tag:theconversation.com,2011:/institutions/youngstown-state-university-1838/articlesYoungstown State University2021-03-04T13:12:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1556372021-03-04T13:12:40Z2021-03-04T13:12:40ZEven before COVID-19, US nursing homes were filling empty beds with psychiatric patients<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386359/original/file-20210225-13-9pqrdn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C0%2C5047%2C3369&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Many elderly residents of nursing homes are seeing younger patients move in, often with mental illnesses. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/senior-man-in-wheelchair-wearing-protective-mask-to-royalty-free-image/1217994683?adppopup=true">Steve Smith via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>One year ago, a nursing home in Kirkland, Washington, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/21/us/coronavirus-nursing-home-kirkland-life-care.html">became an early battleground</a> for the U.S. coronavirus outbreak. The disease has since <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-nursing-homes.html">decimated nursing home populations</a> – more than one-third of the COVID-19-related deaths in the U.S. have been nursing home residents and staff. Virtually unnoticed is what has followed: In some nursing homes, a shift has occurred in the type of residents who live there, and COVID-19 is one of the reasons. </p>
<p>As older residents die from the pandemic and as more families choose to keep elderly relatives at home, some of these facilities are <a href="https://www.kansascity.com/news/local/article149002179.html">accepting more younger patients</a>, including some with drug addictions and mental illness. Some patients have schizophrenia. Some have psychosis. This change in clientele can have a dramatic impact on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.16017">the daily functioning of nursing homes</a>, a change that administrators and staff <a href="https://skillednursingnews.com/2019/06/despite-demand-nursing-homes-face-major-behavioral-health-hurdles/">may be unprepared to handle</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://ysu.edu/faculty-experts/martin-don">As a neuropsychologist</a> who has been working in skilled care facilities for more than 25 years, I have seen this transition up close. The migration of psychiatric patients to these facilities began in the 1950s, then sped up in the 1980s, when state psychiatric hospitals began rapidly shutting down. Today, about 95% of these hospitals are closed. The ones still open hold collectively about 37,000 beds, <a href="https://www.governing.com/archive/sl-amid-shortage-psychiatric-beds-mentally-ill-face-long-waits-treatment.html">nearly 90,000 short of what’s needed</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="The Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386364/original/file-20210225-23-qg3l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/386364/original/file-20210225-23-qg3l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386364/original/file-20210225-23-qg3l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386364/original/file-20210225-23-qg3l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386364/original/file-20210225-23-qg3l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386364/original/file-20210225-23-qg3l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/386364/original/file-20210225-23-qg3l4k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The COVID-19 outbreak at the Life Care Center in Kirkland, Wash., in February 2020 showed the high risk elderly people face from the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/the-entrance-of-life-care-center-of-kirkland-where-one-news-photo/1204231197?adppopup=true">Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<h2>Bringing in younger psychiatric patients</h2>
<p>Primarily because of the deaths caused by the pandemic, many nursing homes now have <a href="https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2020/11/at-nj-nursing-homes-empty-beds-continue-eight-months-into-the-pandemic.html">lots of empty beds</a>. And to put it bluntly, they need money to survive. The National Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living estimate the U.S. long-term care industry will see a <a href="https://www.ahcancal.org/News-and-Communications/Press-Releases/Pages/Long-Term-Care-Faces-Worst-Financial-Crisis-In-Years;-Closures-Loom-Without-Additional-Funding.aspx">16% drop in revenue</a> in 2021 and some 1,670 closures or mergers. In some states, nursing homes can be <a href="https://ctmirror.org/2020/09/20/pandemic-deals-another-blow-to-nursing-homes-plummeting-occupancy/">penalized with Medicaid funding cuts</a> if their occupancy drops too low.</p>
<p>Even many high-end nursing homes, once solicitors of only the affluent, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/12/09/131912529/a-new-nursing-home-population-the-young">have been taking younger patients</a>, some in their 30s and 40s, most who have only Medicaid.</p>
