October 20, 2007

By Robin Bawkey

One Sunday, 19 years ago, I met a woman at my church. She was completely blind, her kidneys were failing, and she didn’t have anyone to help her with her day-to-day life tasks. I wasn’t working at the time, and so, despite the fact that I had no experience in the field, I decided I could be the one to help her.

For 19 years now, I’ve been a home care worker in Michigan.

I’ve been with my current client, Scott, for 7 years now. Scott is the brother of another woman from my church. I help him out with transportation and light housekeeping. I do what I do so that Scott and the other clients I’ve served can continue to live an independent life. I give them the best quality care I can.

I got into—stumbled into, you might say—home care work because all my life I’ve believed that if you see a person in need, and you have the resources to help her, you have both the privilege and the responsibility to do so.

I’m on this caravan because I’m really bothered by what I’ve learned about what can happen when private equity firms buy out nursing homes. I’ve read about deals where firms pay hundreds of millions to take over a struggling chain, and then “improve the efficiency” of homes by raising costs and cutting staff and resources.

It bothers me that these dealmakers—who are in positions of such power and influence—would choose to use that power to fatten their own paychecks at the expense of patient care. It’s not right, and if the Carlyle Group is going to buy out Manor Care nursing homes, there needs to be a public conversation about it.

With privilege comes responsibility, and with responsibility, accountability to the patients, families, and communities that will be affected.
 
Robin Bawkey is a home care worker in Kalamazoo, MI. She is a member of SEIU Healthcare Michigan.