What to do when a resident sexually harasses?

We have a resident in the home who, in my opinion, has mild dementia and is mostly aware of his surroundings. He's been known to make unpleasant and unwarranted, offensive sexual advances to my other female coworkers, like: kissing people on the neck/cheek when he asks for a hug, or checking out people's butts in front of them, or commenting to other residents on how the female CNAs touch his dick and butt when we toilet him (won't go into details). It's all very inappropriate.

A new worker, an East African woman, just started work 2 weeks ago. When she left for her shift, he told my other male coworker, and asked: "Is she new? When is she going to give me pussy?"

The next day, the male worker told me the story, cracking up and laughing about it. He said, "X is funny, you know, he asked me yesterday etc etc..."

I was hella pissed. I told my coworker to report it to the nurse. He did, and he told me that the nurse responds saying, " Oh, dont take him seriously. He is confused." This convenient "suck it up, you are a healthcare worker" mentality is the same one I get when I approach them about the racial slurs some of our residents use.

Confused, my ass. He knows what he is talking about.

Another female CNA had asked the charge nurse to reassign him to a male CNA. The damn boss sits on it, always saying, "next time."

The only male CNA on our unit, whom X had confided in, isnt pro-active about it. Of course, because he doesnt want to switch. He has an easy load right now and doesnt want to take on X.

I told the new woman worker that when she works with him, she should always ask one of us to be there. To have a witness. How disgusting is it to be wiping someone's butt and dick cos you gotta clean them for your job, and actually have them be wanting something else? It feels disgusting.

One part of me recognizes that part of the oppression of institutionalized caging for people with disabilities is the regimentation of sexuality, or more realistically, the desexualization of people with disabilities and the elderly. That needs to change. But when some of the nurses use this logic as a semi-excuse to say that this resident's sexual harassment is acceptable, that's fucked up.

Cross posting: Reflections on anti-police upheavals in Seattle

I been busy with this collective piece that the Black Orchid Collective has been working on. I am excited to have it be out in the world and welcome lovers and haters alike. The whole process has been very encouraging. I dont think I have ever written a piece that has been so...collective!

If you have some time for 30 pages of exciting, engaging, infuriating, titillating (ok...maybe this is going too far) political writing, check us out here!

Thank you

I have had an emotionally rocky past few days but have always unexpectedly been brought back to joy, closeness and human connection by those around me, near and far.

This is for all of you who have offered me food, laughter and tears unconditionally, who did not know how much I needed your generosity.

I give thanks for all of this, none of which was owed to me, but abundantly given by those around, and especially cherished in moments of deep sadness and confusion such as these.

Yet again, another emo post :)

Promise to self

1) Not let myself to sucked back into the emotional ups and downs of last year.
2) Not self-blame when I do. See it as a grieving process that rises and falls. Grief comes with a myriad of emotions: self-blame, self-doubt, anger, guilt, sadness, regret. But essential for moving forward
3) Not emotionally open myself with those who will open up these wounds until I am ready
4) Not allow others to make me feel guilty for needing this space and time
5) Prioritize my own healing without becoming hard. I cannot exchange my loves and life for moments of self righteousness
6) Work toward forgiveness: 
Forgive ourselves for our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us
7) When I am ready, be active to convey my self-forgiveness, as well as forgiveness to others. When I die, I want as little emotional baggage left as possible and as many postcards from past/present and future friends as possible!! :)
8) When I am ready, apologize and accept apologies where given, for the pain and hurt that had fractured us in our short lifetimes.
9) Trust that others whom I feel have wronged me are also going through their own journeys.
10) Be intentional about self reflection
11) Letting those I trust around me know about what I am looking out for within myself and have them also hold me accountable. [re: Icarus Project radical mental health exercise!!]
12) My life is not a rebound relationship from past pains: Avoid seeking validation from the present or future for what were past errors or trespasses
13) See present relationships for what they are. Not carry history into the present
14) Work toward being the kind of person I want to be, who can, in 5 years time, look back at this one sad year and say, "I grew with this experience and have become a stronger, better, more loving and lovable person."
15) Be OK with the fact that not everyone will love me, trust me, or accept me for who I am and that's OK. I have my own truth-seeking journey and will live a good principled life deserving of love.
16) Remember there are those who love me and whom I love
17) Eyes on the prize!!! I want to live, live, and live!!! And this is part of it!!!

awkward

this past week, i had a sudden realization when one of the dumbass charge nurses was complimenting us on how well we served our residents. (it's all hypocrisy cos the state is coming for evaluation soon and they need to make sure we look like we're doing a good job. There's no real love b/w us)

the condescending, patronizing, disgusting way she talks to me and my coworkers, are exactly like the way she talks to our residents!