<p>These younger patients often have coexisting conditions: substance abuse problems along with psychiatric illnesses. Some have lost contact with their families. Some are without income; others are on disability. Often, they have no place to go. Even for those getting help from their families, the cost of extended care is not affordable, nor can families provide the care themselves. Although estimates vary widely, the best assessment suggests more than 125,000 young and middle-aged adults, most with mental illness, <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/sdut-mentally-ill-nursing-homes-032209-2009mar22-story.html">lived in nursing homes before the pandemic</a>. </p>
<p>While federal law requires alternatives to this type of institutionalization for younger patients who spend years in a nursing home, implementation of these laws varies from state to state. Insurance companies <a href="https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/Younger-patients-lacking-options-are-turning-to-1686362.php">often prefer nursing homes</a> as a more cost-effective option than in-home or supervised care, especially for those with severe mental illness. But putting psychiatric patients near elderly and infirm residents can cause problems. Active drug addicts may seek medications, particularly opiates. Active psychotics can be volatile, even violent. These patients may live in nursing homes for years and eventually <a href="https://bhbusiness.com/2020/01/31/former-nursing-homes-finding-new-life-as-behavioral-health-facilities/">saturate</a> <a href="https://www.mcknights.com/blogs/guest-columns/seven-strategies-for-treating-psychiatric-patients-in-snfs/">the facility</a> with a significant psychiatric population. </p>
<p>The staff members at these homes often don’t know how to care for this kind of patient. They need training similar to what’s given at psychiatric hospitals. Instead, <a href="https://www.iadvanceseniorcare.com/placement-of-mentally-ill-individuals-in-nursing-homes-todays-legal-warfare/">they can become overwhelmed</a>. They deal with behavioral issues, including assaults. Behavioral health nurses <a href="https://www.americansentinel.edu/blog/2018/01/23/nursing-turnover-and-retention-strategies/">have the highest turnover rate</a> among nursing specialties. One-third of them quit within two years. </p>
<p>For nursing home administrators, this is just one more confounding problem they face. COVID-19 has been a devastating experience for them. The virus has ravaged their facilities. One administrator told me she lost nearly one-third of her residents to this illness. I could relate – more than 100 of my patients have died from COVID-19 in the last year.</p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WsgAWOxjrmo?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">An AARP video discusses the impact of COVID-19 on nursing home residents.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>A tremendous emotional toll</h2>
<p>Certainly, death is always a presence in a nursing home. But the <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/us-map">sheer number of deaths</a>
due to the pandemic has been staggering. Death, grief and fear are not a good psychological cocktail. The emotional toll on workers is tremendous, and with COVID-19, the already high employee turnover rate <a href="https://aspe.hhs.gov/basic-report/covid-19-intensifies-nursing-home-workforce-challenges">has climbed</a>. Three administrators told me more than a quarter of their staffs have quit. Many are nursing aides, making barely above minimum wage and justifiably terrified at the prospect of catching a virus that could be lethal. These aides are often the only ones there to hold the hands of patients as they die.</p>
<p>Residents who survive the pandemic have endured <a href="https://www.aarp.org/caregiving/health/info-2020/covid-isolation-killing-nursing-home-residents.html">tremendous hardships</a>. To be stuck in your room, mostly alone, for a year can be profoundly depressing. Friends die and are removed in the middle of the night. Those who remain, some with dementia, may think their friends and family have abandoned them. Residents testing positive for COVID-19 are generally moved to a different part of the home, which is unsettling for them and increases their confusion and mood swings. </p>
<p>Finding housing solutions benefiting both psychiatric patients and an elderly population is a long-haul problem. Money is one of the answers; the <a href="https://nami.org/Home">National Alliance on Mental Illness</a> has lobbied Congress for more. In particular, <a href="https://www.healthyplace.com/other-info/mental-illness-overview/finding-group-homes-for-mentally-ill-adults">funds are needed</a> for group homes where residents with mental illness can eventually transition back to the community. The Department of Housing and Urban Development offers programs that help the elderly and those with disabilities get safe, decent housing. Generally, a person must receive Medicaid to qualify for these services, and <a href="https://www.heraldtribune.com/news/20200329/new-housing-for-low-income-homeless-people-with-mental-illnesses-is-coming">demand for any of these alternatives</a> far exceeds availability.</p>
