I had no intention of wasting this rare sunny Portland day moping around my building. I have a new bow and am finally ready with it to go to the archery range up the hill in Washington Park because I can walk there. I was looking forward to the exercise endorphins moderating my vacillating brain chemistry and assisting me in regaining a semblance of stability mentally. Don't get me wrong I love how my OCD can keep me at the computer for what seems like weeks at a time when I was tracking down Occupy stories. That was almost as much fun as doing algebra. But there are times when I would like to focus and be able to work on a project without it becoming an infinite quest for knowledge or become so bored with it I discard it in disgust.
So what derailed me from my bucolic stroll and low impact sporting activity?
It all started this morning:
Go out to have my morning ciggy and the elevator opens to a lobby scattered with pill bottles and inhalers. One of our residents came around the corner from the restroom in his scooter carrying his pants and telling me he had shit himself. I could see this as feces was falling off his scooter as he rolled towards me. I went upstairs and informed the housekeeper of the disaster that awaits her when she starts her shift. I then placed signage around the area to reduce spreading an already disgusting mess.
I then noticed he was leaving blood everywhere when I went back into the elevator. This was disturbing since I did not know what apartment he lived in and obviously needed medical attention. I went back downstairs and got some weeklies and started covering up the blood he had left over two floors and an elevator. By the time I had completed that he has come back downstairs. I asked him if he had a telephone and he said yes so I told him to call 911. I retrieved my telephone and did the same. I spent over three minutes on hold before I could summon medical assistance for him. He was picked up and now I'm bouncing off the walls.
Life in HUD housing sucks when the safety net is so slashed people that require home care are left for the rest of us to care for.
I hopefully handled the situation with aplomb. But at what cost? My adrenalin spiked because I was faced with a medical situation I was not prepared for. So I spent several hours of my morning slightly more manic than usual. Then it crashed with all the inherent pitfalls that accompany adrenalin withdrawal. So now I feel like crap.
Why?
Because Republicans want to ensure persons that are not providing profits to the corporations are given as little support as humanly possible.
Now it may be perceived that the only persons life that was affected by this was the gentleman having the emergency. But as I stated above this is not so. My well being and medical/mental condition could probably necessitate counseling or medication. But since mental health care is seen as wasteful and those of us that are mentally ill are not considered important enough to actually provide adequate treatment to, it is not worth the several hours I would have to spend at the mental health "ER" here to be seen. Not to mention the fact the lobby there is sufficiently explained in the madhouse scene of Amadeus.
This is HUD housing. For some of us it took over a year and a half to get into housing we could afford. All of us are disabled. Many have nurses provided by the state and other organizations to help care for them. And food is delivered as well for many that are shut in. But in this situation this person has deteriorated significantly in the last three months, and because the safety net is mostly holes, he fell through. His apartment is a disaster so I know no one is coming to help him keep it clean. He had a land line but when he has his episodes he seems to seek other people, which might have saved his life, so he should have a cell phone or even better still On-Star for the scooters since they can support that. His scooter itself needs to be modified as he kept running head-on into walls and doors. That is what started bleeding were his feet from the impact injuries of doing that. Something needs to protect his feet since he loses the ability to maneuver his scooter during a diabetic episode.
This is just one resident and my observations of him on what is no longer an unusual day for him. How long does he have to endure outright neglect before there is something done to ensure that not only he but his fellow residents are in a healthy safe environment?
Two months ago he was out in front of the building sitting in his scooter naked. Obviously a symptom of his diabetes, a condition we have known how to diagnose since the 1850's BTW, something that has been treated successfully millions of times. Yet he suffers, and we along with him.
Now less than one week ago Paul Ryan came within a block of our most humble home to rake in gelt at a $25,000 plate dinner. One of the platforms he espouses is the elimination of disability care for persons such as my self and the other residents here. Another is the elimination of HUD. That would paint a pretty picture wouldn't it.
Millions of disabled and untreated disabled people without homes or incomes. Does anyone know if Ryan vacations in 1940's Calcutta?
Because to Republicans all the problems faced by those of us living here are just excuses keeping us from becoming customer service reps in a phone farm.
And this from a federal report on abuse of force by Portland Police Bureau:
3. Cops are the new mental health providers. Behind this report is a big, sad picture of a broken mental health system that forces people with mental illness into situations with police to begin with. In a perfect world (ahem, one without Ronald Reagan), people in mental crisis would be talking with doctors and counselors, not regularly facing off with police. But as Assistant AG Perez noted this morning: "In communities across the country, the largest mental health facility is the jail. That's wrong." Amen to that. Mayor Sam Adams also summed up the impact of the issue: "Our anemic mental health system makes the already tough job of being a police officer even tougher. But we get a failing grade for dealing with the growing number of Portlanders with mental health issues."
I'm glad the mentally ill are not marginalized in this country.