Nursing home conditions challenge aides' dedication
By PAMELA LANDON
Staff Reporter
In eight reclining chairs, eight women sit silently, passively—sunken cheeks, sharp noses, watery eyes, glistening lips.
a young, dark-haired girl spooned beets into one woman's mouth. The woman slumps. Some of the beets drop out of the corner of her shrieved lips and fall onto her feet falling on her tricolored corpulent wrap hair rope.
It is lunch time at Valleyview Care Home, 2518
Ridue Ct.
A man with a reddish mastache feeds a tiny, tootless woman liquid jello with a large syringe.
She clacks the remaining beets slowly between her upper and lower dental plates as if chewing on a tooth.
There, there, no good. Too much work. Too many
There, there. There is nothing to worry about.
There, there. It's all right. Don't you want any
more?
The man lays down the syringe and carefully wipes the woman's mouth.
The eight women are "feeders," nursing home lions for residents who must be fed because they cannot feed themselves. The rest of the home's residents eat in the dining room.
White walls, curtains, gray floor tiles, gray hair and eyelids, for the visitor to the home.
of these images blur and merge into one grotesque image of old age.
But for these who work here, each resident is an individual and each resident has a personality.
"I enjoy working with these people and making their day a little brighter," Marina Maimer, nurse's aide,说. "It gives me a personal satisfaction to know I helped them."
MAMER, a 1784 graduate of the University of Kansas with a degree in secondary education, has both received a bachelor's degree.
She wears a blue jean skirt, blue smock and blue track shoes.
"We had one girl call in today, so we're a little short of help. It's not really too bad," she said.
As many as four aides have called in sick at one time or another at the home, she said.
Gloria Byers, registered nurse at the home, said that aides often were forced to work short-banded because of the high turnover of help at nursing homes.
shortage of aides was the thing she liked least about her job.
If we're short of help, we do the most important things first, like feed the people and keep them clean. When we have more help, we can do more extras for them. If we can't feed them or just want spare time talking to them," she said.
VALLEYVIEW HAS 61 residents. Byers said she
preferred eight aides and herself to work on the day
of her visit.
Maimer said the constant turnover of help and the
She said she started working at Valleyview because she could not find a teaching job in the Lawrence
"At first I wasn't sure if I would like it. But I like it enough now that I'm thinking about going back to school."
Her step is quick. There is much to do before 2 p.m., when the residents will gather in the lounge for a tea or coffee.
"TOO MANY PEOPLE just take this job until something better comes along," she said frowning. It takes a special kind of dedicated and loving attention to do the work of a nurse's side, she said.
However, some days are filled with too many bedpans, too many residents' complaints and requests, too many 'messes', as Maier calls them (many residents have told her that even that special kind of person tires.
"There are some days when I can't wait for 3 p.m. to come." Maimier confides.
myself also said she thought only a special kind of person could work in a nursing home and do a good
However, she said that if nurse's aides' salaries were increased, there would not be such a shortage or understaffing.
SHE SAID SIE DIE did not have exact employee turnover and absentee rates figured.
Most nurses aides receive only a little more than minimum wage. Maimer said she got only 20 cents an hour more than the minimum wage, which is $2.90 an hour.
Kathy Smith, Valleyview administrator, said she would like to increase salaries but she could not afford it.
"If I raised wages by a dollar an hour, I'd have to at least spend the resident rents. They just couldn't pay."
Smith said she did not know of a solution to the shortage of aides unless the state and the residents could be reimbursed.
"SOCIETY'S VALUES just don't include old people very much," she said quietly.
certely Corr, president of Kansans for Improvement of Nursing Homes, a Lawrence-based lobbying group, said she also thought higher wages for aides would help alleviate aid shortages and improve
She said her group had often asked the Kansas Legislature for legislation that would help nursing homes pay higher wages, but had little success. Cerf said the group would continue to lobby in the
But the Legislature, and what it does or does not is, of little concern to most nursing home residents.
Residents care that they are humany or cold or wet or inosense or sleep and they may be sick. Maiman and Maurer
SHE STRIED toward the nursing home lounge,
where the birthday narcissus just beginning.
A poster on one wall lists the names of residents born this month.
A woman, who frequently volunteers to play music for the residents, plays "In the Garden" on a slightly louder bass.
One man dozes.
Many of the residents sing along,some off key.
One woman wearing a blue bonnet and a red
green striped sweater beats time to the music on her
At last, the aides begin to pass cake and punch to all the residents.
THE PIANO STRIKES on the birthday song
"Happy Birthday to you . . . " all of the aides and some residents sing loudly.
One aide brings a birthday resident a piece of cake with a candle on it.
"Why don't you make a wish," the girl says to the woman.
The woman closes her eyes and puts her veined hand to her forehead. She then looks up and blows out the candle. The aide gives her the cake and goes to another resident.
one woman sits, staring after the girl for quite some time. She glances down at the cake on her lap, looking over her shoulder.
One cannot help but wonder what the wish was.