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<p>At least the immediate future at many nursing homes <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/safest-place-in-the-city-covid-19-cases-in-nursing-homes-drop-89-25-as-residents-get-vaccinated/ar-BB1e3cjo?ocid=uxbndlbing">is looking better</a>. Many of my patients have been vaccinated. Death rates are dramatically lower. Facilities now allow family to visit, albeit with strict protocols. Soon residents will be able to socialize with each other again. Still, the pandemic’s toll on residents, families and staff will linger for years. The year 2020 has traumatized many of us, including me.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/155637/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Don Martin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A neuropsychologist who works in these skilled care facilities describes the changing populations. With COVID-19, many nursing homes are now struggling to stay in business.Don Martin, Director, Urban School Counseling Graduate Program, Youngstown State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/366832015-01-23T18:23:18Z2015-01-23T18:23:18ZHaggis, neeps and badness: it’s time we faced the dark side of Robert Burns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69922/original/image-20150123-24525-1is99fx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Romantic notions of Burns as a lovable man of the people are a little rich</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=xwjQ4fXE8mroVOpxLXIPgg&searchterm=robert%20burns&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=1732336">Elnur</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Robert Burns may have lost some of the nationalist charge behind his popularity since Scotland <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides">voted No</a> in last year’s referendum. But the celebrated poet continues to be fêted internationally during annual <a href="http://www.robertburns.org/suppers/">Burns Suppers</a> from Glasgow to New York, from Toronto to Calcutta, in a ritual that has been honed since the early 19th century. </p>
<p>All speakers at Burns Night celebrations, myself included, are expected to reflect on the poet’s continuing significance in a world that he likely would not recognise as his own. So where did this practice originate, and why was a poet with so many character flaws elevated into the pantheon of Scottish national icons like <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/wallace_william.shtml">William Wallace</a> and <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/history/articles/robert_the_bruce/">Robert the Bruce</a>?</p>
<h2>The Edinburgh set</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/scots-fact-of-the-day-robert-burns-and-jamaica-1-3666374">story of</a> Burns’s sudden success in 1786 is well known, along with his <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/profiles/Y0W2CBy5F200xcjPx0zwgm/robert-burns">nom de plume</a> of “the heaven-taught ploughman” – a rather unlucky persona created for him by the critic and novelist <a href="http://www.enotes.com/topics/henry-mackenzie">Henry Mackenzie</a>. Burns frequently found himself invited by the Edinburgh literati to play this role of the inspired rustic, a stock figure much in vogue in those days. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69924/original/image-20150123-24541-1iavk7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69924/original/image-20150123-24541-1iavk7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69924/original/image-20150123-24541-1iavk7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69924/original/image-20150123-24541-1iavk7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69924/original/image-20150123-24541-1iavk7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69924/original/image-20150123-24541-1iavk7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69924/original/image-20150123-24541-1iavk7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69924/original/image-20150123-24541-1iavk7o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=953&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Burns: rustic rub.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=xwjQ4fXE8mroVOpxLXIPgg&searchterm=robert%20burns&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=239399143">Everett Historical</a></span>
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<p>His unsurprising dislike of this role led not a few literati to deride Burns’ manner as rude and coarse, while <a href="http://www.fullbooks.com/The-Letters-of-Robert-Burns6.html">he described</a> their spotlight as a “glare” in his letters. Yet the process of reconfiguring the man into a national icon had begun – a role he undeniably desired. And the advance publicity stuck, despite Burns’s efforts to withdraw from the public eye and spend the remainder of his brief life with his family, collecting Scottish songs (for which he <a href="http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/85716/Robert-Burns">famously refused</a> both payment and acknowledgement, seeing it as a service to Scotland). </p>
<p>Succeeding generations of Burnsians would excuse or censor the poet’s many indiscretions, which were usually prompted by excessive desires for sex and drink, along with his penchant for radical politics and free-thinking in religion. The image that emerged of Burns in the 19th century and is still exceedingly popular was that of a sentimental peasant. </p>
