The Slow Breakdown of Nursing Homes and Elderly Care
Posted by Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit | PrepperIntel | View on Reddit | 142 comments
[removed]
Posted by Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit | PrepperIntel | View on Reddit | 142 comments
[removed]
slaveleiagirl78@reddit
My father was just in a nursing home for rehab after an amputation. The food was atrocious. Meatballs were 75% bread, one ketchup packet on a tray, milk was generally out of date or close to it, food was pretty much inedible, sheets were changed once a week, unless we complained. He was in the nice facility in my town. We brought him meals, changed his clothes, did his laundry, and were there every single day. I think this did help him get more attention than other residents. There were a few great nurses, one amazing housekeeper, and a phenomenal PT/OT staff. We also had some really bad apples. Dad fell out of bed one night. Pressed his call button and after twenty minutes, called me on my cell to call the mainline to let them know. We found out during a state inquest that the aide, who was the only one on the floor, was asleep in the family room.
I think we are only going to see this whole thing get worse. Dad is home now and doing better, but he still needs so much care.
edwardphonehands@reddit
Eldercare is often private equity. They Split land and operations into separate businesses and charge themselves above market rent. They're more profitable than they look.
You're experiencing a manmade crisis basically like all of the world's famines going back at least 1845.
Kcboom1@reddit
This any business Private Equity touches stop doing business with asap.
throwAwayWd73@reddit
Yeah my company is involved with private equity. I'm already seeing the signs.
Agitated-Score365@reddit
Thank you. I left my career in LTC leadership because of this. Residents were denied supplies for incontinence and staff so purchasing could get bonuses. If you want to learn how to hide and launder money work in LTC. It’s disgusting. Care should never be for profit. It’s too easily manipulated. In the Northeast at least most of these corporations are owned by orthodox and Hasidic Jews. This is not a value statement or judgement simply a statement of fact for this region.
lacunadelaluna@reddit
I feel like you could have left out the part about which ethnic group owns most of them
Agitated-Score365@reddit
It’s a fact and easily verifiable. So I don’t feel a need to lie or disguise the truth.
Longjumping-Panic-48@reddit
Yeah no adding that in just makes your antisemitism show. The rest was good info. It doesn’t matter what group the owners belong to— you could’ve named the corporations or chains. But instead you named the religious group.
YellowCabbageCollard@reddit
Except people on Reddit make pointed jabs at religious groups all the time for far far less. If the Roman Catholic Church or Mormon Church had massive stakes in LTC all over the North East I'm sure it would be considered relevant. If religious groups are mistreating people routinely at enormous profit then it doesn't matter what religious group is doing it.
If you don't want people to form negative views of your religious group then don't do horrible things. No religious group deserves any special protection from mistreating the elderly.
DJTurgidAF@reddit
Yes thank you, it’s also just the utter hypocrisy of it all, so insulting to be a person of God taking advantage of vulnerable people’s social safety nets
YellowCabbageCollard@reddit
There is something especially despicable about draining every last dime from helpless elderly people. Literally leaving them hungry and neglected for obscene amounts of money. I'm sure someone would do it to infants too if they had the resources to drain!
pallasathena1969@reddit
I wager if she worked in the Deep South where the majority of owners were Protestant, she would find the equivalent amount of greed and enshitiffication. It’s greed people. It’s unfortunately a common human trait in all groups and societies. Sheesh.
YellowCabbageCollard@reddit
Rereading your post I'm honestly blown away that you would say it doesn't matter what group the owners belong to. Really? Just going to hide behind corporations and pretend like no human beings are behind them and you can only criticize the corporation and not the people who own it and run it and make the decisions?
LetGo_n_LetDarwin@reddit
Then give us your source.
Agitated-Score365@reddit
https://medium.com/@leonardkanterman_80151/a-word-of-caution-for-orthodox-jews-about-nursing-homes-d43b8cd56b89
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/nyregion/evergreen-nursing-home-fire-spring-valley.html
https://ag.ny.gov/press-release/2023/attorney-general-james-sues-owners-and-operators-four-nursing-homes-financial
https://www.recordonline.com/story/news/local/2022/02/09/sapphire-nursing-homes-face-several-lawsuits-alleging-resident-neglect/9237432002/
https://www.policyarchive.org/download/15110#:~:text=Bear%20the%20following%20fact%20in,Jewish%20owner%20ship%20and%20management.
https://forward.com/news/346167/eric-schneiderman-seeks-to-block-orthodox-owned-firm-from-buying-nursing-ho/
https://amimagazine.org/2021/03/17/targeting-nursing-home-owners/
There’s more but I don’t have times for this.
LetGo_n_LetDarwin@reddit
You clearly don’t understand what a source is. Medium.com is not a source. The only one that could be a source is the .gov one, and that doesn’t even talk about “Jews own all the nursing homes”.
Your claim is wildly anti-Semitic and repugnant.
Agitated-Score365@reddit
On all the invoices was a Jewish law that they cannot profit from each other so they have a religious partnership. They become co owners of each others businesses. So the disposable supplies, architects, construction, x ray, medical waste, pharmaceuticals - it’s all tied together. Because Hasidic marriages are religious but not recognized by state/civil system these companies are often family. I worked for multiple ltc corporations.
