Yes, I understand that a nursing home is a business but it is definitely not a business like any other. For besides the issues of profit and loss, this business involves the most fragile souls among us. The aged and infirm and severely injured who need the help of nursing home staff require not only a lot of help, they also deserve a generous amount of kindness, respect and efficient service – much more generous than they usually get.Nursing home residents are dealing with a variety of traumatic problems: pain, fear, disorientation, an infuriating loss of mobility, boredom, frustration, loneliness, and a loss of self-esteem and independence that can certainly be as debilitating as any physical burden. And most nursing home residents suffer a number of these terribly difficult challenges all at once.
Now, let me be quick to say that I'm not laying the blame for the lack of quality, sensitive care in our nation’s nursing homes to the staff (although, of course, along with the peaches there are a lot of bad apples in the barrel too). No, the foundational fault comes from the enveloping culture -- a culture of self-centeredness that banishes the aged, the chronically ill, and the weak from our hearts and even our presence.
Woefully understaffed, undertrained, underpaid nursing home workers are overwhelmed by the needs of the hurting people in their care. Even with their best efforts, they cannot give quality care to the persons who so desperately need it. But that will remain the case across the board until the culture rediscovers a profound respect for the sanctity of life. For only with a spiritual ethic that sees every human being as someone created in the image of God and thus of inestimable value (regardless of age, size or physical condition) can a culture be truly humane.
Sadly, the Church has played an ignoble part in this deterioration of a respect for life. Modern Christians do not honor our parents and grandparents as we should. We have let our insistence on material things, leisure, entertainment and other freedoms from "the ties that bind" contribute to the breakdown of extended family. We have also let these same things determine our priorities in lifestyle, in career choices, in where we spend our money and time. Nothing is left over to invest in caring for the most needy among us.
Consider. Why isn’t the Church producing more nurses, more medical technicians, and more persons willing to take on the challenge of the caring professions? Though we're commanded in Scripture to make the service of widows and orphans a priority of our faith, why have churches surrendered the hospitals and nursing homes and orphanages to the government -- and to commercial interests that make them merely the matter of dollars and cents I mention earlier?
Why does the Church not consider supplementing the meager salaries of caregivers so that more Christians could afford to work in nursing homes? Do we believe it is important to provide money and benefits to preachers, ministers, counselors, youth workers, secretaries, and so on -- and yet ignore the crucial mission field that James reminds us about? Why aren't individual churches more involved in “mercy ministries” in nursing homes and hospitals and among the homebound?
These musings are, of course, related to our recent experiences with my aged mother but they are also a part of long-held concerns stemming from our many years of “mercy ministry” in nursing homes. These are not new problems. But they are worsening. And required of believers in Christ are fervent prayers, changes in attitude towards our own family members and neighbors, and a new willingness to reach out and serve those that so desperately need our help.
Some positive steps can be made now as in increased service projects with nursing homes, shut-ins, and others. Other steps are part of a much longer process as in reconquering mission fields that have been given over to government and private business or in helping children see the nobility and critical relevance to the kingdom of God represented by the caring professions – even though other vocations promise more lucrative salaries and perks.
The general culture we may not be able to do much about. But Christians can make a huge difference in innumerable lives if we begin to look less at the burdens of caring and more at the blessings that come from serving souls as Jesus desires us to do.
(For more information on the positive steps I mentioned, I couldn't recommend a better source than Paul and Mary Falkowski at Desert Ministries. Their web page is right here.)