<p>Here’s an early example from James Currie’s <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nXECAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA209&lpg=PA209&dq=James+Currie+Burns+Works+1800&source=bl&ots=DbAuvovRqV&sig=hSJNKgskTVRqZJxLntcp3gWhk-I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=XYjCVJy8OoTgapetgZAM&ved=0CEkQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=James%20Currie%20Burns%20Works%201800&f=false">first edition</a> of Burns’s Works (1800):</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Robert Burns was, in reality, what he has been represented to be, a Scottish peasant… The incidents which form the subjects of his poems, though some of them highly interesting and susceptible of poetical imagery, are incidents in the life of a peasant who takes no pains to disguise the lowliness of his condition.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>One of the key figures in developing this view of Burns was Walter Scott, (the two met when Scott was 15) who played a much wider role in helping to create a sanitised and patriotic sense of Scotland in the early part of the 19th century. We have long been encouraged to think of Burns as a man of great talents and virtues, a flawed genius whose errors could be repressed in the interests of maintaining him as a national icon that would unite Scots the world over. He would be the Poet of Scotland, for better or worse.</p>
<h2>The unvarnished truth</h2>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69925/original/image-20150123-24525-11jwb33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69925/original/image-20150123-24525-11jwb33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69925/original/image-20150123-24525-11jwb33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69925/original/image-20150123-24525-11jwb33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69925/original/image-20150123-24525-11jwb33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69925/original/image-20150123-24525-11jwb33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69925/original/image-20150123-24525-11jwb33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69925/original/image-20150123-24525-11jwb33.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1186&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Still game!</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/distillery+whisky/search.html?page=3&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=91860044">Farr Studios</a></span>
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<p>I say for worse because it has led to long-lasting falsifications of his actual life and works, as well as severe distortions of his character and its relevance to his writing. In truth, he was a deeply flawed man. </p>
<p>His shabby treatment of the women in his life, especially his long-suffering <a href="http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/BurnsJeanArmour1767-1834.160.shtml">wife Jean</a>, cannot be defended on any grounds. Despite the efforts of many biographers over the years, it is also difficult to explain away his penchant for excessive convivial pleasure; he may not have been an alcoholic in today’s parlance, but he clearly enjoyed drinking a lot. </p>
<p>He was also particularly ungenerous to other labouring-class poets who sought to follow his example and enjoy a taste of literary fame. In a letter he derided their efforts as the writhing of a “shoal of ill-spawned monsters”. </p>
<p>Contrary to <a href="http://socialistunity.com/the-people%E2%80%99s-poet-robert-burns-1759-1796/">ideas about</a> his unstinting radicalism, Burns could be sycophantic and hysterical in his efforts to retain his position at the Excise, asserting his loyalty to Great Britain by <a href="http://www.aforceforgood.org.uk/precious/rburns1">joining the</a> Dumfries Volunteers late in his life to fight the French should they invade. All of these facts have been actively suppressed to protect Burns’ reputation, as were some of his works for many years, <a href="http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1700&context=ssl">not least</a> the bawdy Merry Muses of Caledonia. </p>
<p>This process, one that is reinvigorated every Burns Night, began less than ten years after the poet’s death in 1796. A group of devotees in Paisley near Glasgow <a href="http://www.paisleyburnsclub.org.uk/heritage1.htm">created the</a> first Burns Club in 1805. This included the poet and songwriter <a href="http://www.roberttannahillfederation.com/1.html">Robert Tannahill</a>, who wrote the first club verse about Burns’s “immortal memory”. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69926/original/image-20150123-24546-1eu7ket.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69926/original/image-20150123-24546-1eu7ket.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69926/original/image-20150123-24546-1eu7ket.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69926/original/image-20150123-24546-1eu7ket.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69926/original/image-20150123-24546-1eu7ket.