You are wildly naive and not in NY but of this makes me antisemitic than I will wear that hat with pride.
LetGo_n_LetDarwin@reddit
You’re disgusting.
DJTurgidAF@reddit
It’s also part of the problem. CNA here that left LTC. The owners couldn’t care less of the local elderly/disabled/rehab population. My MIL was denied wound care medicine because it was too self admittedly too expensive and the LTC in Ocean Grove (I call INComplete Care) took a lot of flak from family and the nearby Jersey Shore hospital before giving her the damn medicine
It’s not hard to see how a religious group of people that see themselves as the chosen ones and the rest of us as infidels, could put profits over people
Agitated-Score365@reddit
That’s what I mean. I worked placed that had broken fire pumps that they didn’t repair or flagrant code violations to the point that the state told the admin and Don to protect their license. They told all of us they knew it was above us.
DJTurgidAF@reddit
In this case, it’s not hard to see how a religious group of people that see themselves as God’s chosen and the rest as lesser, could put profits over people
I have countless experiences working in LTCs in the northeast that are bought out by Hasidic or orthodox Jews only for them to enshittify care quality. It gets depressing real fast once staff nursing leaves and the LTC starts bringing in agency nurses and aides that don’t care about the local patients. Supplies get switched for lower quality ones, food gets worse, field trips get canceled, activities suck
Care should never be profit based
Agitated-Score365@reddit
I expressed it wrong maybe. There is a Jewish law about not profiting from other Jews. So they are entered into a religious business partnership where they all profit together. The law is printed on the bottom of the invoices. So all the companies, all the vendors are tied together. There’s a difference between religious and civil marriage where a wife can own the x ray company and her “husband “ owns the nursing home and they are partners with the linen company etc.
I worked for multiple groups like this and grew up surrounded by it in the county I grew up in. Rockland County NU.
Longjumping-Panic-48@reddit
And in plenty of other places it’s Catholics and Christians. The religion of the new owners doesn’t matter in this thread at all, except to spread antisemitism.
DJTurgidAF@reddit
Except it does matter. I’d say this has more to do with religious extremists making healthcare profit based, when it shouldn’t. It’s not antisemitic to say this
A word of caution for Orthodox Jews about Nursing Homes
songofthewitch@reddit
There was a LTCF in my town owned by private equity that closed a few years ago. The staff was told to just leave even though not all residents had family to find them a new place to live. Local community groups had to step in to FEED PEOPLE LEFT IN THE FACILITY. I have no idea what happened to their medical care. The mayor worked through making sure the last few residents were moved into new facilities. The news covered it as "the community rallying around the people to support them" the the utter fucking failure of the private equity company who just completely abandoned human beings to fend for themselves.
If you aren't familiar with the evils of the private equity industry in the U.S., I highly suggest Adam Conover's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5PLEZiSZVw
edwardphonehands@reddit
News refuses to see anything systemic unless it fits the narrative.
Constant_Demand_1560@reddit
Was mind boggling learning this. Shell company A owns the land and rents it to Company B (same owners dif operating name), but at a mark up of course. Repeat this for staff, supplies- everything, and that's how they are able to claim the whole "We don't make enough to stay solvent, pay us more!"
satsugene@reddit
It is the same playbook for other businesses.
Buy a troubled brand (so their owners/investors get a better payout than they’ll probably get on the market.) Split land and operations. Massively reduce quality and cost. Charge them rent and management/“consulting” fees. When it dies, sell the brand for whatever it can get and any recipes/branding for retail products or on to someone else. Rent the land to someone else or sell it at a higher price.
Destroys the brand/business. Screws their remaining (happy) customers. Puts workers out of a job.
It should be made illegal but it won’t be.
Reduntu@reddit
This should be called pulling a Red Lobster.
lacunadelaluna@reddit
Or lately, and most sadly to me personally, a Joann 🪦
Southern-Lobster-684@reddit
Soon to be Walgreens.
Early-Series-2055@reddit
Sounds like what’s happening to the United States right now.
resonanteye@reddit
that's what happens when you put shitty real estate business guys in charge. they run it like their "businesses"
Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit (OP)
Oh I’m very aware
But a man made crisis is still a crisis
Tough_Enthusiasm_363@reddit
Yes, and guess who facilitated those private equity companies to grow ?
The same boomers and Silent Gen folks who spend decades buying products from corporations and propping up that private equity through their stock investments.
Boomers and the generation before them LITERALLY funded those same private equity institutions with their stock investments and facilitated the decades of lobbyiat corruption that allowed private equity to become so powerful.
The SAME generation who buys lotto tickets ( of which 50% is taxes ) while also complaining that an extra few % tax to fund Universal Heathcare is "communist".
DecrimIowa@reddit
blaming the victims of the social engineering operation instead of the architects seems misguided to me. you couldn't come up with a better narrative to break cross-generation unity if you tried.
i know this isn't a popular thing to say, but i hold that the boomers were largely blameless and just did what they saw everyone else doing, what they learned to do from their parents and friends and the man on the TV.
it's Wall Street, the .01% who architect the systems and structures we live under, who are to blame for this- not our parents and neighbors.
Major-Rub-Me@reddit
You will never have cross gen unity with boomers.
