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The City of Palliative Care

jayriverlong.github.io

11–20 of 28 posts

Re: The City of Palliative Care

#11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, I wasn't aware of that. I was under the impression that palliative care is (at least generally) end-of-life comfort for the dying. I wish I had chosen a more appropriate term.

It’s ok, not the first time someone has gotten that impression about palliative care. It’s something that my spouse has to constantly reinforce with her patients and their families. Thanks for sharing the article. The point you’re making is important.

Could you define palliative care, please ?

I to tought that it was a branch of medicine dedicated to the relief of the suffering of those who are afflicted with a disease that will eventually kill them. But clearly you indicate that it's more than that so I would like to know.

Re: The City of Palliative Care

#12
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s ok, not the first time someone has gotten that impression about palliative care. It’s something that my spouse has to constantly reinforce with her patients and their families. Thanks for sharing the article. The point you’re making is important.

Could you define palliative care, please ? I to tought that it was a branch of medicine dedicated to the relief of the suffering of those who are afflicted with a disease that will eventually kill them. But clearly you indicate that it's more than that so I would like to know.

Her elevator speech definition: Palliative care is a whole person approach to medicine for patients with a terminal diagnosis who are still undergoing active treatment.

Re: The City of Palliative Care

#13
post #6

“The city is way too easy for people with nothing to get by,” she said. “That’s why I’m still here nine years later. You get by with doing drugs and suffer no consequences. I like it here.” No doubt, chronic homelessness is a problem in San Francisco. And there's truth in this quote, from a fentanyl-addicted homeless person. But I hesitate to base my entire view on the situation from a hot take of conversation with s…

Agreed.

For example, a recent report on the SF homeless population flags 15% of them as having a traumatic brain injury.

You can spend as much as you want on other things, but those people need permanent, long-term medical care and nothing less is going to help.

Re: The City of Palliative Care

#14
post #9

> To get to this number, I averaged the number of annual homeless in San Francisco since 2013, which is 6,864, and averaged the city’s homeless budgets from 2016 through 2023 (I could not find prior budgets), which is $486 million per year. That’s $632,000 per homeless person per year No, that's $486M/6864 = $70,800 per homeless person per year. It's only after multiplying by the 9 years she lived in SF do you get $6…

70k per year is less than we spend keeping someone in prison, which is where many people believe we should put drug addicts. The truth is it’s not about the money, people just don’t want to see other people suffering where they live. As a society, even spending all this money, we are failing to help some of our most vulnerable citizens. It’s quite telling that conversations about social safety nets always become abou…

I think that opiate addict should be freely provided with a stable quality supply as long they want, something like that https://mysafe.org/ .

Re: The City of Palliative Care

#15
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you define palliative care, please ? I to tought that it was a branch of medicine dedicated to the relief of the suffering of those who are afflicted with a disease that will eventually kill them. But clearly you indicate that it's more than that so I would like to know.

Her elevator speech definition: Palliative care is a whole person approach to medicine for patients with a terminal diagnosis who are still undergoing active treatment.

thank you

Re: The City of Palliative Care

#18
post #13
post #6

“The city is way too easy for people with nothing to get by,” she said. “That’s why I’m still here nine years later. You get by with doing drugs and suffer no consequences. I like it here.” No doubt, chronic homelessness is a problem in San Francisco. And there's truth in this quote, from a fentanyl-addicted homeless person. But I hesitate to base my entire view on the situation from a hot take of conversation with s…

Agreed. For example, a recent report on the SF homeless population flags 15% of them as having a traumatic brain injury. You can spend as much as you want on other things, but those people need permanent, long-term medical care and nothing less is going to help.

And all of CAs public long term care facilities were closed in the 80s in order to save money, even though in reality it has ended up costing vastly vastly more.

Re: The City of Palliative Care

#19
post #18
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. For example, a recent report on the SF homeless population flags 15% of them as having a traumatic brain injury. You can spend as much as you want on other things, but those people need permanent, long-term medical care and nothing less is going to help.

And all of CAs public long term care facilities were closed in the 80s in order to save money, even though in reality it has ended up costing vastly vastly more.

At this rate the city could build a new long term mental care center and put all the severe chronic homeless in it and probably save money.

Re: The City of Palliative Care

#20
post #7

With a spouse that works in palliative medicine, I really wish the author had chosen a different phrase. Please don’t get the idea that palliative care is only for the dying. Everything else about the article is spot on.

It’s quite offensive, as somebody who nearly died from sepsis (a couple of months ago), like the drug user in the article, but for different reasons. In my case it was from an infected portacath, that was carelessly flushed during routine maintenance and care. Also, I cost more, on a per year basis, than the individual in the article, as I require an orphan drug and will for the rest of my life. I am American but for…

Do you think the chronic drug addicted homeless could sustainably live in a house without utterly destroying it even if the 'rent' was $50/month?
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