When the going gets tough
It is 'on the cards,' that it will get tougher!
We are effectively in a crisis. Those of us who are ill, have complex medical conditions and who struggle to juggle all things deemed as needed for a basic lifestyle will find our existence perpetually in motion, with no reliable relief and no consistent BASIC, to hold on to.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/commentanalysis/arid-41209639.html
When I write in the Irish Examiner the real truth of Ireland, I hope people take note sooner rather than later. Far too many of us will be dead before it gets better and its very touch indeed
We are in such a crisis. Many in Ireland had a fixed pattern by which they cope in life if certain criteria are in place. I count myself as one of these individuals. I could only cope if I knew certain things were, predictable and safe. I had a lifestyle that suited my personality, my fragile being and my reason for living.
My reason for living was creative practises, I thrived. I expected nothing more from myself but to improve my skills and talent and spend a day laughing at radio jokes, listening to favourite songs and music - far too loud for the neighbours. I also thrived when I held a paintbrush in my hand, and the dog was snug in her basket close by.
I held a reasonable responsibility to independent living. I asked no one for anything and I coped. It wasn't a pathway in life many would choose and others considered what it should look like on their map to achieve and attain contentment, success and a sense of self. Others would chose ownership of a home, having children, getting married, going to University and being a professional who is needed and considered important in life. Many have high expectations.
Many of us never did. We felt 'ok' if criteria were met even if base line by others standards.
What happens when things go pear shaped as they do?
I am a problem solver. If there is a problem I try to sort it. Again, I didn't expect others to do that - I did expect certain help when I became very unwell, because I thought that is why services were there and named as services.
We can look at what I mean when those in the community get sick or disabled we are told we can contact the district nurse, we can get help from physiotherapists and occupational therapists and the local GP.
Even that can go pear shaped when in theory it looks good and in reality it's not so good. Let's say, I have learnt.
I have learnt that what it says on the tin might be mysteriously replaced by arsenic! No one told me, though!
No one tells you about reality until reality hits, or until your belief system fails you and you are hit below the belly button and collapse in disbelief.
This is incredibly painful and someone in some office is writing about you without your consent, your rights to access or participation in your own healthcare. They can, they will and they do.
You formed a life for yourself according to personality, belief systems, wishes and needs and it was basic and you did that out of fear that if you asked of yourself more than this, you might collapse. So you settled for basics and it appeared to work. When your base line is rocketed by ill health you are left with zero reserves and everything changes insidiously. Operational forces that were never your own take on a life of its own and decide that you are the scapegoat in a systems failure on a grand scale. They can, they will and they do.
One day you are happy swinging a paintbrush listening to Joe Duffy on the radio, or the wonderful documentaries or whatever.
You are a laughing hyena and no one thought bad of you and you had neighbours who cared and you cared back, but then when other people's lives go pear shaped and they are professional, they used their belief systems in the power of the power base and blame you if things go melon shaped or pumpkin shaped.
Professionals cannot cope with admitting being in the wrong, the expendable is the person who is trying to survive a very basic existence but yet surviving as a happy person.
I became very ill and unwell. Nothing prepared me for Pears, Pumpkins nor Melons.
No-one or no policy prepared me for the charade nicknamed 'professionalism.'
No one.
No one could answer me when I am a discoverer of facts, they needed to answer with a plausible response which turns out to be lying, untruth, slander, defamation, wrongful accusation but the difference in crisis being, their crisis was more important than mine, and I was the fall guy as there always has to be one.
Ireland today is in a lethal crisis of healthcare. Too much has happened too fast and all that was so precious to Ireland - a level of kindness and support has now failed us as a nation. No one minds anymore finding the fall guy. One is expected to be found.
People are leaving in droves. The flood of exit cannot be stemmed.
Yet the State, a wealthy state claims sophistication in problem solving and sophistication in constructing a wealthy nation don't appear to have a sophisticated solution to healthcare problem. It's been one big problem for a very long time.
It's not a problem a single woman, in a social housing unit, on disability pension can ever hope to solve. It was not a role I expected of myself nor was expected of me until reality hits that the emperor on the glossy papers, broadsheets, in media actually was as naked as the trees which were unfortunately felled to write the yarn on.
