#Elder Care

[feminist-space]

[theartingace]

Your centaurs differ pretty wildly from the base DnD centaurs, but what I am curious about is old people. DnD centaurs travel in migrations that last generations and just leave the old or infirm behind to keep on (at which point they become Chiron types); how do your centaurs handle the elderly?

I actually had no idea that DnD centaurs did that, kinda cool, kinda wild cultural practice?? While I have always encouraged folks to use my workarounds and patches for centaurs in their TTRPG games, I actually have very little idea of what ideas are already in any of the systems that do actually include centaurs! my advice on centaurs is usually much more niche daily life stuff than most game developers and story writers tend to delve into.

For my centaurs the elderly are treated much like any human elder, what do you do with them? You cherish them!! Particularly with my centaurs, who across all their cultures depend a lot on family and group dynamics to compensate for the challenges that come with having a horse body. So elders would be an important font of knowledge and cultural memory! Now MY centaurs in particular tend to be pre-history to medieval style cultures, with access to higher medicines pretty much limited to the Port city of the Merchant's culture so living to a super advanced age would be fairly rare, but that would just make those who DO get to that age generally more important and respected (at least according to Nana)

As mobility issues arise with advanced age, there's lots of options to keep Nana mobile and healthy, from supportive corsets and harnesses to support the back to senior comfort hoof trims and special shoes- but most end up opting for being (literally) carted around in small wagons by the grandkids. Or the more independent minded seniors may drive their own carts with pet ponies and donkeys (or even goats!)

Of course wheelchairs are also an excellent choice to help with mobility at any age!

And even in my semi-nomadic Rider culture, elders are simply packed up with the yurts and tents and travel in the carts that way. No reason to leave them behind when you have stuff to be carrying anyway in my opinion!

[liberalsarecool]

But at least billionaires are getting tax cuts!!

We are failing to do the basics in order to give more advantages to the most advantaged.

More and more Americans will lose all their money/savings caring for a parent/grandparents because we refuse to address health care.

Capitalism will not solve this problem. It will only make it worse.

Medicare For All. Tax the rich. Health care is a human right. Private insurance is a monster.

The race to the bottom conservatives will NEVER solve this problem.

[longreads]

“The entire elder care system operates on a mantra of out of sight, out of mind. Medical residencies feature little to no geriatric training; the profession experiences an annual turnover rate of 60 percent. A 2021 study found that turnover in nursing care facilities skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with the average annual rate in 2020 at a shocking 128 percent. In other words, if you apply for a job at a nursing home, you can pretty well count on getting hired. For someone with little access to education living on the edge of poverty, this fact is a godsend. Yet, caveats lurk. There are countless reports of understaffing in nursing homes, underfunding, limited regulations where it matters (staff pay, patient ratio) and reels of red tape where it doesn’t (hours of required paperwork that detail how many ounces of water the resident drank, but not how they cry at night for their children). And while you may be trained on how to wipe from front to back, there’s no training to prepare you for the psychic toll of watching your people suffer until they die. 

There are plenty of reasons to see nursing homes as sad, neglectful places, and I’m sorry to say that my experience working in one did not change this perception. But I can also say that the perception has less to do with staffing, funding, and regulations (or lack thereof) and much more to do with our country’s fear of death, its rejection of vulnerability, and its subsequent inability to see the inherent dignity in people — especially in their vulnerable moments.”

Our latest feature, “The Sunset” by Lisa Bubert, is a gutting, illuminating read on the elder care system and our culture’s rejection of vulnerability. 

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Running is a key component of traditional soccer. But have you ever imagined the sport without as much cardio?

The Yellowknife Bay Soccer Club is trying to launch a program in January for people interested in walking soccer: a modified, non-contact version of soccer where you can't run, jog, or tackle anyone. 

Anyone can play the game, but it's meant to be especially beneficial for older people and those with mobility issues. "Life doesn't end at 40 or 45 or 50 or 60 or whatever. So this is a way for soccer to truly be soccer for life," said Joe Acorn, the founder of the Yellowknife Bay Soccer Club. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Just so you know: I listen to the news with an ear toward what would interest my mutuals on Tumblr

This story has several intersections: the need for prison abolition, disablism (and ableism), systematic racism & "tough on Crime" legislation, the fact that our nation is growing older, and people tend to become disabled as they age (Every able-bodied person is only temporarily so).

[politijohn]

Source

[kali-writes-meta]

Eldercare and Trump Worship

We think a lot about how to turn people away from Trump, but there's one aspect of Trump's appeal to his oldest followers that's been overlooked. It's a truism of eldercare that anything that engages the interest of the elderly helps keep them alive and healthy. It doesn't matter if it's hobbies, community service, exercise, church, pets, or whatever, if they have something to look forward to they keep going longer. There's numerous studies to back this conclusion up. Well, like it or not, this fact has to apply to Trumpism as well. Their interest in Trump, devotion to Trump, is keeping them active and engaged. No matter how much harm it's doing our country and our world, on a personal level that commitment to Trump has to be improving the health and longevity of his senior citizen followers. Which means that even though his policies may hurt their friends, family, and themselves, they are going to fight for him as if their life depends on it, because on a strictly personal level their life DOES depend on it.

This subliminal awareness presents a huge obstacle in weaning senior citizens off Trump. Disengaging from Trumpism is disengaging from the thing that's keeping them going. Without it, from their perspective, what reason do they have to keep on living? That's a deadly question at their age.

It's not enough to just say that the world and their life would be a better place without Trump, we have to actively paint a vision of HOW the world and their life would be a better place without Trump. And then we have to actively SELL that vision. Until we offer them a vision of the America more lively, interesting and engaging to them than Trump's, they have a vested interest in not making the switch.