DecrimIowa@reddit
not with that attitude!
Major-Rub-Me@reddit
No it's just legitimately impossible. Between the intergenerational culture wars and the old world us vs. them mindset that their gen grew up in during Cold war times, you will never be able to foster the kind of generational unity you are speaking of.
There are individuals who are outliers but, as a general whole, they simply do not understand the world or interpersonal relations in a way that makes them able to culturally and socially bridge the gap. There's a reason it takes two generations for any new mode of thought or knowledge to become ingrained, and their gen is particularly ideologically brain-poisoned (and literally brain poisoned by exposure to lead)
DecrimIowa@reddit
personally i think with a general culture shift away from resource extraction and individual accumulation at any cost, towards mutualism and regeneration, inter-generational relations could be restored within a fairly short period of time (say, four years) and boomers could assume the traditional role of elders in human communities- that is to say, as expert advisors, childcare specialists, wisdomkeepers.
just on a fairly practical concrete level, imagine if (for example, pie in the sky, pipe dream level) private equity groups were nationalized or de facto nationalized and their elder care/long term care facilities were integrated with facilities for at-risk youth, after school, head start programs. the seeds of this already exist with programs where old people and students read together in nursing homes.
it could be expanded in limited ways at first, with synergistic benefits for both populations- relieving loneliness, depression and intellectual understimulation for elders in long-term care facilities and improving reading outcomes and healing attachment patterns for at-risk or marginalized youth, or young people with working parents.
the total cost of this program, nationwide, would be much, much less than a single new fighter jet or naval ship program (let alone spy satellites), and would likely start bearing immediate improved outcomes for all parties involved within two years of the program's start date as well as ripple effects/second-order positive outcomes in several different sectors (employment, quality of life, parental stress and household income, yadda yadda)
this is just one example but what i am describing here is something more like a shift in societal patterns or system thinking towards integral, holistic, positive-sum outcomes. once resource extraction and rent-seeking (ie "shareholder interest") is no longer the sole driver of business logic, and positive impact becomes a balancing factor (for example, Bhutan's "gross national happiness" quotient) then all sorts of new synergetic or syntropic positive-sum games become possible- not only possible, but obvious.
thefedfox64@reddit
While I agree to blame every single one is a poor argument, I would say ignorance isn't an excuse nor lack of culpability. Those Wall Street .01% are boomers.
But it isn't just Wall Street and private equity firms on this massive scale. It's hiring your incompetent daughter, uncle, or brother. It's the nepotism. It's business owners (boomers) copying scummy and shit tactics. Its shitty landlords, shitty bosses, shitty investors. Overwhelmingly, they are boomers.
The justification that they can be shitty self-serving people just because they were taught that way doesn't seem right. Not to be too obtuse, but because your Dad hit you, it's ok to hit your kids? Let's not blame them? Like, nah. You don't have to be a total tool, but ok, fine, they can buy another house, a new boat, and lay a bunch of people off so they can get there's. It's my business, after all.
The attitude of "get mine" is very prevelant, and often conflicts with "family" values lip service.
DecrimIowa@reddit
applying blanket generalizations to an entire group of people based on their demographic seems like a slippery slope to me. are there any other demographics you have a bias against that you would like to share about?
it seems like you have strong opinions.give me your top 3 least favorite groups of people besides boomers, i want to hear
thefedfox64@reddit
No thanks. We could talk about political affiliations and the blanket generalizations being made....but that's ok, right, gotta "own" the other side? Anywho, have a great rest of your day.
jp85213@reddit
As someone who works in healthcare with the elderly, i can also say this boomer generation of patients is largely insufferable and difficult to work with, as patients. Not all of them, of course, but a higher proportion than the generation before (the previous generation were the ones i worked with when i was first starting out, as they were the age the boomers are now). Skilled medical professionals in all walks are leaving the direct-care industry in droves, for all the greedy corporate reasons listed, but also because on top of dealing with that coming from the employer, we also get bad behavior and just utter disrespect coming from the entitled boomers.
UnfetteredMind1963@reddit
Greed is greed and exists going back to pharaohs. Don't blame a generation for the 1%.
catdog1111111@reddit
The whole Blame the Boomers blindly just gets old. Reddit loves to do it but it’s a huge bias and not accurate nor solving anything.
Designer_Emu_6518@reddit
Not to mention over billing funds provided by the government to help with care.
therapistofcats@reddit
The book "Plunder" does a beautiful job discussing this and other failings of private equity firms.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/21/books/review/plunder-brendan-ballou-these-are-the-plunderers-gretchen-morgenson-joshua-rosner.html
Bastilleinstructor@reddit
You are spot on
DecrimIowa@reddit
further than 1845! highly recommend "Late Victorian Holocausts" by Mike Davis.
AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit
The history of elder care... scary subject.
glyptodontown@reddit
Alternative options are limited. Private in-home nurses are very hard to find. Caring for a bed-bound family member at home is impossible if you aren't strong enough to lift them yourself.
AdditionalAd9794@reddit
Where I'm at they seem to have a high turnover rate and seem to be constantly losing their asses to lawsuits
AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit
It doesn't surprise me if its anything like my area. They let a family member's wound go septic by not changing it as directed by doctors. Ultimately costing their life after just drugging them up beyond point of even being able to communicate. The person I'm talking about, was real successful in life... like... it'd be difficult to do today, yet... this was their end, crap care for $400. a day.
