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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

#181

Post by lazide »

nyokodo wrote: post #150
falcolas wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Elderly people should live with their families. No. It’s an unreasonable burden to expect families, which are barely holding themselves together in this wonderful world of mandatory-two-income-households we’ve built, to take on not only their adult children who can’t afford to rent or buy their own homes, but also the extensive and expensive care of their elders.

> the extensive and expensive care of their elders. Granted cognitive decline and other conditions are extremely difficult to manage, however it’s remarkable how easy and cheap a disturbingly large chunk of elder care is. Just someone there to make sure elders take their meds on time, monitor their blood pressure, making sure they’re eating or go to the doctor if anything bothers them etc; all these tasks could be do…

I take it you haven’t actually tried to do this? I’ve been involved in several instances of trying to do this now, and it varies from nearly a full time job to 2 full time jobs for anyone who would be otherwise going to a home - and often scary, stressful, and traumatizing to boot.

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

#182

Post by TomVDB »

User23 wrote: post #113
tomrod wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, and I'm not sure how you arrived at that. I was referencing policies like those in WA, OR, and Europe where people can choose to end their life.

Choosing to end one’s own life doesn’t require government policy. Human life is plenty fragile. Anyone that actually wants to die has plenty of reliable options and they will be beyond the reach of secular law afterwards. From that it follows that euthanasia laws are actually about allowing next of kin or whoever has medical power of attorney to lawfully order the principal’s killing. In the best case this is executi…

Try committing suicide while surrounded by family without risking those present to be charged with murder.

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

#184

Post by tdeck »

adventured wrote: post #25

Boomers have (poorly) outsourced the elder care of their parents. This what you get. Along with the US budget deficits and the national healthcare mess, this is just another thing that generation decided it didn't want to have to deal with (change), so they're kicking the can as far as they can down the road.

I'd love to blame "boomers" for this, but I suspect when my generation's parents grow old we won't be eager to set our professional or personal lives aside to change adult diapers or supervise parents with dementia either. Many elders have serious health problems that we may not be equipped to treat at home. And there have always been people outsourcing care of family members when they could afford it. That's essentially what daycare is for children.

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

#185

Post by xboxnolifes »

throwawayboise wrote: post #102
pmorici wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

> They took care of you when you were a helpless, shitting, crying, little ball of flesh.

And most people will be paying that forward. That's not an argument for paying it back. Maybe if you said the parents took care of their kids while also taking care of their parents who had progressing dementia there would be an argument.

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

#186

Post by ARandomerDude »

Aloha wrote: post #97
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…

You can take care of my mother then, I didn't sign up for that burden.

This is a poor criterion for responsibility. If you don't sign up to obey the law should you be immune from prosection for murder or robbery (supposing you were to commit those crimes)? Some responsibilities are innate.

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

#187

Post by ricardobayes »

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…

Let me get that straight, are you advocating that old people should just die and not be treated/cured because of financial reasons?

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

#188

Post by julianapostate »

lmm wrote: post #172
fighterpilot wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This snarky reply isn't a rebuttal of any substance. A frivolous call-out fee is a clear and simple solution. If you fix the price then the problem goes away because the incentive for the frivolous call-out no longer exists. It's cheaper for them to hire another staff member than rely on the fire department.

It's not a solution. The problem is that emergency services aren't always available to those who need them; if you attach the possibility of a fee to the service then you have ensured that problem exists forever.

The problem of availability already exists because emergency services are abused on non-emergencies this stops those abuses freeing it up for real emergencies, no person no-matter how poor is going to balk at using an emergency service on an actual emergency cuz maybe they get charged 5 bucks if its not "emergency enough"

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

#190

Post by birksherty »

throwawayboise wrote: post #102
pmorici wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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.

> They took care of you when you were a helpless, shitting, crying, little ball of flesh.

This guilt tripping is so wide spread. What else they could do? Leave the baby outside after giving birth? Kids are brought to this world by parents in the first place. A baby is not asking please let me born to you.

Just stop breeding and spare the kids from the trauma that life actually is (and going through the same thing when they also get old), plus this will remove the trouble that taking care of the baby needs, saves money.

There might be many reasons to give birth, but none of it is for the benefit of the potential child.

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