"Oh wow! Look at how you remove the trays from under the plates!"

"Oh wow! Look at how you set up the dining room so nicely!"

"I knew you guys could do it!"

puke
am I a 5 year old?

There's a lot of food for thought.

Why all feminists should be anti-capitalists!!

Today, yet another drama at my work.
It's either I am crazy or they are and let me tell you, it's really not me!!
I will write about the incident that happened today, in another post.
But it hit me today that...the dynamics at my job really resonate with being in a power and control relationship/DV relationship w individual managers and bosses!! They scream at us too!! Just short of smacking us ax the face w physical violence, but they use hella emotional and financial coercion!! Hella power and control!! And!! They use the language of family and love too!!! To entrap us and guilt trip us!!

So! If feminists are hella against DV in the household, then they should be against workplace coercion that mimics power and control dynamics in the family too!!!

Gtg

Excitement!

I am really stimulated and excited about all the political possibilities and potentials around me right now. Amid all the tragedy in the world, the deepening economic and social crises, the natural and man-made disasters...it feels good to have something to look forward to. I am going to put this messy mass of jumbled excited ideas out here so I can think through them/plan for them more clearly!!

1) Transformative Justice and Radical Mental Health training session
This happened just 2 nights ago, organized by a whole bunch of groups here in Seatown, hosting folks from the Icarus Project and Aorta collective. The training had 120 people attending, on a Tues night! I have lots of notes from this session and some processing to do. Hopefully this will happen here in the next few days/week!

2) Watching Live Nude Girls Unite!
Talk about the body as a commodity!! Talk about estranged labor!! Talk about the clash b/w exchange value, use value,the body, patriarchy, union solidarity, class struggle as a way to destroy patriarchy, sexuality, liberation, sex positivism etc...Thinking about my comrade's piece on sexuality, race, the body, and alienation...I am excited to think through these questions...They are a jumbled mess right now and I hope in the next few months I can clarify them!

3) Vision, Brainstorms for organizing!
I feel like I am working toward a concrete vision for myself...beginning to be able to lay out some concrete goals and clarifying what kind of attitude to have toward my workplace organizing. I dont know why it's been so hard and so confusing!! I am just thankful that I am sorting this out now...working toward something!

I have been thinking alot about priorities, my limited time and mental capacity post-work and post-school...and what I should prioritize in terms of political work. I think I have come to terms acknowledging the kind of person I am -- I just cannot buckle down and read theory/history without feeling like I am doing some concrete political work, no matter how small/minimal, that doesnt have a clear sense of direction. I also cannot do political work only and not leave time for myself to read. I need time both for reading and political work otherwise I just become super sad and directionless.

Last night, I went for the IWW meeting and got really inspired talking w folks there, thinking through models of organizing! I also hung out w my coworkers today -- ate hella Ethiopian food (yummy!!!), drank hella Ethiopian coffee (so much better than Starbucks!!), chilled w my coworker's son (my high school Math is being put to use to help him w his homework!!)...and I just felt really excited and happy!

Here's some thoughts:
- Finish up the 2nd issue of the newsletter I am working on.
I have been stressing about this cos I keep working on drafts and then giving up on them cos they dont seem good enough...or that my coworkers might not be engaged. But really, if I think about putting out the newsletter as a trial and error, and as much a method to agitate my coworkers as it is a practice for myself to write in a way that integrates the Marxist theory into writings about everyday workplace experience that could possibly resonate with my coworkers, and a way to think through what are the elements that can make up an agitational, Marxist-influenced workplace newsletter, then it is worth it! Especially since it is supposed to be short anyways and I already have 1 page down!!

- I am really nervous about one-on-ones! I have tried doing them twice and they havent worked out too well
:( I realize I dont know how to talk about solidarity unionism, or do the A E I O U in a way that doesnt freak people out, or becoming a bitch-about-the-job session! I keep defaulting in conversations, to my instinctual method of talking politics, which I think is not suitable for union-organizing. I keep thinking I need to be perfect on this...before I start doing it. But really, it's once again, a trial and error and I need to just jump in and reflect the hell out of what I am doing to learn from it!

- I am also trying to do contact work w my coworkers. I guess there are 2 dimensions to this. One is to keep social contact -- which is increasingly happening and really important for me to do because it helps me keep contacts who could later be nucleus of workplace committees or industry wide networks if people change jobs; Another dimension is to do revolutionary contact work -- to begin to read texts one-on-one with coworkers. Trying to do it with one coworker now. We'll see where it goes!! But bringing my coworkers into any future projects I do, apart from unionization, is so key!!