AdoraNadora@reddit
Something similar happened with my grandmother. She had dementia, but was physically in good shape even in her 90s. They had her drugged up to hell after only a few weeks of being there. Supposedly it was to help her “rest” but it was obvious they wanted as many of those residents drugged up so that it would make the work “easier”.
AdoraNadora@reddit
This post inspired me to share some personal experiences that I observed over the past 10ish years from having a close loved one staying in a “nursing home” aka LTCF.
These places are like hell’s waiting room! Omg. My loved one lived in two different facilities. The first one was so bad that I reported them to the state. The smell of urine would smack me in the face every time I entered the front door. Even worse, my loved one’s roommate, a very frail and very confused old lady, was left on a bare mattress on the floor. I’m not kidding! The staff claimed that she was a fall risk and kept getting out of bed, so they took away the bed to reduce risk. No bed! Just a mattress…on the floor. And they acted like this was a-okay!
We immediately got my loved one moved to a different facility where she lived up until her recent passing. Our family visited her regularly (except during the Covid lockdowns) and often supplemented her food because the nursing home would serve shit like a peanut butter sandwich and Cheetos for dinner. Other meals might’ve been a smidge better in the sense of nutritional value, but all veggies were obviously canned. I never saw a single fresh fruit or vegetable served in that place. Never!
The administrative and nursing were basically a revolving door. Staff quality and give a damn completely fell through the floor during the last 2-3 years. It was truly sad to see how little the staff cared about the well being of the patients. I personally observed them ignore patients or refusing to pick up the phone at the nurses’ station.
I could go on and on about medication mix ups and other failures of care, but typing this out is so exhausting. Not just thinking about how awful it was for my loved one, but also for other residents. So many people were truly suffering and uncared for. Yet, like OP said: it cost an arm and a leg!
SquidgeApple@reddit
Yes, we are going to have to care for our elders at home somehow ... We're heading back into those times
Tough_Enthusiasm_363@reddit
Nah, they can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.
These same elders in the nursing homes spent decades empowering the SAME corporations that now feed them Jello and Ensure and invested in the same Real Estate and Private Equity companies that now control elder care ?
Who created these Elder Care Corporations ? Elders did. It sure as fuck wasnt us Millenials who did.
The same greedy old fucks who sold the house they bought in the 70's and 80's for pennies and then sold it for 1000% what they paid for it now cant afford anything just like the rest of us because the Beast they built got too big.
weghammer@reddit
The majority of these folks are currently from the Silent Generation and guilty of nothing you are saying. Very frugal and hardworking and they made do with what they had, not greedy.
DecrimIowa@reddit
blaming the victims of the social engineering operation instead of the architects seems misguided to me. you couldn't come up with a better narrative to break cross-generation unity if you tried.
i know this isn't a popular thing to say, but i hold that the boomers were largely blameless and just did what they saw everyone else doing, what they learned to do from their parents and friends and the man on the TV.
it's Wall Street, the .01% who architect the systems and structures we live under, who are to blame for this- not our parents and neighbors.
Big_Brilliant_3343@reddit
These same people take time out of their day to class bash. Continuously vote against their self interest; and hold on to the system destroying their childrens future.
I blame the neighbors and parents who continue to not hold wall street accountable.
SquidgeApple@reddit
Dunno but my mom has always been a protesting hippie who rages at the machine
BlueLilyM@reddit
This argument is just the same sad division-mongering as blaming millennials for not having homes because they love avocado toast. It's really tired and lazy.
Katedawg801@reddit
My friend had to put her husband in memory care, it’s 10k a month 😩 Medicare pays a measly $650
joshy83@reddit
I was playing with some calculations and that's about what it would cost to employ 2 people around the clock to be CNAs for 40 residents if all are paying that much a month. No holiday pay, but an estimated $20k each for employer insurance cost. No room, no housekeeping, activities aides, transportation costs, doctor or other providers, food, dietary staff, etc.
We need to increase Medicare reimbursements.
imissthor@reddit
I work in long term care, and $10k a month is CHEAP! It’s a mess
No_Fisherman_728@reddit
The in-home care industry isn't any better. Far less oversight at the state level, staffing shortages just as bad as LTC facilities, and a higher demand for service than agencies could ever provide. Unless you have a solid family/social support system, living succesfully at home until the end of life is becoming increasingly unlikely.
I'm a managing partner for a large regional homecare agency and non-emergency medical transportation company. We also do extermination, grass cutting/snow removal, and minor home modifications. Offer competitive wages $15+ and along with many of my colleagues at other agencies, turn down over 80% of the service calls/referrals we receive due to staffing supply. We did upwards of 7500 hours of care per week before COVID and do half that now for the same reason.
Most of my new hires over the last 3-4 years have been family members (spouse, son/daughter, grandkids) since our state relaxed restrictions on who can be paid direct care workers. They're doing this because states know they are never going to have the adequate staffing to help our senior population otherwise
GuiltyYams@reddit
I would encourage you to share updates on what you are seeing in elder care on the Weekly What Are you Seeing threads on a monthly or quarterly basis. That's valuable info that people would be interested in following.
fabgwenn@reddit
What are the What are you Seeing threads? On this sub or others?
