Quaker exposes emotional toll of care home workers
'Essex-born comedian said that he felt the ‘biggest moments’ of ‘overwhelming spiritual connection with the world’ when he was with people with dementia in the care home.'
A Quaker comedian has railed against the understaffing, emotional toll, poor pay and exhaustion affecting carers, in a book based on his decade
In I’ll Die After Bingo, published by Ebury Press, Pope Lonergan recounts the reality of life in a care home, including the treatment of staff during the coronavirus pandemic. Revealing how care workers toiled on fourteen-hour shifts, sacrificing breaks, he says care workers were told that the PPE deficit was a myth, or instructed to use gloves and aprons more sparingly, without changing between residents.
‘I’m now a full-time comedian. And I get paid more to stand on stage talking about my foreskin than to keep another human being alive,’ he told British Comedy Guide.
The book also tells the story of Pope Lonergan’s mental health struggles and recovery from drug addiction. Speaking on Saturday Live last month, he said about becoming a Quaker: ‘It was something I came across when I was in the midst of drug addiction… and I went religious window-shopping.’
Interviewed in the Friend in 2019, the Essex-born comedian said that he felt the ‘biggest moments’ of ‘overwhelming spiritual connection with the world’ when he was with people with dementia in the care home. ‘They’re my people,’ he said. ’Sometimes, someone you have looked after for seven years can’t remember your name anymore, but those moments, when you tell them your name and they suddenly remember you, they feel very special… I’m trying to keep that direct transmission alive to that person you know. It is faint, yes, but it is still there and you can try to keep a direct link to it. I really just love that.’
