well Lynn what do you think should elderly be cared for in the home or do you think they're always better off in a nursing home or are there any answers to something like that
well there certainly are times when uh it's necessary i believe to place someone in a nursing home
um that uh person just becomes too expensive and too um hard on the family
to care for somebody within their home
but uh i think everything possible should be done to
uh keep someone at home before that happens
yeah
well my my mother who's seventy is has living with her my eighty nine year old grandmother
oh my
and oh they're doing fine so far
oh thank goodness
but uh
does your mother have any help
it
no
no and and my grandmother's pretty self-sufficient uh she did have a mini stroke recently
which is left her just a tiny bit addled
but i don't think she's any place close to needing a nursing home
no i i think it's only when a person becomes
uh my father had to be placed eventually in a nursing home he had uh Alzheimer's disease
oh how sad
yeah it's um
and it was just impossible to care for him uh twenty four hours a day um
yeah
but uh
and there weren't enough um
resources i think in the community to help uh my mother care for him
um-hum
which was really unfortunate
yes
i think it it it the placement could have been delayed had there been
um more resources in their community
that must have been very difficult for her to make that decision
oh it it was
and uh
i think she she was there every every day uh
at noon and at night to make sure that he was
fed and cared for in
a proper way and
it was exhausting
i think one of the the toughest parts about the decision would be finding the home
uh i know in Texas we hear so many of so many abuses in nursing homes
that it's just
i don't know where you'd start
he
well i think you know the first thing is just to look at lots of them and then
it it does make a difference if there are regular visits by family um
that uh the staff
you know is aware that they can't be neglecting somebody if the family's there everyday
yeah
um
and i i must say i have some sympathy for the
nursing home staff itself they
you they are overworked
oh yes and probably underpaid in a lot of cases i mean i think that's treated as pretty much unskilled labor
uh
certainly
yes it's doesn't have um
uh it's not compensated adequately and the um
and there's certainly no prestige
attached to
uh um you know it's sort of a yeah it's it's it's a sad situation
yeah
i wonder if the church run nursing homes in general are better than the others
i think any uh nonprofit facility is probably better run than
uh those institutions that are strictly for profit uh so that means
often that they are church run
yeah
but um
my late in-laws lived at Leisure World
uh for a number of years but i actually they moved away from there with a daughter before they needed the final care i guess it had graduated levels of care or something in that facility i don't know if you're familiar with that or not it's in Southern California
oh
yeah
actually i um
my my work is to advise families in finding care for their elders
and sometimes that means getting in all kinds of community resources to the home whether it's Meals-on-Wheels or uh home help aids or whatever
but when somebody is looking for care i recommend that they look for something that's uh
has more than one level
um-hum
that it's not just an independent living facility