GuiltyYams@reddit
https://www.reddit.com/r/PrepperIntel/comments/1k6ofvm/weekly_what_recent_changes_are_going_on_at_your/
This one, also look at the pinned Weekly threads at the top of this sub. These come up once per week & usually contain valuable/interesting info.
fabgwenn@reddit
Thank you!!
Euphoric_Engine8733@reddit
A family member is in a LTCF and they’re having staffing issues due to immigration problems too. Many of the employees were on work visas from the Caribbean and have recently been either unexpectedly blocked from returning to the country while visiting home or told they were not able to continue to stay.
The facility is ridiculously expensive. We feel good about the care our loved one receives, but it’s very basic care, and about 10k a month. It’s crazy.
ColoBean@reddit
I remember when we started to pay out of pocket for LTC. I told my siblings that for the price we could rent an apartment on the Mediterranean with a full time caregiver for less. I was not kidding. When we looked at the only local place with the full nursing care needed, in a well to do area, I for one was appalled. After leaving, I said: we are not putting mom in there! It was run down, hadn't been renovated since the 80s (being charitable), and I got the feeling it was like a loony bin where patients with mental problems were freely roaming the halls and entering other patients' rooms. This was in February 2020 and I knew what was coming so I asked how they keep the flu from spreading. But I had my doubts they would be successful.
I feel strongly that making LTC corporate-run means the corporation, who knows none of the patients and their daily existence and needs, will always cut expenses and take the profits. The people who cared for my mother were saints. But to the owners they were just cogs.
ramr0d@reddit
I used to prepare cost report for these places. One thing that has to be reported is the compensation for key staff. Even the mom and pops of this world pay these people a ton of money.
Sunandsipcups@reddit
I saw an article a while back, I wish I'd saved it, since I think about it often.
It was about....
Like, other countries, multi-generational households are the norm. That helps in SO many ways--
Imagine: married couple. School age kids.
But also, grandparents, and college kids.
You can care for your parents without nursing homes, they can do childcare, as can college kid. College kid can help drive grandparents to appts, as well as help with sports/activities pick up for kids. It's the whole, "have a village" thing that we're all missing.
But. Zoning laws, HOA's, etc, can get in the way.
So many neighborhoods block too many people in a home. Too many cars parked there. People have wanted to start building tiny homes on their giant properties, for elderly or college kids, but blocked.
Instead of Trump, creepily, wanting to give $5,000 payouts if you birth a new capitalism worker ... helping encourage, and remove obstacles from, families who want to combine like this --- could go a long way towards solving a lot of issues. 💛
TheWhiteRabbitY2K@reddit
You think that's bad ... the decline of emergency care had me terrified for my later decades of life.
hoirkasp@reddit
I’ve been in a lot of these facilities for reasons and almost universally they are gross, poorly supplied and poorly staffed by overworked, underpaid and apathetic or incompetent staff. Do not do that to your loved ones if you have any alternative.
Tough_Enthusiasm_363@reddit
Older people regularly vote for deregulation and now those same older people also exerience the results of deregulation.
The system didn't magically create itself. It was formulated through lobbying ( which the elderly vote in favor of ) through Real Estate and Private Equity ( Which is a system older people literally created and invested in ) and from The processed food industry ( which was created amd maintained by the older generations ) which they now eat the processed food of in nursing homes.
The same types of people in Nursing homes are literally the generation that created or helped create the nursing home industry in the first place.
Squid-word@reddit
Man I hear you but my grandparents didn’t vote for this and have been life long liberals. We cant fight for our own future without fighting for the elders currently being neglected too. The fuck them attitude will hurt us all in the end, as well as today’s most vulnerable
StressedNurseMom@reddit
Something I didn’t see mentioned (or may have just missed it) is the fact that a lot of the employees are either contract “agency” or English as a second language. A lot of the aides where I live are NOT originally from the US so you can imagine that quite a few of them are a little nervous right now with all the ICE stuff going on, and rightfully so. Aides were already overworked, understaffed, and underpaid so it is bound to get worse. **This is not a political statement so PLEASE don’t make it one! This is an observation from conversations with the staff at facilities where I live **
Steph_taco@reddit
I’m in the Pacific Northwest, my experience with nursing homes here is similar. And ive become aware that all the small funeral homes with crematoriums have been bought up by the corporations. It worries me that there’s a direct path of profits from nursing home bed to the furnace. Same few are making money at every stop.
Tough_Enthusiasm_363@reddit
And guess who owns most of those corporations. Other boomers and Silent Gen who created the very exploitive system that they empowered with their investments and selling their house for 1000% what they bought it for.
We'll start giving a shit about elder care when Elders stop voting against Universal Healthcare, when they stop supporting lobbyists and stop supporting wage suppression.
They literally built the very system that exploits them as elders.
marsmither@reddit
This is not a boomers vs all others fight. It’s the elite vs the non elite. The uber rich vs everyone else. The top 1% architecting these systems.
The elite class love generational wars where each generation blames the other.
It distracts people from focusing on who’s making the real decisions that are f’n people’s lives up.
