The Higher Ups, they probably went to Grad School but sometimes they are still just stupid.

Mom in her new napkin.

When I see something stupid regarding elder care, I always get curious as to who made that decision or created that rule.
The answer is usually "The State" or "The higher ups." These people are the main culprits everyone blames for stupidity in elder care.

Here 's an example of how "Common Sense"  does not grow in every one's garden.

Before a few weeks ago, Mom and her friends would get a nice large bib made of towel material to put around their neck to cover and protect their clothing while eating. This nice user friendly bib had a piece of  Velcro to stick together and most residents could put it on themselves. Often these bibs were comfy and warm, just taken out of the dryer. I've often heard residents put on the nice warm soft comfy bib and sigh "awww" because it feels nice. It is not required so if they do not want a bib , they do not request one. I've never heard anyone complain about this in 4 years of going to see Mom.

Suddenly, these bibs were replaced with little small stiff cloth napkins. There's nothing to wrap around their neck or anything so they just have to stuff it in the front of their shirt. It cover a tiny area and you can imagine watching them all try to stick it there and how it keeps falling out. Most the dropped food gets all over their clothes. Food is dropped regularly because many residents like my mom  had a stroke and only have one hand to eat with. In Mom's case ,she's right handed and can only use her left hand.

So, after hearing most everyone complain about it, I asked around to find out who took the bibs away. "The higher ups" decided it was "undignified"  for the elderly to wear bibs. In this case the "higher ups" could have also been "The State" because they had come the week prior to this stupidity.

So now we are all so happy that the elderly residents at the Wesleyan  all feel so dignified as they fumble around sticking the napkin back up in their shirts or just give up and throw it down on their laps  and spill food all over their clothes? I don't think they would feel so distinguished without those tomato sauce stains . ( I'm rolling my eyes here. )

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Other dense decisions I've seen by the higher ups:
Requiring that everything in the elderly residents drawer be packaged separately in a zip log bags. (That only lasted a couple of weeks.) Thank God for small favors.


I could go on and on but I think the people who read this blog are smart enough and have experienced "Higher ups" or "the State" before and understand that sometimes you just have to shake your head and sigh. I guess the higher up you are, the more mistakes your allowed to make. That must be it!