Confessions of a Personal Care Home Social Worker **
People often ask me if my work as a Social Worker in a Personal Care Home is really meaningful. They wonder if you can really make a difference in someone's life when they are really at the end stages of life. Whenever I am asked this, I think of Mrs. Smith. I met Mrs. Smith in hospital while she was awaiting admission in PCH. She was so remarkable because she was unremarkable. The average age of admission to PCH is 87. She was 87. The average female comes in with 5.8 disease diagnosis and 4.2 medications. She had 6 diseases and 4 medications. In every way, she was unremarkable and completely average. However, I knew Mrs. Smith was going to be remarkable when I phoned her only daughter to offer a bed for her mother. Mary told me that she would accept the bed for her mother and that she would ensure that her mom had everything she needed, however, she likely never would visit her mother. She told me her mom had been miserable an...