http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025058808Oh my.
politicat (8,269 posts) Fri Jun 6, 2014, 02:50 PM
Is there any interest in an elder-care group?
I know quite a few of us are either primary or secondary caregivers for parents, grandparents and other elderly relatives. We all end up with questions that are hard to ask. With issues like assisted living, long term care, in home care, full-time care giving, estate management and planning, finding aid, navigating insurance, advocating for your person's wishes, and hospice, getting old is increasingly complex.
Then there are the personal issues -- sundowning, communication when the person being cared for is a parent, when to ask for the keys, when it's time for more help, how to safely and sanely vent the frustrations that come with caregiving.
Long-term caring is also political -- many caregivers are either under or unemployed because they're care-givers. Even when we manage to keep our careers, caring for an elderly person takes time and commitment that employers often don't get, or won't. The rights of the elderly and the balance between autonomy and safety is an issue: when should someone stop driving, do people with dementia have the right and the ability to consent to relationships? Can someone with dementia choose to end a medication? Seek alternate care? And the people who do the caregiving professionally -- how do we help organize with our professional caregivers so they get a living wage and benefits and safe working environments? How do we advocate for in-home, family carers to be compensated? In short, how can we, as Democrats, make the elder-care safety net work better for everyone?
Well, this is probably something in which Judy grasswire's guardians would be interested.
A few primitives have expressed interest, but I dunno.
It seems the "little forums," such as the cooking and baking forum are withering away because their hosts and hostesses aren't doing anything to excite traffic to them.
And Skippy's special forum for news links sponsored by terrorists, and the locust primitive's forum for movies or television or whatever it was, haven't exactly blossomed.
I think Skins would be better served deleting some forums rather than adding new ones.