You perpetuating the broadly vague statement that “boomers did it” is playing right into the ruling elite’s hands.
Fitl4L@reddit
But the truth is also boomers did NOTHING to stop this reality with the power they have to vote. Like Tough said, these exploitive systems were created by and for the corporations that are mostly owned by older, white males in the boomer generation.
I am in my early 30’s. I didn’t vote for the shitshow of what is not healthcare in the US. I am a healthcare worker in LTACH. I believe that healthcare, along with anything that people need to live like food, water, shelter, and education, should all be universally available to its citizens, whether they can contribute to society or not all the time. Most of my patients, who need very invasive, life-supporting procedures/therapies done and mostly use Medicaid, still don’t want universal healthcare bc the FOX news they’re watching 24/7 is telling them that it will be used for “criminal, immigrant sex changes.”
How are we one of the few first world nations without a universal healthcare system yet we pay taxes as high as those countries that have one? It sucks, but in the US, there will always be a small group of people who continue to vote against their common best interests just to make sure someone who doesn’t look/think like them will not get a piece of the pie because this is the result of late-stage capitalism. It’s about making a dollar tomorrow instead of saving ourselves today. But whatever. Let it all burn.
YellowCabbageCollard@reddit
We haven't had people to vote for who were going to change any of this like you have expressed. They are all two cheeks of the same arse running for office! I totally get your frustration over this. But dang there was never anyone running for office that was going to do any of this:
"I believe that healthcare, along with anything that people need to live like food, water, shelter, and education, should all be universally available to its citizens, whether they can contribute to society or not all the time. "
resonanteye@reddit
I'll look to the 1980 election results and demographics for my salient info to judge by, thanks
stinkstankstunkiii@reddit
I agree, 100%.
YellowCabbageCollard@reddit
Eh, my father is an annoying boomer but he didn't invest one single dime in the stock market at any point in his life. And he's lived in the same little house that he moved and remodeled himself 40 years ago. He built houses and door frames and laid floors, and repaired cars his entire life. He didn't build any "system of greed" just because he was born in 1950. He's wearing 20 something year old shirts and jeans and repairing every last thing in his home himself and planting tomatoes in his little garden. He barely scrapes by.
DecrimIowa@reddit
blaming the victims of the social engineering operation instead of the architects seems misguided to me. you couldn't come up with a better narrative to break cross-generation unity if you tried.
i know this isn't a popular thing to say, but i hold that the boomers were largely blameless and just did what they saw everyone else doing, what they learned to do from their parents and friends and the man on the TV.
it's Wall Street, the .01% who architect the systems and structures we live under, who are to blame for this- not our parents and neighbors.
Addi_the_baddi_22@reddit
Yeah. This is like blaming fox news watchers for Trump.
They were fooled into this by a really well run media ecosystem and leded gas.
thefedfox64@reddit
I mean.... how far before you are allowed to blame people? How many cult members are you bringing in before you lose being a victim?
Addi_the_baddi_22@reddit
It's not simple, and I don't have the answer. Most cult members are both victims and abusers.
I just grew up in a wonderful loving (small rural town)community to watch people who's values and ethics I respected become versions of themselves that they would find horrific 10 years ago.
There has been citizen on citizen violence in many genocides, and a body of scholarly work about how to move forward as a country.
DecrimIowa@reddit
agreed 100%
thank you for posting this
i see so much blind hatred and division on social media, it warms my heart to see another soul with compassion for people who have been turned against their neighbors by these unaccountable powers.
Addi_the_baddi_22@reddit
That small town happened to be in Iowa.
I had the privelage to travel the world, go to school on a coast, live various lifestyles. Seeing that we are all just people really prevents from painting wholegroups as evil.
Every human I've met wants the same things. Safety, family, community, stability. When politics is how to prioritize and distribute them, democracy works. When politics is about how others are taking them from you, the it is fraught.
It's when they view them as zero sum games where they need to take from others in order to have, that it becomes a problem.
It's all a heavily disguised class war. And the working people are not the enemy of the working people.
DecrimIowa@reddit
amen! couldn't agree more, with every single thing you said.
i hope you come back to iowa! we need more people like you, right now more than ever, and you could make a big positive impact.
Addi_the_baddi_22@reddit
No chance, unfortunately.
Im the liberal atheist trans nomad that no longer is part of the in group that the law protects but does not bind.
DecrimIowa@reddit
ah, that's a shame. well, safe travels and thank you for helping restore my faith in humanity! at least one person out there gets it.
Addi_the_baddi_22@reddit
I have a friend with similar views and background who has a profile much more suited to running for public office.
I've offered to be her henchman/fixer/goon should she ever run.
That's more suited to my skillet haha.
thefedfox64@reddit
I think because it's not so clear-cut, we can't say don't blame as equally as we say blame. But there is a point where ignorance is no excuse.
2quickdraw@reddit
They also refused to mask during COVID so they've had it 10 or 15 times, and every time they get it they lose brain cells. Back when we still had scientists and the CDC and NIH hadn't yet been gutted and silenced, they were extremely concerned about neurological damage from the virus, especially to the brain, and what the resultant effects of people being unable to think properly and losing IQ points would be even just four or five years into the future. That hasn't changed, and here we are. A few of my friends who refused to mask are now pretty much blithering idiots who can't hold a conversation above a first grade level. You can see the wheels turning but the gears are not catching and their brain just spins.
