Ignorance and Denial Syndrome Lead to a Bad Social System

Posted by Ang Mangkok on Apr 28, 2011 in Health | 3 comments

A discussion thread in one social media group led me to an article, which in my opinion, contains a view that is wrong and unjust. My comments on the thread was becoming somewhat lengthy, so I decided to copy and continue it here. I focused my comments on the issue of caregivers. Neal Cruz, the writer, claims that caregiving is a menial job and even goes up to the point of indirectly putting it in the category of prostitution.

The European Scene

For europeans caregiving is not a menial job. It is a very respectable job like any other even for those who are not (yet) at the receiving end of care. It is considered a profession. Their governments and citizens expect and require high standards in skills for doing the job. They have a training curriculum. It is a regulated profession with license or certification examinations.

Caregivers get continuous education and training. A caregiver is as respected and accepted in the society as any other professional. They  are not looked down upon as servile servants. They get the salary of a well paid professional. Caregivers live the same living standards as anybody else. They mingle and party with non-caregivers, get the same recognition; number of vacation days; privileges.

Their health care facilities are of high quality and standard. These standards are the same all throughout the country. Nobody is left outside, both the disabled and the very old are well taken care of.

The Philippine Scene

Now, let’s take a look at the philippine social system.

What would happen if everybody wants to study elegant professions as per pinoy lingo like medicine, engineering, commerce, law, media, the likes, and no one wants to study caregiving because they consider it menial?Look what the Philippines have in its social system now?

Fact is, there are no caregiving facilities in the Philippines. If there is any, it is negligible. However, that doesn’t mean that there are no old Filipinos “ready to keel and croak”. It doesn’t mean that nobody is wiping their asses. Filipinos give care to their old and dying. The bad side however is that it is done mostly by non-professionals. It is unregulated, unchecked, with no laws, regulations and standards. Worse, it is mostly hidden from the public.  Yes, they do wipe old filipino asses.

Neal Cruz suffers under denial syndrome in this case. For him, if he doesn’t see it, it doesn’t exist.

Whether we accept it or not, old and dying people exist in every society. Let us ask ourselves what we prefer to have: professionally managed caregiving facilities or ad libbed, rarely professional, care giving hidden from the public view?