Growing up as the child of immigrants in a working-class neighborhood, there were two things I held to be gospel: Unions and Democrats were good.
How could it be otherwise? After all, wasn’t it my dad’s union that helped him secure employment as an operating engineer? And didn’t our local Democratic alderman have the power to make many hassles of city life magically disappear?
But, as so often is the case, time has a funny way of complicating things. It turns out unions weren’t always the paragons of virtue I once thought they were. And those helpful aldermen always seemed to want a little something in return.
And therein lies one of the problems with things we hold to be true: Sometimes they are more like opinions we dress up as facts.
As I write this, two very different versions of the “truth” about long-term care quality are being pushed. On the one side, you’ve got folks claiming it’s a dirty, fundamentally flawed industry that should be buried. On the other, there are many thousands of workers and operators who see what they do each day as God’s work on Earth.
So who’s right and who’s wrong? In a way, both sides.
Those who argue the field needs serious reform and a bit of creative destruction have plenty of ammunition. For many, it’s troubling personal experience. For others, it’s the endless parade of news stories about bad actors committing fraud, abuse and other unsavory deeds.
Then there are those on the care delivery side. Many are routinely performing herculean tasks for people that otherwise might be left without care. They work long hours, often with little recognition, to provide dignity and comfort to the vulnerable. It’s a rare combination of dedication and compassion that often goes unnoticed by the broader public.
The uncomfortable reality is that we all seem to embrace our own version of the truth. Of that I’m totally convinced.
Well, at least for now.
John O’Connor is editorial director for McKnight’s.
Opinions expressed in McKnight’s Long-Term Care News columns are not necessarily those of McKnight’s.