We've given America hope before. We must do it again.

[bootleg-nessie]

Instead of getting a job I’m gonna go hang out at retirement homes and gaslight dementia patients into thinking I’m their grandson so they’ll cut me into their wills

[insufficiently-advanced]

so i need some advice and nobody at work has an answer

to be as vague as possible, one of the residents at the nursing home i work at has advanced dementia, and something traumatic that happened in her past. a lot of the time this makes it hard to change her briefs and clothes, which like. makes perfect sense. this isn't something i'm angry with her for. it's an understandable reflex.

i don't know how to keep her from becoming very distressed though. i try to talk calmly and walk her through every step of what i'm doing and why i'm doing it, giving reassurance that i'm not going to hurt her. some days it works! but some days the process is clearly triggering no matter what i do.

it's something that needs to be done, though. she can't just be left sitting in dirty clothes and urine. i work solely at night so i've never had to shower her but i imagine it's a similar story there.

i don't know if this is something that has a right answer. ultimately i wish there were some sort of subsidy that paid for home care; like all areas of medicine, the potential for(and reality of) abuse in elder care facilities is very real and i know home hospice wouldn't solve everything, but it's better than what we have now.

i guess my biggest hope is that the experience isn't remembered for very long.

[datamodel-of-disaster]

Ok, random soapbox time:

Elder care is a women’s rights issue, and a children’s rights issue, and a gay rights issue, and a disability rights issue.

I didn’t entirely realise this until I learned just how many places in the world, having children is essentially just a retirement policy, and a necessary one at that. I was in the Philippines earlier this year, and hearing my sister-in-law’s family talk about how “having an extra child late, when your other kids are getting to be independent already, is ideal to make sure you have a live-in caretaker when you age” was… disturbing.

The expectation that children will fully financially support and physically take care of their aging parents is a default setting in almost all of the world.

That’s shitty for the children, of course.

But it also means that not having children equals not having caretakers when you grow infirm, and more terrifyingly, not having any source of income when you can no longer work. (Do you know how many countries have *zero* pension regulation? It’s too many.)

This means that not marrying is probably not in the cards if you want to grow old. Infertility or inability to partner up means you better have gracious siblings with large families of their own who will take on the burden of your care. And want to escape an abusive marriage or family? Good luck with breaking ties with your only support network.

Additionally, when not having a wife and kids is essentially a matter of being denied survival when you age, shit gets murky really quickly m, resentment against women grows, and all sorts of horribly misogynist practices proliferate. Think families selling daughters into marital slavery, men kidnapping brides, practices of raping/“dishonouring” a girl to force her to marry you, etc. Clearly the elder care thing is only one of many factors feeding this shit, but it’s definitely tied into it.

The practice of arranging elder care through blood ties and informal relationships also traps people in their communities. If being yourself/coming out/speaking out against abuse/etc means ostracism from the network of people who will bring you food if you get sick or help you get around when you become less mobile… yeah. You see how that’s gonna be an issue. Not to mention that a society like this condemns those who fail to build these strong informal bonds (you know, like neurodivergent and disabled people) to poverty and lack of care as they age or their needs grow.

Social security, pension plans and state-funded elder care are fundamentally important to break the constraining grip of these communities-of-necessity and their social control. Freedom is only possible if it doesn’t mean death.

[randyite]

[inthefallofasparrow]

Should You Have A Baby? | SOME MORE NEWS

[iheartvmt]

God Bless Veterinary Receptionists 💚

Elderly Client: *Flags me down around the corner* Hello! Excuse me, can you please get Cheryl? She usually fills [Fluffy's] worming medicine.

Me: *am confusion* We don't have a Cheryl here?

Client: Haha, seriously though, go get Cheryl.

Me: Sir, there isn't a Cheryl here. Are you sure you're at the right clinic?

Client: *looking at me like I'm either dumb or messing him around* I get my worming medicine here every month. Go get Cheryl, she knows who I am.

Me: I'm sorry, sir, might you mean [Receptionist S]?

Client: *pauses* Well, if Cheryl isn't here, [Receptionist M] sometimes helps me.

[Receptionist M is on vacation, so I go find Receptionist S]

Me: ...There's an elderly gentleman here adamant he wants to talk to a Cheryl?? I thought maybe he was at the wrong clinic, but he said he gets his worming meds for [Fluffy] here every month?

Receptionists S: *sighs* I know exactly who that is. He can't remember any of our names except [Receptionist M]. Bless his heart, he's sweet, but very lonely; I think [Fluffy] is all he has to keep him company. So he always wants to chat when he picks up heartworm meds for [Fluffy]. He'll be telling me everything he did 40 years ago. But don't worry, I'll take care of it.

Receptionist S: *gets the meds together and, despite being busy, proceeds to spend 15 minutes shooting the breeze with a lonely person in need of kindness*

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A new study has revealed an increase in antipsychotic drugs use in long-term care homes across Canada despite no significant increase in behavioural symptoms of residents – something that may expose a potential area of concern for quality of care, researchers say.

The study, published in Health Services Insights, examined data from yearly Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) reports to assess how COVID-19 impacted resident admission and discharge rates, resident health attributes, treatments, and quality of care.

The report data was collected two years pre-pandemic and in the first year of COVID-19, and was from more than 500,000 residents across Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta, and British Columbia. [...]

There was an approximately 10 per cent in risk adjusted odds of potentially inappropriate antipsychotic drug use across the provinces studied, compared with the pre-pandemic period, according to John Hirdes, professor at the School of Public Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[reva-lution]

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