Tessie’s* first night in the residential home for older people was a disturbed one. Not long after midnight she was awakened by her neighbour’s gasping sobs and cries.

Poor Cettina was suffering an asthmatic attack and needed urgent caring attention: her buzzer was tied around her headboard well out of her reach.

Tessie struggled out of bed and hobbled down the poorly lit corridors with the aid of her frame in search of staff. No one was around and to her amazement she noticed other beds with buzzers secured around the headboards, also well out of reach of the occupants.

She managed to find Cettina’s inhaler with which she was able to provide her neighbour some temporary relief.

Of course it was then with great difficulty that she managed to get some sleep but soon after daybreak she was awakened abruptly again. The carers were changing shift and noisily recounting the previous night’s experiences.

Tessie reckoned she had never felt so miserable in her life. Having been in the home for less than 24 hours, she wondered how she could possibly cope with living there for the remainder of her days

It was nappy changing and bathing time with the jarring clamour of loud vocal exchanges between staff.

Tessie wanted to be helped to the bathroom where she could still perform her ablutions privately. But the staff were rushed and had many other residents to attend to, so they insisted on a brisk blanket wash and nappy change.

Imagine – Tessie had been a headmistress for much of her working life: now she was obliged to succumb to the carers’ instructions that grossly compromised her dignity.

Tessie’s polite protests were to no avail.

After a rushed breakfast, Tessie with the aid of her frame went on an exploratory stroll. She passed a room with four bedridden residents so closely crammed together they could hold hands if they chose to. Goodness knows how the nurses and staff managed to squeeze between them to tend to their needs.

One bed was occupied by a relatively younger lady whom Tessie learnt later to be afflicted with one of the most devastating illnesses – progressive supra nuclear palsy, the symptoms of which are not dissimilar to those that Tessie would eventually suffer.

The poor lady was completely paralysed apart from the ability to blink, and was being peg fed. Her dreadfully distraught husband was watching helplessly at her bedside.

In a loud, distressed voice he was demanding why he had found his wife with an empty feeding bottle and why the surrounding fly net had not been replaced after she had been washed.

He was lamenting the fact that he had found his wife with her face covered in flies, which she was incapable of flicking away.

Tessie then came across a doctor armed with his stethoscope conducting a medical examination with his students around the bed of a resident who was half naked and in a very poor state of health. There appeared to be no rooms available for private medical consultations.

She passed a visibly irate daughter shouting at the carers: her mother’s bedsores had worsened: why wasn’t she being moved more frequently?

Finally she came upon the lounge for the residents suffering from dementia. Through the heavy glass panelled windows, she could see that there were not enough comfortable chairs for all the patients.

They were grouped in front of a very small television screen staring at the pictures because the sound had been switched off.

For those unable to go out, or who had no visitors, this was, apparently, their only leisure activity. The more fortunate ones who had visitors were taken out for a walk in the yard.

Tessie’s stroll came to an end with calls for lunch. It was only 11am! This was coffee time when she was in her own home.

The dining room reeked of old oil and cheap detergent. She queued to use the only toilet nearby from which, to her surprise, emerged the cook wiping his hands on his soiled apron.

Tessie was given the last available place at table where she sat opposite a poor lady who evidently had great difficulty chewing her food. In the absence of any assistance, much of her dinner oozed out of the sides of her mouth. No wonder the lady was so thin.

During compulsory siesta time, Tessie reckoned she had never felt so miserable in her life. Having been in the home for less than 24 hours, she wondered how she could possibly cope with living there for the remainder of her days.

Unfortunately she had no other options.

*All accounts are based on true events that have recently occurred in care homes but for personal protection the characters are fictitious.

This is the second part of an article whose first part appeared on May 18.

Anne McKenna is a member of Fondazzjoni Xjuħija Attiva Malta.