members speak out and ask questions, changes can be made.
“Mom was 89 when she passed. We understood she would not live forever and were so grateful to have had her in our lives for so long. We just wished she had received better care when she needed it the most,” she said.
“It seemed that when she could no longer speak or care for herself things went downhill quickly. There are definitely some very compassionate workers at these facilities and then there are others just there for the paycheque, as is the situation in most workplaces. But these workers are dealing with human beings who can no longer take care of themselves.
“I just encourage everyone with a family member in one of these facilities to visit often, check on the level of care they are receiving, ask questions. Don’t assume they are getting the care they are supposed to, make sure they are getting it.”
Neville Martin said it is difficult to have to remove a parent from their own home and place them in a long-term care or private-care home. There should be a comfort in knowing they are being properly cared for, she said, but it is devastating when you realize they sometimes are not.
“How hurtful and disappointing it is. I just want to open people’s eyes,” she said, becoming emotional. “When Mom needed the help the most, she didn’t get it. I don’t want that to be the case for others.”