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On Barbara Kornfeld
Tuesday 29 October the NAS unit of the Carabinieri and the Salerno Prosecutor's Office notified ten restrictive orders, concerning house arrest for Sante Sica – born in Montecorvino Rovella on 18 November 1960 – without formal positions but at the top of the structure, obligation to sign and ban on practicing one's profession within the "European Institute of the Third Age" retirement home in Salerno. Among the ten subjects involved, also a woman from Verona; the accusation for them is very serious: kidnapping and violence against the elderly.
From the investigations conducted by the Nas of Salerno and the soldiers of the Health Protection Group of Naples, a systemic picture of violence and abuse emerged, consisting of elderly people tied to beds or wheelchairs (using rags or old sweaters), forced to sleep on urine-soaked mattresses, one of them exposed to the elements outside the structure at night, often naked, without heating and hot water. It seems that an elderly woman even committed suicide to escape that torture.
Various aggravating factors add to the structural and hygienic-sanitary deficiencies: the poor qualification of the staff, their numerical shortage, the logic of profit maximization – on the basis of which all kinds of guests were accepted, even those suffering from pathologies or at the end of life - having taken advantage of the fragility of people unable to ask for help or report incidents due to their own mental conditions, family members, social.
The action of the Social Policies sector of the Municipality of Salerno was timely and - regardless of the fact that the structure was private - took action, through their social workers, to connect the elderly to their families and find suitable accommodation for those who do not have a family support network. The councilor for social policies, Paola De Roberto, made it known that the license was revoked and the business was closed immediately.
The Salerno story therefore has a happy ending, but statistics based on reports from geriatricians indicate one in three elderly people is mistreated, and one in ten involved in histories of abuse in retirement homes and RSAs: unofficial data because there is silence around the phenomenon and difficulty in ascertaining the facts.
Taking this serious news story as a starting point, an in-depth reflection on the condition of the elderly and the risks they are exposed to when they choose to entrust them to the care of a retirement home or RSA would be appropriate.. Am s'intende: not all facilities are like this but choosing to entrust a relative to their care is a lifestyle choice that still needs to be considered, and above all the protagonist should not only agree but also be enthusiastic about the decision.
Having an elderly person at home is not an easy task, especially if the person who should take care of it also has serious health problems - but not such as to guarantee them legal benefits - it is in these cases that the advice to entrust the care of that person to "expert and loving hands" begins to come from many quarters..
“He'll be fine”, "better than at home" to this is inevitably added the chorus of various "think of yourself". They are painful choices that tear the mind and heart.
As a documentary filmmaker I have shot many structures within the Campania Region: I did it when - as a ghost writer I had the task of creating a product for third parties on creativity in the elderly - what I remember marked me for future choices. Once we reached an RSA in the hinterland of Naples - a charming villa with a large veranda equipped with comfortable electric armchairs and a giant TV screen - we turned on a spotlight to better illuminate the dim light of the interview room. Almost all the heads bowed to their knees rose towards that light source. A lady exclaimed: “Luce!”, another asked the OSS for the make-up box. It was as if a collection of mummies became human again. A mass of layers of apathy were instantly removed from their faces by the mere gesture of turning on a spotlight.
When I discovered I had brain tumors, I was taking care of my father's serious disability: the first to advise me to put him in a facility were the doctors. I thought back to those previous experiences, how much my father loved his personal freedom: I imagined that he would experience his stay in a retirement home as a sort of imprisonment and abandonment by his family. I didn't follow the advice. I had too many examples to support my hypothesis: several cases of women and men of different ages, even centenarians, who after less than a month of staying in an RSA let themselves go. These are not cases of deficiency on the part of nursing homes but of depression and abandonment syndrome that patients experience. How did I undergo cranial surgery in Siena with a seriously disabled person to look after? It was a real adventure: I had to postpone surgery three times, with a very high risk to my safety. What made matters worse was the 2021, in the midst of Covid 19 and everything was very complicated. I asked for help from everyone my father had helped throughout his life: I wanted them to host him "for a fee for a fortnight". I have received solemn refusals with bizarre reasons: even the ecclesiastical organizations I contacted did not give me a positive result. Meanwhile, I was increasingly weaker and closer to the time limit before the tumor "finished me". I was able to count on very few friends who lent me a helping hand. In the end, for grace received, my father was not hosted in a facility other than a retirement home in Tuscany, for ten days alone: I was discharged with the hospital protocol to finish and I joined him in the facility. We stayed there for about forty days before returning to Salerno. Life with an elderly person is not easy, but when I read epithets on social media from people celebrating "posthumous" birthdays of deceased parents, my belief is strengthened that one less flower and one more gesture is better, when relatives are alive: everything comes back.