- 2 ideas!
a) Flyering outside CNAs schools in the Seattle area for "How do you survive your first 100 days as a CNA?: A workshop BY and FOR CNAs"
All these CNA schools give this rosy picture of being CNAs and most new CNAs are shocked and in disbelief for the first 3 months when they start on the job.
Many CNAs already get the briefing/networking done from their immigrant community contacts, so such a workshop should include info that many older, more experienced CNAs do not know about! Like, Know Your Rights stuff...
I hope to be able to collaborate with some coworkers on this -- which would mean the social/contact work piece needs to be done well! and hopefully meet more people in the industry this way

b) An ESL class that integrates role play on how to talk back to the boss on the job, as well as revolutionary texts, articles etc etc
At my workplace, immigrant women without kids have a sense that they can and will take classes, finish prereqs and get out of the CNA workforce. Those with kids who are in their 30s or older, have a sense that for financial or familial reasons they cannot afford to take classes, or climb their way out of being CNAs.
It is the latter group in particular I hope to target: free ESL classes that integrate role plays about how folks can talk back to bosses. That integrate peoples' knowledge on how bosses use English and fake laws to intimidate workers and how to respond. Included in this could be popularizing a demand for workers who dont speak/understand English to be able to get a representative, some sort of Weingarden rights deal. Also, this can be a way to popularize revolutionary ideas in a way that supports immigrant workers in a particular industry.
I hope to bring together a team that can do weekly classes.
I really hope that the social/contact work piece is a realistic first step for me to work toward realizing these 2 ideas/goals...

We'll see where these take us.
For now, I am just a little hyper!

Caring Labor event April 27th

Save the date, April 27th I will be sharing a discussion forum w David C and Brooke!
Friends in Seattle, check this out:

赤脚医生 China's Barefoot Doctors

"Barefoot Doctors of Rural China" by Diane Li

I am part of an experimental, emerging group of healthcare workers/folks interested in being healthcare workers, meeting monthly to develop praxis around disabilities justice, class struggle and healthcare.
Eventually, *with fingers crossed* we can hopefully facilitate an emergence of a network of rank and file, industry- wide healthcare workers collective in Seattle.

We have developed an ongoing database of readings around healthcare here. If folks have any suggestions, or recommendations, please let me know. I have been reading some pieces during my free time, but not in any structured way. Most recently, I have been trying to tackle Ivan Illich's Medical Nemesis. It is a challenging piece to read, exciting in its outright criticism of the capitalist medical bureaucracy yet also somewhat disturbing the strains of anti-modernism. When, or if, I ever finish the piece, I will attempt a review.

Just today, I watched a short documentary by US AID about barefoot doctors in rural China, back in 1975. Barefoot doctors are doctors that are recruited from the rural areas to be trained in preventative and primary care skills. They served as the first line of medical expertise for people in rural China, who then made up 80% of China's population. There are certain interesting features about barefoot doctors from this documentary that I think are useful to think about as we imagine alternatives to the form of healthcare we have available in this country. All my observations are from watching this documentary and so, not super well researched!

First off, the barefoot doctors as described in the film, are nominated from the community. They are nominated in open meetings in rural communities and then approved by the local Health Board, subsequently trained for 3 -6 months, accumulating in 2 year training period broken up into phases. The trainings include knowledge of traditional chinese medicine and western medicine, and more importantly preventative and curative methods for local diseases and illnesses, specific to the communities that the barefoot doctors come from. Those who are interested, or talented, could get further training as full-time physicians in the cities. The barefoot doctor positions were predominantly women, making up more than 50% in some cases, and provided a role for women as healers and skilled labor in their communities.

The idea that doctors and healthcare workers need to be nominated and chosen from the community, I think is a very important concept. It assures their accountability to the communities that they serve. Today our doctors and healthcare providers are so distant, cold, functional and unaccountable. The legal system or the state steps in to try to assure accountability in their own fucked up and pretentious ways. Having doctors from communities who can be nominated out of their positions, I think creates a more effective system of ensuring that doctors serve the health of the people and begins a dialogue about how the structures of health provision and healthcare should be a communal effort, not simply based on individual morals and personality. Today, the Hippocratic Oath doesnt mean anything because doctors are out there just to get money and nothing holds them to that oath, except if you have the money and time to fight a huge, long, drawn out court case around doctor accountability...