Addi_the_baddi_22@reddit
Yeah, I've had it 3 times though and I'm still able to do engineering at the same level?
2quickdraw@reddit
🤙🤞
CrazyQuiltCat@reddit
Are you a bot or part of a propaganda program because you are weirdly repetitive
RootEroS@reddit
This phenomenon worries me the most over the next decade, in addition to inconsistent/outsourced early child care. We lost the plot when it comes to the importance of human care.
kapdad@reddit
You are TOTALLY describing my mom's place, and it's shocking decline over the past few years. To a Tee.
The obvious turning point was when the home was sold to a private equity investment group. They have been cutting everything to the bone and it is infuriating.
Portland area.
kometman@reddit
I used to work for a major nursing chain; got restructured in '19 so this might be dated. Here a few points i can recall.
A lot of LTCs are/were dependant on Medicare/Medicaid patients, and that payment doesn't come entirely up front but on the back end as recoupable coinsurance. Medicare only pays so much in that regard (max was like $0.68 per $ spent since '08); Medicaid and Ins follow that beat. Medicare/Medicaid/Ins Do Not pay the entire bill. What is leftover is on the patient.
I recall the stipend (amt for personal use) at least for Medicare/Medicaid was determined by the state, like monthly income - cost of care.
LTCs are/were considered the red-headed stepchild in the Medcare program. Home Health was being encouraged more.
I recall there were plans to switch the payment formula by CMS. It would be a set amount of care dollars that a lion's share would go to hospitals and leftovers to everyone else.
A good source for LTC news is McKnights.
lngfellow45@reddit
Does anyone think that states will start having hearings to determine if families can adequately care for their elders at home? Doing this so that you HAVE to send them to or leave them in LTCFs?
Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit (OP)
We actually have something similar to this already set up, although it’s not abused on a large scale system!
We have child protective services, but we also have adult protective services. Elderly people, especially ones who are mentally disabled, can very easily be abused and neglected due to the amount of care needed, as well as not understanding how downhill they’ve gone.
This means we do occasionally get people in who are severely injured, at risk of sepsis, limb loss, muscle breakdown, mouth rot, etc.
They’re taken into “custody” of the state, assigned a caseworker, and placed into LTCF in some cases.
Dangerous_Bad_3556@reddit
Mostly AI, who knows to what end. Do better
FancySockDragon@reddit
info seems accurate based on anecdotal experience with the industry, but yeah, this does feel pretty AI. weird thing to use ai for if this is the case
Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit (OP)
It’s just my writing style - I don’t use AI for Reddit posts and I’m more than capable of producing my own karma without AI.
Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit (OP)
This is just how I do long format style posts and my writing style.
Trust me I had to do some edits on the fly.
Not everything is AI, and this is all based on my personal experiences.
ConcertMama@reddit
Don’t forget, that $25/$30 the residents are left with each month is fife haircuts, clothing, shoes, cellphone, cable, stamps & writing supplies, deodorant and personal care items, snacks…..
Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit (OP)
Luckily (ish) we typically provide hair cuts free of charge - cosmeticians donate their time and services fairly often!
Deodorant and paper is supplied. It’s incredibly easy to find pens in a nursing home (I know I’ve lost an easy 5-6 pens this week alone).
But the rest of it… yeah god forbid they want a box of cigarettes, thing of stamps, bag of chips, a 2 liter, and a t-shirt all in the same month.
Femveratu@reddit
As the boomers age out and the economics shift, things will get worse
Fitl4L@reddit
This what happens when a whole generation prioritizes their wellbeing over the next several generations. Boomers said with their actions “fuck my grandkids and beyond.” And they have, for the foreseeable future.
otayyo@reddit
hey u/Tough_Enthusiasm_363 and u/DecrimIowa,
Get a room! :D
DecrimIowa@reddit
automated post?
otayyo@reddit
haha, certainly comes off that way
ElectraMorgan@reddit
My mother passed away last year in the care of one of the best homes in MA and all the issues you mention were present plus one you didn't.
In terms of staffing, the aides providing direct care to patients were almost entirely Haitian immigrants. I have heard there is a real probability their visas will be revoked within 6 months. (Haitians in the US on asylum.) this would have been completely catastrophic for my mother's home, they literally would have to close. Not a lot of US citizens willing to change adult diapers for 15/hour in a VHCOL area.
thcitizgoalz@reddit
A lot of direct support workers are LGBTQIA+ as well, and they're being targeted by this administration now.
Gullible_Design_2320@reddit
Yes. Immigrants make up a big part of the health care workforce in general, and they do 28% of the direct care work in long-term care facilities. With entire groups being threatened, like Haitians in the US on asylum now, there will definitely be more problems with not having enough staff. Or having nearly all the personnel at one place suddenly under threat of being kidnapped and sent out of the country.
https://www.kff.org/medicaid/issue-brief/what-role-do-immigrants-play-in-the-direct-long-term-care-workforce/
matchabunnns@reddit
Private equity is at fault here. It’s absolutely evil. Also the reason veterinary care has skyrocketed in recent years.
