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Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

oregonlive.com

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Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#101

Post by kube-system »

ErikVandeWater wrote: post #72
soperj wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>The US can barely afford to school its children You're the richest nation on earth. You can afford it, the people who control the purse strings choose to use it on other shit that benefits themselves.

Humor me, by what measure is the US the richest nation on earth, or even close? Anything per capita will be dominated by Monaco/other tax havens. Anything on a gross level will be dominated by China.

By the most simple definition of the term: total wealth.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_total_wea...

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#102

Post by throwawayboise »

pmorici wrote: post #50
john_yaya wrote: post #15

Senior homes and assisted living centers are a national disgrace. They are entirely about profit maximization (what business isn’t?), and as such hire people at the exact minimum and have well over 100% yearly turnover. The staff commonly steal from residents, and the management do not care. They’d rather retain a larcenous pig who barely executes her duties than have to go back and scrape the barrel for a replacemen…

"Elderly people should live with their families." Spoken with the confidence of someone who has never had to care for an elderly relative who was in both mental and physical decline. In any case it is a deeply personal decision without a definitive right or wrong answer. After seeing my Aunt try to care for my grandmother for years only for it to negatively effect their relationship because of her dementia I wouldn't…

There are probably well-run exceptions but in my experience senior communities are mostly about extracting all the wealth and insurance payments they can get from their residents before they die.

You think it's hard taking care of your aging parents? They took care of you when you were a helpless, shitting, crying, little ball of flesh.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#103

Post by davidbanham »

mtnGoat wrote: post #67

Playing devils advocate here but maybe we have too many fire fighters? I have four good friends that work in metropolitan fire houses all making well into the six figures. They constantly joke about how they get paid to do nothing and haven’t been on a fire in years, mainly they respond to calls at old folks homes. Oh and the only work a four or five days a month.

I think the root cause is that you lump fire and EMS into the same basket. You don’t need six qualified firefighters on a half million dollar pumper to attend a nanna down call.

Here in Australia the ambulance service is totally separate to the fire services. The public calls the same number (000) but after that it’s separate dispatch centres, different staff, different depots.

From the fire side we occasionally get called to assist the ambulance service with carrying out people who are injured somewhere way off down a bushwalking or mountain biking track. We’ll very rarely get called to a lift assist for someone that’s fallen in an aged care facility.

The ambulance service in NSW has a whole set of problems around capacity and poor working conditions for staff, of course, but that’s another story.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#105

Post by cratermoon »

cepp wrote: post #57

Back when I worked at $HEALTHCARE_INUSRANCE_CO we were trying to solve this (more general problem) from the other side. We regularly saw routine calls for what could only be described as "loneliness". Our research lead us to find that a high percentage of elderly folks (50+) identified as lonely regardless of their living situation. [1] Looking deeper into claims data, we found a high percentage of these calls were i…

An individual living in an isolated rural community wanting a chat is almost entirely unlike a for-profit corporation running a group home calling a paramedic to change someone's bandages because they are cutting costs by not hiring sufficient staff.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#106

Post by Swizec »

neither_color wrote: post #63
bpodgursky wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The worst part is the payment structure and how it doesn't allow real choice. If you told the 88 year old: "We can (a) pay $500,000 on treatments that will likely extend your life 1 year, or (b) put $250,000 in a tax-advantaged account to put your great-grandchildren through college", I bet that 99% of those 88 year olds would take option B and take hospice care instead. They would all prioritize their children, gran…

And in the rest of the non-nihilistic world those grandchildren would rather have one more year of grandma than any amount of money 15 years later. This whole discussion of letting seniors die to optimize economic potential is gross.

That probably depends a lot on the state of the grandma. Spry and lively full of great conversation and wonderful tales of old times? Yes! Barely able to remember her own name from dementia or in constant terrible pain from her life of labor on the farm finally catching up to her? Eh …

The latter is especially difficult. I have a grandma in the family (not mine) who really just wants to die. Can’t even get out of bed anymore, can barely eat, constant pain that even painkillers can’t fix anymore … but her family can’t let her go because “1 more year with grandma”. Kinda selfish really

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#107

Post by kube-system »

vbezhenar wrote: post #92
Factorium wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The necessary innovation is ethical/political. People over age 80 should be able to request to medically cease their life for any reason.

You can buy gun. Why do you have to request anything?

So that you don't risk harm to other people and property in the process?

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#108

Post by germinalphrase »

TrispusAttucks wrote: post #59
MattGaiser wrote: post #3

If there is an industry that needs startups, it is long term care and senior care in general. Expensive, nearly universally badly done, and it seems like a lot of people could stay in their homes with some automated appliances/thoughtful redesigns of everyday items. Hoping that when my grandparents start needing it in 5-10 years that the options have dramatically improved.

Capitalism can't save this. This is fundamentally a social decay problem. Modern social behavior sweeps all "unpleasant" grief under the carpet. Out of place out of mind.

There is a sociological argument that this is a core element of what it means to be “civilized”. We displace the responsibility for dirty work on others so that we - the civilized - can maintain the appearance of being clean. For instance, we eat lamb chops, but we don’t carve a lamb at the table.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#109

Post by kube-system »

mtnGoat wrote: post #67

Playing devils advocate here but maybe we have too many fire fighters? I have four good friends that work in metropolitan fire houses all making well into the six figures. They constantly joke about how they get paid to do nothing and haven’t been on a fire in years, mainly they respond to calls at old folks homes. Oh and the only work a four or five days a month.

And yet, the majority of the country doesn't have full-time professional firefighters. The majority of firefighters are volunteers who are often working for poorly funded departments.

Re: Firefighters say they’re swamped by calls for routine care from senior homes

#110

Post by mtnGoat »

gruez wrote: post #78
mtnGoat wrote: post #67

Playing devils advocate here but maybe we have too many fire fighters? I have four good friends that work in metropolitan fire houses all making well into the six figures. They constantly joke about how they get paid to do nothing and haven’t been on a fire in years, mainly they respond to calls at old folks homes. Oh and the only work a four or five days a month.

> Playing devils advocate here but maybe we have too many fire fighters? It sounds like the type of service that you want to over-provision for. What if a major fire broke out and you needed all of them?

The only time this really happens is wildland fires, which are historically understaffed and underfunded anyways.
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