We are becoming increasingly aware of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
For patients, it changes who they are: their behaviour, thinking and feelings. It is no longer only seen as an illness of old age. It usually affects people over the age of 65 but sufferers can be diagnosed muchyounger.
I am pleased we have World Alzheimers Month every year in September. It is one of New Zealand’s biggest healthcare challenges and will only get bigger as our population ages.
The awareness month tells us about the disease, its symptoms, what the individual can expect and family members also. Knowing helps us understand.
The woman, police said, was armed with a steak knife. She was advancing on two police officers who attended the call-out with her walking frame. This happened in the early hours of the morning when I can only presume the poor woman must have been confused and frightened.
It has been reported that when she fell to the ground, she suffered a fractured skull and a serious brain bleed. Tragically, she later died in hospital.
A police officer has been charged with recklessly causing grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault. The charges are likely to be upgraded.
Clare Nowland was tasered by police at an aged care home in Cooma.
I find the whole episode very sad and upsetting.
In my view, tasering an old, sick, vulnerable woman sounds like harsh treatment.
Surely police officers are trained to de-escalate situations like this. I don’t want to see any police officer injured in the line of duty but, in my view, no wonder there’s an outcry in Australia. Tasering someone with dementia in this manner is hard for me to understand.
She must have posed one hell of a risk. What else could it be?
The condemnation of the police handling of the situation has been swift. Health professionals, aged-care advocates, family members and the wider community are all asking if the police response was in proportion to the perceived risk to the police officers, rest home staff and other residents.
If not, why was such heavy-weighted action deemed necessary?
I know that staff in rest homes are trained to handle any number of stressful and worrying situations, but I suspect these rarely involve weapons such as a steak knife. And I understand that policies are there to follow and provide guidance when challenging situations occur.
I have worked as a board member of a residential healthcare provider. The residents in all the homes have complex needs and their behaviour can often be erratic and volatile. Staff frequently get injured when trying to quell unpredictable, dangerous behaviour.
They have to decide when to intervene and what action to take. I feel for the staff at this rest home as I don’t believe the action taken by the police officers produced the desired outcome they wanted. De-escalate by all means, but I don’t think this warranted hurting a vulnerable old woman suffering from dementia.
Perhaps the police involved in this incident did not realise their approach would result in the woman herself being injured so seriously. I presume Australian police in general don’t usually get call-outs that see them facing down armed rest-home residents.
Each situation will be different, but as the ageing population is growing and living longer, it’s important that police on both sides of the Tasman consider if they need to include new modules in their training.
Health modules need to cover an understanding of how older people can sometimes become confused and disorientated. They can show signs of diminished judgement and changes in personality are often accompanied by agitation.
These are signs of a significant health issue, not to be confused with aggressive, law-breaking behaviour. These people are loved members of someone’s family.
In my opinion, and generally speaking, there is no need to treat them like common criminals.
Merepeka Raukawa-Tait has worked in the private, public and non-profit sectors. Today she writes, broadcasts and is a regular social issues commentator on TV. Of Te Arawa, Merepeka believes fearless advocacy for equity and equality has the potential to change lives.
