Monday, December 7, 2009

A Few Bits and Pieces and a Grumble About the System.

Last night the Dr Who special “Waters of Mars” ran on ABC TV.
In a homage to a misspent youth I watched it. Well actually I have to admit that having never grown up, I have enjoyed most of the Dr Who series starring David Tennant.

Sorry to those American fans who haven’t yet seen it (I believe it screens on the 19th in the USA) but I found it boring. This special is basically a not very suspenseful zombie show. Some of the new series have been really worthwhile. I particularly enjoyed the 2007 episode called “Blink”, it really built suspense beautifully.
Alas no such brilliance was on display last night. For a Dr Who fan I would rate this effort 5 out of 10 and for anyone else 2 out of 10 (I suppose a die hard Zombie fan might give it 6).

I continue to format my manuscript. It is such a slooow process. Looking at every page line by line, paragraph by paragraph is likely to send me barmy. I live in dread of seeing my imaginary Uncle Harry again.

Finally a quick word about work. We heard today that one of our younger service users (I’ll call him Joe) has been hit by a car. According to one of the Royal District Nursing Service nurses we work with he is in hospital with two broken legs. Greg, my offsider, left work early to visit him.

Where the grumble comes in is that poor Joe has a previous acquired brain injury (ABI) from a car accident some years ago (one of his parents was driving). Because of the ABI Joe is unable to properly look after himself so he has ended up homeless. I find it endlessly frustrating that there are not enough resources devoted to assisting people like Joe keep their lives together.

Joe is usually confused and I have witnessed him crossing roads with very little idea of how dangerous cars are. That he is left essentially to fend for himself makes me very angry. Government services for the Joes in this state are woefully underfunded.

Joe is in hospital following a serious accident on a street he should probably never have been on. As for the driver who hit him heaven knows what sort of trauma he or she is going through, I am pretty sure Joe would have walked straight out in front of the car. That person is also potentially paying for our negligence as a society.

Now a Random photo from 2007.
The grey kind of reflects my mood tonight.I took this on the rear deck of a Manly Ferry pulling out of Sydney one evening, I think the sky looked just amazing.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope Joe is okay. Maybe this accident is a blessing in disguise--- the injury is serious but not deadly. The hospital hopefully will give him lots of loving care. And maybe he'll get a referral to mental health or occupational therapy. It might be a chance for him to get the care he needs. I'll say a little prayer that it goes the right way for him.

Kathleen Jones said...

Oh, Al, I do feel for you. Joe should not have been there, but in the end it isn't your fault. What do we do about collective guilt? How do we get society as a whole to care about individuals? I do think this is the big question for everybody today. We can't save the planet if we can't even care for Joe.
Kathleen

Unknown said...

Let's hope Joe recovers and somebody wises up to the fact that the poor guy can't look after himself.I don't know if you have residential care facilities in your part of the World,but it sounds like he needs this kind of support.

Lisa said...

Just think how many people like Joe we could help if we just quite having to finance wars?!