HappyAnimalCracker@reddit
IVPA is a collective of independent veterinary practitioners. You can use their site to view a map of independent vets. The map is incomplete, since some independent vets haven’t registered with the site, but it can be helpful in locating practices who haven’t sold out. Many of them are priced well below the big corporate practices and offer more freedom and flexibility with patient care.
https://www.vetlocal.us/find-a-vet
scotiasoul@reddit
Reading this makes me relieved we have MAID in Canada cause imma make sure I go out one way or another. Yikes. Scary.
StraightConfidence@reddit
I've recently seen healthcare from both sides (working in and having loved ones in LTC) and it really is a big mess.
Shitty_5shorts@reddit
Ltc worker- it’s an absolute shit show. I fix most of what’s broken if I can, because they don’t care, or can’t afford to fix it. Care and compassion are not the same as it used to be. Covid burnout is real, everyone just looks like a walking shell of themselves, and the general attitude is “at least i fucking showed up today”
Supplies is a joke. Quality or product really has gone down as well. Our lift slings all need thrown away, they’re so raggedy. They can afford to replace them. We have so many empty rooms, I wouldn’t be shocked if they shut down here soon. They’re in a massive amount of debt, and nobody sees it getting any better. I just feel bad for my people.
bs2k2_point_0@reddit
Used to work in insurance for ny life. I e seen the math, and it was scary even back then nearly 2 decades ago.
IGnuGnat@reddit
I'm in Canada
Post Covid, I just call nursing homes Death Camps
annoyedatwork@reddit
God’s waiting room.
dontdoxxmebrosef@reddit
That’s Florida.
Bubbly-Hand8166@reddit
Plus a leaked HHS memo has the cuts and reorganizing of the Administration of Community Living (eliminated) that will devastate community based living as well as advocacy and protection for seniors. Adult Protection Services = eliminated. LTC Ombudsman program (advocacy for nursing and assisted living residents) = eliminated. Respite care for caregivers = eliminated. Fall protection program for elderly = eliminated. Aging and disability resource centers = eliminated. Meals on Wheels = huge funding cuts.
Pea-and-Pen@reddit
I worked for a National HealthCare facility for 24 years before having to leave for health reasons 7 years ago. I can’t imagine a company like NHC getting to this point. While I was still there these kind of things just would NOT have been tolerated in any center. People would lose their jobs (as they should) for those kinds of things. I can’t even comprehend this. We worked so very hard on things like weight loss, hydration, wound care, truly good food and just general patient satisfaction.
This just makes me sad to think that our elderly are in situations like this. So many people don’t have any family to even check on them, much less care for them at home. Even while I was working, my Gram was at our facility in a room across the hall from my office. We were in a situation where we couldn’t care for her at home. She had Alzheimer’s and we all worked. Unfortunately that’s just norm for today.
esepinchelimon@reddit
Fuck Katy Perry and fuck anyone who would do this.
Monsters disguised in human clothing
ironimity@reddit
If AI trainers actually paid for their data, all these LTC facilities would be a goldmine, at least for those still with their mental facilities. The collective earned knowledge, history and stories that is being tossed away is a crime.
AnonnonA1238@reddit
In Indiana, waivers pay for long-term care. This can include nursing homes, day programs, and in home caregivers. The wait-list now takes years instead of months like it used to take. People are dying before they get on. Apparently even acuity doesn't help.
So IDK what to my seniors anymore. IDK what to the their families, if they're lucky enough to have involved family. All my residents are in poverty (section 8 senior housing), and I guess there isn't anymore funding for long-term care.
Tough_Enthusiasm_363@reddit
Boomers and the silent generation created that system now they get to partake in the very system they created.
Now boomers know what it's like for Millenials to be economicaly forced to partake in an unfair system.
The older generations built the system of corporations owning everything and now those same corporate entities they propped up have multiplied and grown to parasitize the very generation that enabled them in the first place.
Ironic.
DecrimIowa@reddit
blaming the victims of the social engineering operation instead of the architects seems misguided to me. you couldn't come up with a better narrative to break cross-generation unity if you tried.
i know this isn't a popular thing to say, but i hold that the boomers were largely blameless and just did what they saw everyone else doing, what they learned to do from their parents and friends and the man on the TV.
it's Wall Street, the .01% who architect the systems and structures we live under, who are to blame for this- not our parents and neighbors.
Skinny-on-the-Inside@reddit
Thanks for sharing, I think John Oliver did really good segments on these topics:
https://youtu.be/2xlol-SNQRU?si=4gPJiFtrogJSTUxu
https://youtu.be/u2ii0DCREzA?si=tVNeZJqk9Hf2vFDF
AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit
We had a weekly post yesterday "what are you seeing at work"
I have seen this too with a family member last year. It isn't good.
But this post isn't breaking news, unfortunately. But thank you for submitting it. Really, copy paste it to that weekly post, heck even paste it next week too... because yeah... this is a major issue for families.
Fun_Initiative_2336@reddit (OP)
Yeah I’ll post it back there! I wasn’t quite sure if it fit there since it was a bit long and convoluted vs rule 1
Thank you!
AntiSonOfBitchamajig@reddit
To be fair we need to rework the rules... lol
But yeah, real shit show all that.