07.03.07
How will you spend your old age?
Interesting article in the Guardian G2 magazine today, about care homes versus say living on a cruise ship or at a health farm. Michele Hanson was suggesting that the costs are similar, and at least you have plenty to do, plenty of people to get to have fun with and good food on a ship or at a health farm. Of course it is not quite so simple, but it certainly makes you think about the way we treat our elderly doesn’t it?
The whole welfare state / old age debate is currently being discussed over on NHS Blogdoc and for once I have to agree with Dr Crippen. Far too many people seem to think that the state is there to look after our elderly once they are too old to completely manage on their own. I have had first hand experience of this, living and previously working as a District Nurse in a ‘new town’ specifically built for the people bombed out of London. I have met people who have felt that they don’t need to be able to give their own insulin injections on account of the fact a nurse can do it for you and they have paid their ’stamp’; I kid you not!
I have come across elderly people who have ‘given’ their homes to their families and then been moved into one room to live, and I have had to deal with relatives who are forever on the phone complaining but who actually never seem to visit their elderly relatives. On the other hand coping with your infirm parents can be really hard work, both physically and emotionally. Luckily I have not yet had to cope with either my parents or in laws getting to infirm to manage their lives or their bodily functions and it is easy to criticise. But it is a sad fact of live, we cannot assume that the homes they live in are our inheritance until they are actually dead because if they need some form of care that will not be provided by the state. If it was I think the rest of us who continue to pay taxes would quickly find ourselves paying massive amounts to the state. Personally I want to keep at least some of my savings and perhaps plan to spend my retirement sailing around the world misbehaving on a cruise ship!
Catherine, the redhead said,
July 4, 2007 at 7:12 pm
Yeah…imagine chasing the young male waiters around…
Catherine, the redhead
turnthetables said,
July 4, 2007 at 10:29 pm
Just curious, are the people offered proper training to inject themselves or just expected to go away and do it?
Julie said,
July 4, 2007 at 10:56 pm
No they are of course trained to do it. They are also taught to test their blood sugar. Most people prefer to do it themselves as it means you don’t have to wait in for a nurse before being actually able to eat.
NPs Save Lives said,
July 7, 2007 at 3:43 pm
I hope that I’m going to be in a position to retire and live a decent lifestyle some day. I come from long lived stock and most of us have been lucky enough to retain our faculties long into old age. My grandmother is going to be 89 in November and is in a nursing home where surprisingly enough she enjoys it. I don’t plan on the government paying my way when I retire. I often wonder if Social Security will even be there in 25-30 years. Retiring on a cruise ship sounds pretty nice.. I’ll have to give it some thought!
Nursing Jobs, Recruiter said,
March 20, 2008 at 8:26 am
At 8 Trillion in Debt, I’m afraid if we don’t do something about the debt of our own house, none of us will have much to retire to.