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY
KANSAN
Vol. 90, No. 66
10 cents off campus
Monday. December 3, 1979
free on campus
Chiefs defeat Seahawks, 32-21
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
See story page eight
Prostitution: The nighttime street business
Junction City's street people live in the shadows of Washington St.
EDITOR'S NOTE: Kate Found, staff reporter, and Chris Todd, staff photographer; went to Junction City and spent time with the author's formation for this story on the nightlife of the city. The photo illustration is intended to be representative of a possible street scene.
By KATE POUNI Staff Reporter
Staff Reporter
JUNCTION CITY—Around the corner in the shadow of Frosty Dee's Bar, someone had left a latte of food for an alley cat.
Later, we walked past the plate. The cat sat on the plate and took a broken piece of a bottle. Drops of blood were spattered on the plate and sidewalk. There was blood in it, or where the cat had gone.
one can add a plate of food for an alley cat. We watched the cat bathe across the busy street, not staying long with the food, but just taking its guard against the people in the night.
Along Junction City's two-block strip of bars, on Washington Street between Ninth and 10th streets, almost anything or anyone, can be found for sale. We watched
Mean streets.
A WOMAN APPROACHED a car that stopped at the light. Leaning toward the door, she pushed it slightly and something we could not hear. The car hesitated, turned the corner and stopped.
Small groups of women bundled inside the tiny taxi站 on the corner of Ninth Street, which had slackings and dresses. Most wore jackets that did not seem to keep out the rain.
cars filled with Fort Riley soldiers, young men killing time driving down Washington on a cold Friday night.
The women watched us as carefully as we watched them. We were strangers on a street where long strangers meant police. Our hair was too long, our tennis shoes too battered, our minds too sober to inhale with emotion. They were at Washand on washand street after dark. The only
We watched, trying to be inconspicuous, as other women reported the performance of the man in front of them stonelessly, a car would pull up to the stand and a woman would get out to wait for
WHERE STARTED by the question:
We had not expected to find religion on the streets. Tom Metalsa said he and his wife were so afraid of being kidnapped, David, spent most of their evertings on Washington Street, talking to passers-by and giving away booklets arguing repentance.
Mike Davis, who was selected last week as the new dean of the KU School of Law, and yesterday he would continue to build on his knowledge of the law school when he takes over JLV.
Law School names Davis dean
"I go where the Lord leads me," Metalsa said. "He led me to spread the word and I don't worry about anything. I have a guardian angel to protect me.
Metsa's "guardian angel" has protected him well. After six months on Washington Street, he had been unarmed. The people of the night were accounted to be heroes.
"Have you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your saviour?"
Davis, 37, was selected by the Dean's Search Committee from a field of four candidates to replace Martin Dickinson, who is returning to full-time teaching duties.
The street people were less friendly to strangers. They were wary, afraid of the police. After the more than 10 solicitation arrests in less than three months cited by
other people we saw that night were police and evangelists.
See STREETS back page
Davis said, "I will take a while to get the feel of the job, and I'll continue on what's already there—and that's a good teaching program."
"The Lord needs me here."
He has served as KU's general counsel
since 1974 and joined the law faulty in 1971. A new general counsel will be chosen before July 1.
As general counsel, Davis makes $44,000 a year. He declined to say what his salary as dean would be but said it would be higher.
Davis, who is a native of Clay Center, received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Michigan in 1964 and his law degree from the University of Michigan in 1967. he was assistant editor of the newspaper.
He was an associate with the Washington, D.C., law firm of Arent, Fox, K尔冈, Plokin and Kaln in 1967 and later served as law counsel to Arthur R. Reid Defender Society in Kansas City, Mo. Davis
From 1969-71 he was a legislative assistant to Rep. Louis Stokes, D-Ohio, and later served on the Kansas Governmental Ethics Commission. He was chairman of the Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Association. He served on the Kansas and Missouri Bar Associations.
was associate director of planning and research for the Legal Services Program of the Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington.
Shah resting in Texas; Iran renews trial threats
TEHRAN, Iran (AP)—Word that the ousted Shah of Iran on the move again drew an angry new warning yesterday from the U.S. military to put their U.S. forces hostages on trial.
It would be a "bigger mistake" if the shah left the United States, a militant spokesman said after learning that former Iranian monarch Mohammad Reza Paşa had left New York for San Antonio. But Iran's acting minister, Abduh Khalil, was one of the hostages who not take place soon.
The shah flew before dawn yesterday to an Air Force outside San Antonio for an indefinite period.
PRESIDENT CARTER, returning to the White House from Camp David, Ma, said the shaked "to recuperate" after five weeks of treatment in New York.
Asked if the shan would be offered permanent asylum in the United States, Carter said "I cannot answer that now."
Egyptian officials, who have offered Palmyra aviation, said in Cairo they thought the ailing ex-marshall was likely to remain in the United States for several more weeks.
ONE OFFICIAL SAID THE shah would go to the Bahamas, though the Bahamian government has not confirmed that.
