Madhu is worried about the type of care she will get in a nursing home.
Transcript
I still think, looking at that situation, that if any one of us, if we reach to that situation where we need constant help, so how we are going to manage? Our children are away, being a small place—all of our community’s case—they are not in [city in NB]. They are all away working, I mean, they are highly professional. So how they are going to look after us from that far? For us, going closer to the children also is not answer because they are so busy. They have their own lives, their own children, and so going there we lose our network, our friends with whom we have lived at almost 50 years. So it becomes very difficult for new immigrants. What I feel [is that] you can’t leave the town where you lived so long, and then what you need is your family and family’s not there. And our network is very small. Some of those people are already, they are sick at our age. Some of them are already gone; they are no more.
So, I am really concerned about the senior situation in small centres, in the nursing home or in a retirement home, what type of care we will get here. Luckily, I can speak English; I have no problem, but there are people who do not speak English. Or if one gets—oh God knows what we get’if you’ve got Alzheimer’s, […] the second language disappears. [The] only language you can speak is your first language, which you learn your mother tongue. And here, if that situation comes, who is going to understand you, or who is going to take care of you? So, this is a concern. I mean, we don’t know what happens after 10-20 years, 10 year or 5 years, nobody knows the future. But my concern is that, I want to say that that we must look into these issues. When we are having immigrant populations and when they are senior, when they cannot take care of themselves, whether the system is ready to serve us. [Do] they have facilities? There’s not only medical facilities, but moral support. Friends, or community? Do we have that to look after us? So, I think that’s my concern.
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