‘When the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing’
That was the expression that came to my mind as this week I watched an episode of the Apple TV+ drama ‘Severance’. The story revolves around employees of a mysterious corporation who can opt to undergo a procedure that results in them, when at work, having no recollection of their home life and, when at home, having no idea of what they do at work. The result is that their one life is lived, in effect, by two separate individuals who, in turns, occupy the same body, with each ‘innie’, in the workplace, not knowing what their ‘outie’ does in the outside world. And vice versa.
To chose to think in such a severed way, is, of course, an inherently bad idea, as becomes evident as the imagined benefits, for the outies, of an existence unencumbered by the burden of having to work, is seen to come at a very high price for the ‘innies’, who are condemned to live lives that are no longer valued by those who control them and who restrict what, even at work, they can and cannot do.
It’s all very bizarre and not a little sinister.
But it wasn’t only whilst watching ‘Severance’ that the aforementioned expression came to mind. It did so again when I learnt of how Newton House in Bath was being threatened with closure. The five bedded unit is the only respite care facility for adults with complex care needs in the area, and an absolute lifeline for those who spend their lives caring for their highly dependent, but nonetheless much loved, grown up children.
If the closure does go ahead, it will be yet another example of how our society seems unable to provide adequate support for those who need it most, and of a healthcare system that, on the one hand is seeking to keep people alive into advanced old age, whilst, on the other, can’t care for the number of frail elderly that already exist. This is not to suggest that attempts to preserve life are not entirely laudable, far from it, but is it really a good idea to medicalise normality, and make patients of those who are healthy, in order to exponentially increase the number of those experiencing extreme longevity who, not only will one day still die, but will also require, before they do so, years of care that it just won’t be possible to give them?
Because it seems to me that the imagined benefit for the young, of being able to look forward to an exceptionally long life, comes at a very high price for those same individuals who, when old, may one day find themselves no longer valued by the system that has created a problem, with which it cannot possibly hope to cope.
So whilst in no way suggesting that it isn’t worth investing in healthier lives, might it not be better to pause our relentless attempt to extend life until we have the capacity to care for the increasing numbers that our well intentioned endeavours will inevitably produce? Rather than spending ever more time and money on the healthy, might it not be better to seek first to properly fund the needs of those who are already sick? And rather than constantly worrying the well and, in so doing, potentially condemning them to more of the suffering that they desperately want to avoid, might it not be better to value more highly the vulnerable in our society, both the elderly and those with complex care needs, who, far from being considered a burden, ought to be provided with all the support that they oh so desperately require.
Because to continue as we are, to continue with such severed thinking, would not only be very bizarre but also, perhaps, with the assisted dying bill coming up for discussion again soon, not a little sinister too.
Related posts:
To read ‘The Abolition of General Practice’, click here
To read ‘Paddington and the Ailing Elderly Relative’ click here
To read ‘Health – it’ll be the death of us. Is there institutional arrogance in the NHS’, click here
To read ‘Bagpuss and the NHS’, click here
To read ‘The NHS Emporium’, click here
To read ‘Assisted Dying – we all need to be happier to help’, click here
To read ‘Assisted dying in the light of the cross’, click here
Some musings 