Building Better Nursing Homes | Hacker News Reader

Building Better Nursing Homes

theatlantic.com

43 pointssrs000115 comments

In the beginning the elderly among us lived in homes, taken care of by family members, and often, offering wisdom in return to their grandchildren.

Then, in the name of economic growth and labor specialization, we push the elderly among us into nursing "homes", to let people who are more "efficient" take care of them.

Finally we realize efficiency can mean inhumane treatment, and in a bid to restore "dignity", put them back in homes. Without us living with them, of course.

Oh, the irony.

Playing devil's advocate:

- we have nowadays a life expectancy of 85+. 50 years ago was much less - meaning that we depended on family much less time;

- lower classes don't have a significative better purchasing power than back in the day - meaning that affording to stay at home is not always even a choice;

- elders caring was backed by staying at home women - roles and families have changed;

- elders have less and less children - meaning more work 'per child'. Nowadays, in the globalised world, if there are more than one child is improbable that all live nearby or even in the same country/state.

Reciting poetry is not an efficient way of solving problems. And hard ones by the way..

Disclaimer: my mum is the only child, a compulsory staying at home woman, taking care of her father and mother in law (88 and 89) with my help for already 15 years. I'm also the only child, already in mid 30's and without children yet. That's why I know that this is a big problem nowadays and a capital one in the future specially among the lower income classes.

Plenty of money is needed to create a better nursing home. Then finding the staff with "the call" to perform the very difficult job of caring and serving others.

Once that better nursing home is built, very few will be able to afford it. I know I will not. Yet, I do not lose hope.

According to the article, it appears that the better nursing home advocated costs more to build, but doesn't cost more to run. Capital is usually easier to get from donors and the government than operating expenses; capital lets you put your name on the building and get your picture in the paper. That makes me slightly optimistic.

This problem is too extense to be solved only by philantropy.

Some things are really easy and cheap.

Paint the zimmer frames red, for example.

One symptom of dementia illnesses is that your vision is affected; you stop seeing some things if they're the wrong colour. Red is the last colour to go, so you want all cups to be red on a contrasting colour table so that the person can see it and drink from it.

Having red zimmer frames means people see them and use them, reducing falls and increasing mobility. (Falls are really damaging for older people. It's kind of surprising how much life is shortened from a simple fall.)

Apologies for .doc

http://www.bcf.nhs.uk/docs/14053_1922582528.doc

To save everyone else the googling: Zimmer Frame = Walker

IMO nursing homes problem will be solved as other expensive activities have been solved (or patched): relocation and offshoring.

How much does cost a low-end nursing home in the US? In South Europe $2k can get you a mid-end nursing home.

Plus automation and computers, perhaps.

People are not cattle but for sure there are plenty of room for automation improvement.

Even eg just putting seniors on videochat with some `penpals' might help some.

I can't quite tell if you are being satirical, but some folks wouldn't be okay with having their parents live in Ecuador and never seeing them.

But okay with them in Utah or some other state far away? You can just got to Columbia once a year as you fly once a year to Utah. Plus the whether is better.

I didn't see any mention in the article of putting family in far-away states. My family (who'd moved south of Boston) put my great-grandmother in a home in Connecticut, near where she had lived.

Is it common practice to do this?

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