Older People Are Not Pets

This is kind of part two of the previous post. Maybe they should be called Marketing Department People 1 and 2. Anyway, just so you are not confused.

I visit a lot of facilities. I meet a lot of Marketing People. For some reason they have all been women. Usually ones with soft voices and smiles.

I watch them as they interact with the residents. They get hugsy and smily. Sometiems they get gushy. But I wonder, when I watch, is there really respect there about the people to whom they are providing service. A sense of respect based on understanding who these people are and what their needs are.

Their jobs are to marekt, to sell. Sometimes that can conflict. It is the genuineness that I look for.

It is easy to be gushy and smily with people who are fragile. It is like dealing with any disabled person and not really acknowledging them, and dealing with them as equals.

I looked up respect in my Websters Unified Dictonary and Encyclopaedia. I was a little worried when I started looking because it is an old (1954) dictionary (although I suppose rspectwas around back in 1954--probably more so than now but anyway...) and I opened it up to find that someone had cut out a big hole in the middle pages to make a hiding place for page . From page 2996 (non-resident to north) up to page 3674 (Rosetta to Ross, Sir John) most of the middle of each page was gone.

Fortunately, "respect " is still there. The first definition says, "to hold in high esteem, to have regard for, as, to respect rights of others. ""

Respect does not mean hugs and kisses that look something like the way one pet's ones dog. Respect means acknowledging a personhood, a history, an ability to see and show that one sees, who someone is. Respect can be difficult, because it is easy t o discount people when they are disabled

Now, don't get your knickers in a knot here. I am not dissing marekting people as a group, or as individuals, per se. I have really enjoyed meeting many of them, and have often found them to be warm and fun people . I am also not saying don't hug, don't touch. I think the world would be a better place if we touched in a loving, caring way more often. I am just saying that if we really look at how we offer respect to older, frail, or disabled people, I think it would look much different.

And in care you are wondering:

non resiednt: "One who does not reside in a specific place."

Ross, Sir John: "1777-1856, Br. explorer In 1818 attempteed to find the N.W. Passage. In 1829, he tried again in a paddle steamer and was ice bound for three yrs. In 1835 he wrote the Narrative of a Second Voyage in Search of a North West Passage. " Well, give the guy credit for trying.