Furthermore, barefoot doctors were not separated from their communities. It was seen as a role that was complementary with being a farmer or a housewife. In the film, the narrator talks about how farmers would work 40% of the time in the fields, and then serve their time as barefoot doctors for 60% of the time, and be paid the same wages for both kinds of work. This seems like a way to break down the mental manual labor divisions. In their work, the barefoot doctors were responsible for going around the community, being mobile, to treat and talk to members of the community. They had a somewhat more holistic vision of healthcare that didnt focus simply on medication. It also included teaching classes on sanitation, on the safekeeping of human manure for fertilizers, for replacing human manure with pig manure as safer options, and also conducted sessions where the community would come together to clear up clogged drains which were breeding grounds for dangerous mosquitoes and diseases. In addition, they were responsible for testing the levels of sanitation of well water.

The film also highlighted how the medication that was used in the barefoot doctor clinics were both a combination of indigenous, traditional chinese medicine (TCM), as well as western medicine and patients had the option to decide what kind of treatment they preferred. In the clinic backyards, the doctors would grow plots of herb that they would grind up as medication, and also offer community members payments for bringing in wild herbs which were rare or potent. People would make extra cash this way.

When it came to payment, the community would pool together money -- everyone had a small amount extracted from their "workpoints" or wages, and it would be pooled together to pay the barefoot doctor and the supplies. It was a form of Cooperative Insurance Fund which would be matched by the state. It seemed as if once people contributed to the fund, they would have access to whatever service and treatment they needed.

Having just discussed Critique of the Gotha Program with some of my comrades here, I think it is interesting to think about whether the kind of cooperative that existed was something that defied the law of value and decommodification of healthcare, or whether it also continued to uphold the law of value in more masked forms, under state capitalism.

The film presents the barefoot doctor system as a top down effort by the state capitalist regime, though I am skeptical of that. The way barefoot doctors are described in the film seems to me the way doctors/physicians have been presented in the traditional period drama I have seen before -- they were itinerant, worked also with their hands and not merely with their minds, and were also scientists of sorts. In any case, I wonder if the communications and interactions among barefoot doctors of different provinces and regions were facilitated by the state, or if they recognized themselves as a group of skilled workers who got each others' backs, a class by themselves.

I have been very interested in the state socialist feminism of the Chinese Communist Party and have a lot to say about it, and probably will in another post. On a side note, there is a documentary that I really love, called Out of Phoenix Bridge 回到凤凰桥, that describes the experiences of some rural Chinese women in present-day (well, 1997) Beijing who are there as migrant factory workers. It chronicles some of this history of state socialist feminism that the CCP imposed, and some of its strengths and weaknesses, and its presentation of women as productive capitalist workers who "hold up half the sky" but essentially a betrayal of the interests and liberations of many individual women.

Barefoot doctors in CCP China played a role where women could defeat the feudal forms of patriarchy that existed then, that oppressed and exploited women intensely, and provided a state-recognized role for women to play, where they were doctors and skilled workers. However, at the same time, that went hand in hand with an intense control of women's sexuality under the pretext of nation-building.

The film describes how the barefoot doctors had sole monopoly over access to birth control methods like condoms and pills, which they would only give to married couples. To these married couples they would hold sessions on birth control. In fact, the barefoot doctors would have records of the birth control methods that families in their communities utilized, and would check in on the usage. At some point, health and safety precautions become a pretext for state control over reproductivity and sexuality. They would also hold sessions on sexually transmitted infections (STI) and apparently China during that time did not have cases of gonorrhea and syphillis. I imagine though the darker side of this was the intense persecution of sex workers, whether they be in rural or urban areas. In addition, during the time when the One-Child policy was imposed, women who worked in the fields and factories where barefoot doctors serviced, would have their menstrual cycles be tracked by the doctors and be called in to take their birth control pills as assigned.

That, sounds a little freaky.

I recommend this 50 min long documentary! For good and for bad, it helps me think through what alternatives we need to build for healthcare!

"The fine line between abuse and neglect"

K Tree over at K. Tree, CNA blog had a post that I sort of resonate with, called "How Pushy is Too Pushy?"

This paragraph in particular:

We're constantly walking a fine line between abuse and neglect. I don't care what you say, it's true. 40 minutes cajoling and slipping little bites of medicine in a resident's mouth could be construed as abuse. Not giving her the medication could be construed as neglect. Same thing with a resident who doesn't want to be bathed even though she clearly needs it. If you force her to be bathed, even with a bed bath, it could be abuse. If you let her lay in her own filth, you are guilty of neglect.

I think this relates to the awful NY Times article I posted before. I think this fine line K.Tree is describing is really demoralizing for healthcare workers cos you get into this frame of mind that

- The state (the power that monopolizes any conversation about healthcare, safety, resident/patient rights) isn't serious about patient safety cos it switches so easily back and forth between Neglect and Abuse, with no understanding of the conditions and circumstances that we work under.

