It's highly unlikely many people want to die in their 60's these days, most wanting to be around for their 100th. So what is wrong with that? Well it puts pressure on accommodation and medical services. These fine people need a place to live, and they invariably need the medical services to continue living. Is this a drain on both services?
Well when you have low income earners living in sub standard accommodation and bringing up sick kids it gets me thinking that our priorities in this society are all wrong. But that comes with a double edge sword. If you take care of the poor and their children, you invite those same children to grow old gracefully and use even more services.
Currently many thousands of senior citizens are chewing into the National Superannuation Fund, and that figure is projected to grow! The Baby Boomers of the 50's and 60's are fast approaching retirement and those services that are now currently stretched are going to be overwhelmed. So the solution then?
Ok, drastic as it may sound, but for anyone over 80, they have to have a very good reason why they should access medical intervention to keep them alive. Yeah sounds like Dr Death here, but the reality is the population is growing older and quite quickly. If we look at the average age limit in Victorian times, males and females on average died around their early forties. Now the average is 80+. That's twice as old as 150 years ago and frankly the country just cannot afford people sitting around in rest homes waiting to die but not being able to thanks to the medical model of care, i'e, we keep em getting older.
Now I'm approaching the age where I need to assess my own options. I am a Baby Boomer, without savings, and with just the weekly Super to keep me going. Am I willing to live to 100. Short answer is NO!! I will take it in my stride and accept whatever fate is dealt me, but I very much doubt I will live past 70. Good for me and the country. But will other Baby Boomers take that onerous step? I doubt it. The Human Animal is too greedy by nature and will want every conceivable way and manner to keep them alive well past their used by date.
I don't think leaving them to die is actually the most valuable solution here....
ReplyDeleteThese people are extremely valuable to our society and instead of realising this, we adopt the attitude that it would be better not to invest in them. Many are already left to waste- what you speak of is already happening via general apathy of those caring for the elderly.
Why not find a way to make their years of skills and experience valuable to society? It is being wasted by leaving these people to rot in rest homes. The education they could give the younger generations would more than make up for the money being spent on them. I can come up with several examples off the top of my head that would not only solve this problem but take positive steps towards creating a compassionate and conscious society.
If you're looking at cost cutting you should be looking at discouraging people from having more children. The birth to death ratio is skewed, yes, but what if we prevented overpopulation at the other end of the scale? Prevention rather than retribution.
Because of them closing many hospital beds (in Palmy a couple of STAR wards have been for the chop) these very sick people are ending up in Rest Homes. It's a fact, that most rest homes have cover by one RN and the the others are caregivers. The residents in these places receive medical cover largely from their GP.
ReplyDeleteI think considering what rest homes are expected to do they get shit in the media. How often do random audits get done in the hospital wards and those wards threatened with closure because their paperwork doesn't meet the required standand? Remember the report from the Ministry of Health saying all the deaths and serious incidents that occurred in our public hospitals from staff error? What was the consequences throughout NZ? There has also been a call for the Ministry of Health to take better OVERSIGHT and CARE of the rest homes as they are struggling. But still NOTHING 'actual' has happened. Rest homes also care for those younger people with physical disabilities when there is no other alternative.
When elderly people go to hospital they are not tolieted regularly and stuck into pads even if they are continent due to the lack of staff to provide quality care. They are treated like crap in our Public Hospitals but that is never reported. And according to the new Ministry of Health boss he thinks 'less is more' so I doubt this will get better.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/4126261/New-health-boss-Hospitals-can-cope-with-fewer-staff
This issue will get worse before it gets better. I wouldn't be suprised if NZ adopts a model like Scotland is going to do and refuse to pay for elder health making it the families responsibility. The new health boss is from Scotland afterall.
But you're right.... it's not affordable in it's current state. Also, no way in hell do I want to live to 100. Maybe increasing the retirement age to 68 may help slightly!!!
Didnt the Eskimo's used to take the elderly away from the village & leave them for the bears when they couldnt cotribute to there group?
ReplyDeleteI think in the not too distant future, "assisted suicides, or mercy killings by injections" will become more common, allowing the elderly person a painless quiet exit, when care becomes too much burden for there families, cos ultimately the health system will send these people into retirement villages, dementia type units or expect families to care for them
i worked in a hospice for 10 years, looking after palliative residents whom generally lived 6-12 weeks. And it is agreed on many staff members it was the medication that kept these people old and young going for years on end ... sadly i do believe in natural selection. I would rather live a great short life than an out stretched life of pain only to be kept alive by medication
ReplyDeleteIf the above person was a clinician in Palliative Care they would know IT IS NOT ABOUT prolonging life at all. It is about people having their symptoms managed while they die a natural death. Morphine (or Methadone) for pain, midazolam for terminal restlessness and anxiety, Nozinan for nausea and vomiting and busopan for the secreations. None of those drugs prolong life. Also most people come to Hospice care for symptom management and then get discharged home..... they can be under hospice care for many years and includes all chronic conditions that require symptom management and not just cancer.
ReplyDeleteSounds like they are talking more about an Oncology ward. Yet even that is important to remember that only 20% of people with cancer become terminal..... so it sure as hell is worth the fight if you want to live.
I say that as someone that has worked as a clinicain in Arohanui Hospice and whos work is still largely palliative. If the staff said that to the above person they need to be reported as it's FALSE information and they are too uneducated to be working in palliative care. Though I suspect the person misinterapted rather than many people saying that to her/him.
I get very upset when I keep hearing people saying that the elderly are a drain on society. I worked bloody hard all my life and I keep getting rewarded by young upstarts telling me I am a burdon just because I have retired. Hubby and I paid our taxes and it isn't our fault that the government has lost all the money us oldies have paid over the years for our retirement. Hubby conveniently died as soon as he reached retirement age, so he donated all his taxes into the fund with out benefiting from them at all.
ReplyDeleteTalk about oldies having the children turn on them when they reach a vulnerable age. Pardon me for still being alive.