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=411&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69926/original/image-20150123-24546-1eu7ket.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69926/original/image-20150123-24546-1eu7ket.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69926/original/image-20150123-24546-1eu7ket.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=516&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The traditional supper dates back to the early 19th century Burns Clubs.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/gertcha/5388464648/in/photolist-9dahNU-b4XapV-7ynKGx-9anPgj-9ajE5n-9ajC9t-4D78GR-7y8CwU-6zboge-7y8u8L-8iXe4U-7y8wLw-9dkKPp-7y8REo-7y8L1q-7y8CGL-7y4RTZ-7y8xUN-7y8DKU-7y4HsB-7y4Vva-7y8Jfd-7y4S5v-7y8D3S-7y4RJt-7y4XF8-7y4EUV-7y8Ez3-7y4MRe-7y8BFW-7y4GLv-7y4Et2-7y8yw9-7y8FH5-7y4RuH-7y4NTr-7y8PME-7y4V5r-7y8NAu-7y4Zzn-7y8LZS-7y52tv-7y8Qmo-7y4KYz-7y4UTx-7y8AwS-7y4Z3F-7y4JsR-7y4PQv-7y4UH4">Stuart Chalmers</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Burns clubs then grew exponentially, emerging all over the world throughout the 19th century. Many notable literary figures were among their ranks, including the Scottish poet <a href="http://www.poemhunter.com/thomas-campbell/">Thomas Campbell</a> and the American writers <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/ralph-waldo-emerson-9287153">Ralph Waldo Emerson</a> and <a href="http://www.hwlongfellow.org/">Henry Wadsworth Longfellow</a> (among many others). </p>
<p>Religious Scots expressed some ambivalence about such veneration, leading the Reverend William Peebles in 1811 <a href="http://www.robertburns.org/encyclopedia/ReligionBurnsand.737.shtml">to coin</a> the rather lame term “Burnomania” to describe the cultural “insania” surrounding the poet. Other religious critics sought to defend Burns from such charges. The Reverend Hamilton Paul mounted one such defence, writing an exculpatory preface to his edition of Burns’ works in 1819. By that time, the poet’s “immortal memory” was already well established, even though the more orthodox of Paul’s colleagues may have wondered if he too suffered from “Burnomania”.</p>
<h2>Burns now</h2>
<p>In the present day, our understanding of Burns has been enriched by the <a href="http://www.bucknell.edu/script/upress/book.asp?f=s&id=2485">thriving scholarship</a> that has grown in the late 2000s, especially in the wake of the first <a href="http://www.snh.gov.uk/enjoying-the-outdoors/homecoming-scotland-2014/about-homecoming-scotland/">Scottish Homecoming</a> and celebration of Burns’ 250th birthday in 2009. That said, his reputation is still bedevilled by long-standing misinterpretations of his life and work. In particular, he is still misappropriated to aid the causes of endless warring parties (political, religious, cultural, you name it!). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69928/original/image-20150123-24546-t3c7ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69928/original/image-20150123-24546-t3c7ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/69928/original/image-20150123-24546-t3c7ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69928/original/image-20150123-24546-t3c7ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69928/original/image-20150123-24546-t3c7ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69928/original/image-20150123-24546-t3c7ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69928/original/image-20150123-24546-t3c7ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/69928/original/image-20150123-24546-t3c7ig.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How Scotland celebrated Rabbie’s 200th in 2009.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/lastyearsgirl_/3222622691/in/photolist-5TDppP-5ULMsc-6q5QJA-5V7LbQ-6HxJ7Q-6H6tcL-6qaEw1-6qim5w-6oqVuK-6ordcx-6orbH2-6oqXb8-6or4x6-6oqZxT-6ov5Tb-6or7rR-6ov7N3-6DrpSs-67r6TN-7eJo2W-66VKEV-62rsrW-66VC8z-6DngaH-7jgJph-7jgHL7-7jgHeY-6GDEsr-7jgPCS-67zfJj-67z2zs-6GDJsX-6TNYVu-6GHHnQ-6GDHwM-6TNYRW-6YH3re-6GHLxN-6YGZS2-6YH16D-6ax3S5-6MSYtm-6H2r2r-6H2qVT-6H2rbD-6H6tzj-6H2r5R-6H6tvw-6H6tJ1-6H2qk2">Lis Ferla</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But that doesn’t prevent his name and legacy being an opportunity for social pleasure once a year (twice if you count New Year), when the slightly absurd rituals governing the Burns Supper are re-enacted around the world. Whether the poet’s works are much read beyond such occasions seems immaterial when considering his popular cultural esteem as the enduring Poet of Scotland. </p>
<p>But the real challenge is to appreciate him in this role while still recognising his very human weaknesses. That is the only way to understand his lasting legacy truthfully, in a spirit that the poet himself might appreciate were he alive today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36683/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corey E. Andrews does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Robert Burns may have lost some of the nationalist charge behind his popularity since Scotland voted No in last year’s referendum. But the celebrated poet continues to be fêted internationally during annual…Corey E. Andrews, Associate Professor of English, Youngstown State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.