Caregivers and Solitary Confinement - 2023 08 01


SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, which is also referred to as segregation, isolation or separation, is the practice of confining an individual in custody to a cell by themselves for 22 hours or more a day, often for prolonged periods at a time.  (Google Search 2023 08 01)

I read the anguished, despairing dispatches from caregivers in the frontlines of family caregiving. They are isolated, lonely, exhausted, depressed, frustrated and anxious. 

In the United States, NBC News reported introduction of a bill that would broadly ban the use of solitary confinement in federal prisons, jails and detention centres by a coalition of House Democrats last month (July 2023). The measure seeks to codify into law the limitations on when and how long someone can be left isolated in a cell.

In some cases the family caregivers are part of a wider family system but they do not have adequate supports from other family members and cannot afford to hire replacement paid care (in my local area the rates are $40/hr daytime and $30/hr for an overnight). The respite services provided by our local health authority are not enough to offset the depletion of family caregiver resources and also entail extra administrative work for the already exhausted family caregiver. The work of finding suitable caregiving support adds an unsupportable burden to family caregivers already struggling to meet the day to day needs of their care recipient.

"Someday, we will look back and ask why we ever subjected people to prolonged solitary confinement and expected anything other than trauma, violence and death as a response," said Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo.(NBC News, July 27, 2023, 8:01 AM PDT / Updated July 27, 2023, 9:06 AM PDT)

The day to day work life of a family caregiving is often made up of 24 hour days alone back to back.

For example, for the four months of April, May, June and July, I have logged 30 days of 24 hour coverage, the equivalent of a full month of solitary family caregiving. The remaining days have been broken up with family visits from siblings and their spouses, we also pay my grandson a nominal fee to come and stay for 3 day respite shifts.

...lawmakers said they were concerned by studies of suicide and self-harm among inmates who have been placed in solitary confinement. (NBC News, July 27, 2023, 8:01 AM PDT / Updated July 27, 2023, 9:06 AM PDT)

Our family is lucky. Mom has 6 children and their spouses supporting our mission to keep Mom home for her final days. My husband and I are able to provide a homespace and bedroom for Mom. 

I can imagine what it would be like if I was an only child or there was only me and/or one other sibling. As it is, there is an inordinate amount of the caregiving work that is falling to me, my older sister, and my eldest brother. The other three siblings contribute as they can, two of those siblings are continuing their lives with a minimum of inconvenience to their life plans. We are each finding the family caregiving workload taxing in our own ways.

It is hard to write about this situation, but we must grapple with the inordinate amount of caregiving work that is being carried out in conditions that constitute a feeling and experience of solitary confinement.

This is the real emotional, mental and physical risk of millions of family caregivers, young, middle aged and senior. It is this risk that makes it extremely difficult to tackle the other high risk factors faced by family caregivers - financial, logistical, health and safety.

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