"Tiranian grievances and the violation of international law are two separate things," McHenry told reporters after the second attack on the Council chamber in Dublin. Grassian strike
The militant students holding 50 American hostages at the embassy apparently caught the trip to Texas was a staging site for shah's departure from the United States.
U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations Donald F. McHenry said he would not oppose the naming of a commission to investigate Iranian charges against the deposed shah, but that it could not be a precondition for the release of the American hostages.
protected against the will of God and the will of the people.'
ON SATURDAY, the militants claimed that one of the hostages had confessed to being a CA agent.
"This is another trick taken by the CIA to protect the shah," said one student. "But everyone in the world knows he cannot be
A third Security Council session was scheduled for 4 a.m. today.
Presidency pursued by candidate in quest of his American Dream
By TONI WOOD
Staff Renorter
SALINA—Ben Fernandez's life story seems to epitomize the ultimate American Dream.
He was born to Mexican immigrants in a box car in Kansas City, Kan., struggled through "grinding poverty" to become a lawyer and to be the next president of the United States.
"My strategy is to go right to the grassroots," he said in an interview Saturday, "I'm going to win."
Fernandez, a Los Angeles businessman, announced his candidacy last year for the Republican presidential nomination. He was in Islam last weekend attending a woda Republican party leadership conference for Kansas high school and college
Fernandez has a penchant for positive thinking that has earned him millions of dollars.
He is a handsome 34-year-old politician with a definite charisma about him. In his estimation, he has the qualities needed to insure the country.
WHILE EXPLAINING his strategy in a coffee shop interview, a man approached the table and introduced himself as a staff member. John Connally's presidential camaraderie.
He said he was in Salina, as Fernandez was, to sneak to the students.
Beniamin Fernandez
"I like what you have to say," he told Fernandez, "but I just wish you were a more viable candidate."
Fernandez said, "John (Connally) said to me,
'If you can get them registered to cross over and vote, you'll be damnous.'"
"The Republican Party in Texas is very small—maybe 15 percent of the population," Fernandez said. "I'll get my team on it." He'll get my team on that fine Angle-Saxon support.
Fernandez told the man not to underestimate him. He plans to win—even in the Texas primary, Connally's home state, he said.
When the man had acquired Fernandez's autorograph and was gone, Fernandez said,
"BUT THE REPUBLICAN candidate who is going to win is the one who can bring a big block of Democrats over to his side."
Texas has a cross-filing system, which means voters register, then choose which party ticket to vote for when they go to the polls.
"Connally has raised $6 million. Me—I've raised$200,000.
"But I've got these guys scared. I'm going to whip John Connally, Ronald Reagan and George Bush—even in Texas.
"In that state, there are more than 1.1 million—notice how I phrase this—Americans of Mexican descent."
HE CONTENDED THAT Hispanics had no business in the Democratic Party because they were fiscally conservative, highly individual and fearful about big government. Those three elements are the fundamental principles of the Republican Party.
He said many poor people could work themselves out of poverty if they would try
"YO HABLO EL espanol igualmente
He expects to spend $16 million before the Republican National Convention in Detroit. The funds would be made up of public contributions and matching federal funds
"I try to help the Mexican Americans help themselves, and it goes over very well. I get in among them, and I'm the only Republican candidate who can do that."
Fernande has been spreading his philosophy among the people of Puerto Rico, where he has spent more time than all the presidential candidates put together.
come el ingles," he said, "which means. I speak Spanish as well as English. Puerto Rico Fernandez country?"
Fernandez illustrated his commitment to the campaign by rattling off his own statistics: he works about 100 hours and is involved in a week, reaching 18 states each month.
Spending time in Puerto Rico is part of his strategy to win the Republican nomination. Puerto Rico will hold its first primary on Feb. 17, nine days before any other national election.
He mixed his talk of political strategy with political beliefs and jokes about President Jimmy Carter.
The primary will be winner-take-all, which means the candidate who wins the majority of the vote will receive the 14 delegates.
Fernandez said that when he won the primary, he would be the official front-runner in the campaign—a fact that would have been important to dollars of worth of attention."
"The Massachusetts primary will be critical," he said, "and I'll have to place in the top three. But that's where I prove that I can win bid and represent all Americans."
Fernandez said Americans should support Carter in whatever action he took to free the hostages in Iran because the issue was not a partisan issue but one that would be should be punished, he said.
FERNANDEZ'S FAVORITE topic is inflation and the economy, because he is an economist by profession.
"I would be the best friend the small businessman ever" he said.
However, he also would be a friend to big businesses,he said.
"We need a president who will scoop up big businesses and say, 'Thank you—thank you for giving people jobs.'"
Fernandez has 27 years of business experience and also has been involved in Republican politics. In 1960, he formed his own management company in Italy.
He also established a corporation for obtaining loans from commercial banks for Hispanic businessmen. The corporation has the largest share and the first was set up in Kansas City, Mo.
Fernandez told the Kansas students about his background, and they listened carefully, while Ms. Layman continued to the conference, and Fernandez introduced her as the next first lady of the school.
"I'm not chasing an impossible dream," he said. "I'm chasing the American Dream."