Sign of things to come?

UndercoverElephant · Post by **UndercoverElephant** » 05 Feb 2013, 17:58

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-21340238

A woman in her 80s left at home in Surrey without medication, food, or water for nine days after a care agency shut down has died in hospital.

RenewableCandy · Post by **RenewableCandy** » 05 Feb 2013, 23:35

Yes, I saw that. Living alone is a menace, even when you're young. If you happen to pass out, or knock yourself out, or get hypothermia (been there done that) and there's no-one there to notice, or phone for the medics, well you get the idea. I know (well, friend-of-friend) someone who was found dead in his flat (curiously enough also in Surrey), who was in his 30s. CO poisoning.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 05 Feb 2013, 23:45

RenewableCandy wrote:Yes, I saw that. Living alone is a menace, even when you're young. If you happen to pass out, or knock yourself out, or get hypothermia (been there done that) and there's no-one there to notice, or phone for the medics, well you get the idea. I know (well, friend-of-friend) someone who was found dead in his flat (curiously enough also in Surrey), who was in his 30s. CO poisoning.

One of many advantages of living in an Eco-Hamlet, where your neighbours watch out for each other. And why I'm knackered trying to make it happen, so no one finds me weeks after I've snuffed it!

Kentucky Fried Panda · Post by **Kentucky Fried Panda** » 06 Feb 2013, 00:49

I hope my corpse stinks so bad that the neighbours complain about the Chinese takeaway up the road.

boisdevie · Post by **boisdevie** » 06 Feb 2013, 10:19

I'm 49. I live alone most of the time. I could easily have a stroke and never get to the phone to call for help.
Question. For that poor woman where was her family? We seem to think that it's always the job of the 'state'.

featherstick · Post by **featherstick** » 06 Feb 2013, 11:03

boisdevie wrote:I'm 49. I live alone most of the time. I could easily have a stroke and never get to the phone to call for help.
Question. For that poor woman where was her family? We seem to think that it's always the job of the 'state'.

She had no children and her husband had died 30 years ago. She had a close friend and legal guardian who was in the paperwork as a contact. UKBA had discussed the operation with the council prior to the raid to enable contingencies for vulnerable people to be put in place. This WAS the local council's fault.

emordnilap · Post by **emordnilap** » 06 Feb 2013, 11:10

RenewableCandy wrote:Yes, I saw that. Living alone is a menace, even when you're young. If you happen to pass out, or knock yourself out

and all the myriad things that can befall anyone doing stuff. I once fell off a ladder in the house, got concussed, wedging the outside door shut with the ladder, with herself unable to get in. It could have been a lot worse.

I make a point of not doing anything that could be dangerous unless she's around - she has the same policy. These things include using ladders, chainsaws etc. Always have insurance.

Post by **clv101** » 06 Feb 2013, 11:29

The elderly face a number of problems in modern society that just weren't around a few hundred or a thousand years ago.

Thanks to written language - and especially the Internet, their experience and memories have been vastly devalued. Before being able to look things up in books, or on-line, the only knowledge beyond your own memory was that of older folk, who'd been there and done that. These days, the memories of our elderly simply aren't valued by the young.

Rate of progress has made 'old knowledge' less valuable at a faster rate than every before. The skills and trades learnt 50 years ago are often completely obsolete. Being a wiz on a slide rule or being able to do long division, who cares any more?

Thanks to cheap travel, land value, employment etc, families are often geographically separated, removing one of the once key roles the the elderly - child care.

Finally - there are an awful lot of old people! A long time ago, not only would the 80 year old be a valuable store of multi-decade experience and knowledge, not only would she have some expert skills still very much relevant and in demand - but she'd be the only 80 year old in the village! This scarceness amplifying her worth to the community, and reducing the collective burden of care for the elderly.

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 06 Feb 2013, 11:50

I recently brought my school slide rule into work, as a sort of subtle protest at the IT budget I had been allocated ( £0 ). Staff under the age of 30 all said "what's that?"

I now have a budget and new IT systems and they are just as unreliable as the old ones...

Mean Mr Mustard · Post by **Mean Mr Mustard** » 06 Feb 2013, 23:30

RalphW wrote:I recently brought my school slide rule into work, as a sort of subtle protest at the IT budget I had been allocated ( £0 ). Staff under the age of 30 all said "what's that?"

I now have a budget and new IT systems and they are just as unreliable as the old ones...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HD0NfshRyh8

.038 seconds...