- The state with its wishy washy definitions of Neglect and Abuse become a tool of management to put down any workers dissent -- my own experience speaks to this.

- Makes healthcare workers feel like we always have to cover our ass -- it's a mentality, a mindset of needing to force residents to do stuff regardless of their own desire or will, because we need to NOT get into trouble. This leads to objectification of residents

- This is a deeply moral and ethical question and needs to be tackled as such through debate, discussion, clarifying the lines of debate between patient autonomy and healthcare institutions definitions of safety. In the absence of such debate, it becomes a very crass form of paternalism toward our residents/patients.

Tribute to B.F

One day, when I have time and some creative juices to spare, I want to write a fictionalized memoir about B.F, one of my favorite residents at the nursing home.

B.F. was E.G's room mate. Yesterday, E.G's passing was very emotional for B.F. We bonded over some heartfelt moments. B.F. is also one of the few residents who are alert in the long term care unit I work in. She is also one of the few Black residents in the nursing home. I want to pay tribute to this wonderful human being.

E.G, for what I believe are racial reasons, used to always think that B.F. was stealing her stuff. Part dementia, part racism. She would always say that "this strange woman in my room always takes my things."

Completely untrue. B.F. would confront her sometimes and ask, "Why do you always think that I steal from you? All your things are right here."

Among my co-workers, we would always say, it's because B.F. is Black, that's why E.G. always assumed that she had to be a thief. V, one of the housekeepers who is also Black, would always just point to her skin and say, "That's why." We would tell B.F, "E.G. had mental illness, and she doesnt know always what she is saying." Semi-true, but probably one of the effects that E.G's mental illness had on her was that she had no filters and would say what she thought.
We told the charge nurse that E.G. and B.F. should stop being roommates cos they were agitating each other. Of course that wasn't taken too seriously.

A few months ago, E.G. fell from her chair in her room. She had slipped while trying to transfer herself to bed. It was her room mate, B.F, who wheeled herself anxiously out into the hallway to call for help.

E.G. survived the fall with no serious injuries. From then on, everytime E.G. speculated about BF, I would tell her, "Don't say that about B, she saved your life!" To that, EG would always ask, "Really? How?" And I would remind her.

A few days before EG died, right when we were about the clear the dining room, BF wheeled herself next to EG and fed her. She had wheeled herself across the dining room to check on her roommate who was obviously not in good health. It's very touching to see one old lady in a wheelchair feeding another. We all paused in the dining room and watched this caring,loving moment unfold.

BF also always pushes the other residents who are unable to wheel themselves, down the hallway, from her own wheelchair. To check in on her friends, she would hold their hands and ask them how they are doing.

I always tell BF, "You are such a good person." She would always reply, "What else is there to be? It's the only thing I can do. God knows."

BF had shown me pictures of herself when she was younger. She was, and still is, a very beautiful woman. She had moved up to Seattle from Louisiana in her early twenties, got married and then left her husband. "I was better off without him," she would say without going into details. Since then, she raised her sons as a single mother working as a nanny in Seattle. She was independent and living with her son in Seattle until a fall a few years ago brought her into the nursing home.

I also always tell BF, "You're my favorite cos you so nice!" To which, she would reply, "You're my favorite cos you take good care of me."

A month ago, BF told me she was getting depressed. "I'm bored of being bored. I just go around and around this same place. I miss my house." She would describe the garden that she had back home, and point to the flowers that her neighbor brought on her visits. I tried talking with her about life, about her youth, her kids. I told the social worker, but apart form trying to get her to be involved in activities, there didnt seem much else to do. A nursing home is a depressing place to be. Cooped up, no place else to go, the same old grim hallway, waking up too early for breakfast, sleeping too early at night in the same old green gown, the same old sweet hot cocoa every morning...

Yesterday, BF's son came to visit. BF introduced him to me for the third time, likely having forgotten that we had been introduced before.

She stopped me along the hallway.
"This is my son," she pointed to the grown 50 year-old looking man with one hand, and the other holding mine.
And to him, she said,
"This is my baby son. My favorite."

It was a precious moment for me.

Wrapped up in the whole emotionally funky state I was in yesterday, I couldnt respond or engage. I just smiled and walked off.

I didnt know if the first thing to cross his mind would be about the mistaken gender identification (which I really didnt care for), or whether it would be acknowledging and appreciating the relationship that his mother and I had built in the strange circumstances of this institution.

Much love and respect to BF.