- Scabies & Retirement homes
Scabies and retirement homes. We all have to visit some time or another to visit a family member or friend in the retirement home. All to often without us knowing there could be trouble lurking. In this case one that you cannot see! So with that said let us talk about what one can do with these situations! First, take a good look at the person you are visiting. Look closely at their hands, elbows and other areas that have folds of skin. These are the likely areas that will show rashes, red itchy bumps or track marks from Scabies. No one really knows for sure why they are attracted to these areas, but one guess is they can burrow in between the creases like it is a ditch just waiting for them. So before you go and hug someone or offer up a hand of love take some precautions and observe before you give contact. This is not meant to be mean in any way. This is meant to keep you from getting infected with a disease or diseases! If you notice symptoms please notify the Manager about this so the person or persons can get treatment for scabies. I would recommend a followup letter sent regarding this so it does not get shoved under the carpet. These people are helpless and need your assistance in matters like this! Another thought on this is sitting. When you visit often times you take a seat right away to be at their level. Here is a word of advice to this situation! Bring a small folding chair to sit in. You know the history of your chair and certainly not the history of what is going on in the Retirement home. Who knows who sat where and for how long. Scabies is very very contagious and can be contracted with contact to people or things that they have touched. Avoidance is the number one preventer of getting this disease. During your visit, if a worker is present look them over as well. This could be a leading indicator of what is going on while you are not there. Look for signs or indicators on them too! These days money is extremely tight and proposals to reduce income to these enterprises will without doubt cause these firms to reduce oversight and inact shortcuts. These shortcuts can be numerous and have negative impact on the person's health you are seeing. Scabies are prominate at these places so please take care when visiting them so you do not become a statistic. Our position is to assist in the eradication of scabies and spread of this disease and that one day it is eliminated like Polio!
