I have seen the dystopian future of elderly care

tthm about 2 hours ago 20 commentsRead Article on telegraph.co.uk

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KaiserPro•about 2 hours ago

I'm assuming that they've not been to a "normal" UK carehome now.

Its staffed with minimum wage workers who are in perilous conditions, with no support, time or backup. They are cleaning shit a piss all day long, and being shouted at for being foreign by the demented.

helterskelter•44 minutes ago

Not much different than the US, really. I had to hire some at-home care for a relative with brain cancer, and almost all of them were drunk on the job, falling asleep when they were supposed to be monitoring at night, or getting offended at something their patient said, who's mental state resembles that of a psychotic 8 year old. Oh and if you don't lock shit up, some of them will steal.

At a certain point, you fire so many there aren't any left in the area. I moved my relative to another area for unrelated reasons, but it was the same story at the new place too.

There were a few really good ones tbh, but 95% were in private care because nobody else would hire them.

mindslight•17 minutes ago

Did you go through an agency or a private hire? I took care of my dad in his final months during Covid. The hospital gave him Covid and then forcibly discharged him, so none of the agencies wanted to deal with him. I was able to find someone who wanted direct work and who was not daunted by the 'rona. They were fantastic. But of course one person can't do every day or around the clock care. I had another great mother+daughter+third care team lined up for when it was time to ramp up even more (they had taken care of my uncle), but (un)fortunately I never got quite there.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm•37 minutes ago

>being shouted at for being foreign by the demented.

Sounds like another day for The Telegraph.

chaostheory•about 1 hour ago

I feel that this is the case in most developed countries unless you can afford to pay $10,000 - $20,000 per month for an upscale nursing home.

Robots might make it a little less terrible.

thunderbong•about 2 hours ago

https://archive.is/PSPZz

joefourier•about 1 hour ago

Personally I feel like it would be less undignified and infantilising to have a machine take care of my basic bodily functions than a human being. There's no feeling of judgement or being shamed in front of someone else, and the machine could even restore a feeling of autonomy since it would feel like you're using a tool instead of being helplessly reliant on another person's help.

jolmg•about 1 hour ago

More likely than not, a human would be remote controlling it, at least at times. So, they're there, you just can't see them seeing you.

I think this is more of a cultural problem. Aging is a normal part of life.

BoredPositron•about 1 hour ago

Give me the freedom to end my life when I want to end it and you don't have to care about my care and I bet I am not the only one.

47282847•4 minutes ago

This is possible for example across Europe, in some countries more openly in others a bit less so but still. It’s not advertised, one reason being that there are ugly cases of pressure by relatives…

chasil•about 1 hour ago

Can you guarantee that you will feel the same as your mobility becomes more and more restricted?

Do you think that your current resolve is correct for everyone around you, and should be generally mandated?

I agree to a reluctance to rely upon others, in the face of infirmity, but will I have the courage to forego that reliance in euthasia? I don't know.

akudha•14 minutes ago

I agree with your parent comment. People should have the option to go on their own terms. Maybe many people won’t have the courage (as you phrased it) to do it, but that shouldn’t stop the ones who do.

I recently learned of the term “medical divorce”. Elderly couples divorcing, so they’re not saddled with the medical bills if one of them passes away. How insanely cruel is this? Is allowing people to go out on their own terms worse than this?

I don’t know about “generally mandated” but if I am lucid enough to decide, I should be allowed to. It is more humane, safer, cleaner to do with medical professionals than jumping from a bridge.

Our choices are either improve healthcare, elder care so people spend their last years in dignity or give them other options. By now, We have proven that we cannot or will not make healthcare, elder care affordable (it would be ideal to make it affordable). Which leaves us with what other options? Birth rates are falling almost across the world , we’ll have more and more older folks

jolmg•43 minutes ago

> and should be generally mandated?

or even encouraged?

nradov•about 1 hour ago

Sure, but a lot of those elderly people have some significant degree of dementia. That make it difficult to go out on your own terms.

kakacik•about 1 hour ago

This can be covered in advance, when you can set what to do with your organs after death, or whether to resuscitate you or not and so on, it can be done for this scenario.

In advanced societies of course, but we have few and unfortunate people travel from far and wide to reach those services.

gib444•21 minutes ago

The UK parliament just spent a year and a half on an assisted dying Bill, but then it ran out of parliamentry time. So the powers that be decided no

analog8374•about 2 hours ago

Facebook can do a pretty good necro-avatar. That's better than flesh. Cheaper than a retirement home too.

https://www.businessinsider.com/meta-granted-patent-for-ai-l...

mindslight•about 2 hours ago

Is this headline a humblebrag about being able to afford a plane ticket to the US?

Eldercare has been quite dystopian here for quite some time. You don't need robots to be dystopian, rather just the casual indifference of a paperclip-maximizing bureaucracy. I can't read the full article, but it seems like these robots at least move around and interact rather than merely being an automated process that automatically checks off boxes like "patient turned" and "bed cleaned". So they would appear to be a step up from the current absurd staffing ratios.

mrlonglong•about 2 hours ago

Please stop paying any attention to the Torygraph / Reformgraph. It used to be good decades ago but now it just spews propaganda nowadays.

Apreche•about 2 hours ago

Someone watched Roujin Z and thinks they are so smart.