I work for an agency that provides non-medical in-home services to elderly ppl who no longer can take care of themselves in their homes. Most of them are low-income. Our goal is to keep them out of nursing homes, so we bathe them, do light housekeeping, shopping, laundry and run errands. We also relieve their caregivers by staying with the elderly client so the caregiver can do things they need to do. My problem is that our state government cannot appropriately fund the contracted agency we work for so that we can provide the service, which results in a very long list of elderly ppl waiting to be served. For example, I received paperwork on a client whose service was opened but when I called the daughter she told me the client had been placed in a nursing home several months earlier. It is truly sad. These are ppl who were once teachers, laboreres, farmers, etc. What is even sadder is that a lot of these ppl have children who only see them when they receive their social security check. You know the reason why. What can I do to help these ppl. I've written Mitch McConnel who is our state's Senator but it doesn't look like he's paying my e-mail any attention!
People like you have a hell of a hard job - both physically and emotionally - and I applaud you. Don't know where you are located in KY but I'm sure you're well aware of the financial difficulties in some of the more rural areas - which is not to say there are no financial difficulties in metro areas. Almost all the states are running on "empty tanks" and there's no question the US government is running on "empty." Finances have been squandered for decades on nonsense straight across the board and the bleeding needs to stop.
You're absolutely right about the sadness of the situation. The mother of a friend of mine had home health care as well as 24/7 sitters to do stuff she could no longer do as well as to "be there" to act in case of an emergency situation. She had a really bad setback that required a week or so of in-hospital care to get her stabilized and she's now in a nursing home. She and her late husband had the foresight to get burial plans taken care of and to get nursing home insurance "just in case." After 45 years with a private health insurer, when it came to nursing home care the insurer made life a living hell for her children. Approving nursing home coverage then two days later denying the coverage, her daughter was jumping through hoops getting appeals, the coverage got reinstated only to be denied again a couple days later. The nursing home insurance doesn't kick in until she's been in the nursing home for some period of time. In the meantime, she's having to shell out $5,000/month plus out of pocket. Medicare coverage is out of the question because she's not flat out broke. (As I recall, when my Dad was in a nursing home he could not have over $420 in "assets" per year or his Medicare coverage would be cut off. I had to take his money and buy him a burial plot to get rid of his "assets" in order to keep his Medicare coverage. And that was some 20 years ago.)
There's a reason why government wants to do away with the elderly altogether (death panels) - they're not somebody's mother or father or grandparent - they're useless to an already overcrowded population and are just taking up space and using up oxygen. End of story. That's the same reason abortion is pushed so hard - not women's rights to control their own bodies - it's a matter of getting rid of "undesirables" - population control. Read the PIG Guide to Environmentalism to see how it all ties in.
})
})
