cost of living - elderly causing themselves injuries to stay on hospital? :(

[lifeofalawyer]

Saw someone ask today on twitter and it got me thinking, AIBU to think we will see an increase in the elderly complaining more about certain issues or even causing themselves small injuries to guarantee themselves a hospital bed and warm food? So sad to think about.

😂

This!!

Especially with the sad emoji on the end.. I clicked on this thread expecting to see a link to a news article saying people are doing this or some anecdotal evidence, not just someone saying “wouldn’t it be sad if…”

A non story.

FFS

Please stop using the term baby boomers it's awful. Not all people of a certain age got lucky with housing and money. They were certainly for more who have had to put up up with abuse from a marriage partner and not have the same amount of help to escape that as today's Generations do. I know plenty who are truly skins and extremely worried about the winter me included. The term is offensive and I don't understand why people keep using it

This. We have to have a conversation about the quality and sanctity of life, and what it means to be alive, and what it means to have a good death.

I don’t think we’re sleep walking into it. I think assisted dying is absolutely necessary. I think we are kinder to our pets by letting them go. I’d much rather go earlier than the slow torturous decline of my elderly relatives.

How come there is an elderly social care crisis when there were seemingly hundreds of thousands of care home residents dying from covid in 2020? Plus all the cancer patients dying through covid/lack of treatment (my FiL included).
Why didn’t that free up lots of resources?

A lot of people on Twitter are morons. Have you been in hospital before? It was the most uncomfortable experience of my life. You'd be much better off finding a warm library or community kitchen for the day if you're struggling.

Aging population so demand is still increasing. Lots of people left the industry as employers routinely take the piss. More competition for employees, hospitality and supermarkets are all paying more per hour and offer family friendly shifts I.e. 9-3

Being perfectly honest I’m surprised there isn’t more of a crisis.

Oh God yes.

Ever increasing life expectancy means most of us have now witnessed plenty of loved ones living far beyond what they ever expected. Having witnessed it in a couple of old people who were robbed of everything and yet were kept alive for years and years I can categorically say I do NOT want that.
I also have some relatives alive now in their late 80s with a decent quality of life who still enjoy most days. That’s what I hope for, obviously, but if it doesn’t happen then I hope for a swift end. I don’t want the state put under the pressure of paying to keep me alive when I have no quality of life.

Can a living will specify that, in the case of dementia or degenerative disease, you don’t get treated for pneumonia etc.

It seems insane that someone with no quality of life would be given antibiotics for something that would kill them.
I know someone whose Wife had a catastrophic stroke in her early 50’s and is in a nursing home just wasting away, she can’t communicate or move much, yet they insist on treating her for infections etc. I’d rather be dead.

Committing a crime might be an easier and quicker route for the elderly to get a warm bed and hot food………my dad often says this!

I think lots of the elderly try to stay out of hospital tbh. They don't like being in there. My nana didn't as she said she worried by going in she'd never come out! She'd rather sit with a space heater in her own chair.