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Post by anaix3l on Jul 11, 2023 14:28:22 GMT -5
Not a cheerful topic, but I came across this undark.org/2023/06/01/the-assisted-dying-debate-is-really-about-how-we-treat-the-living/ about a month ago and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it ever since. Because this is true. Not just in France. There are currently investigations into quite a few elderly care facilities across Romania. Where the people who were supposed to be cared for were neglected, used and abused. This article is in Romanian, but the images speak for themselves. Frail elderly people all bloody after they got beaten up. These facilities get quite a heavy sum for each person in their "care" and on top of that, they were also found to have forced those poor people into signing away any property they might own. It really makes sense people would be terrified of ending in such a situation, where they require a degree of long term care they cannot get at home from their family. And that they'd rather have the choice. I know I have thought about it. About making one final journey to another country in Europe where it's legal. And I know a lot of other people have done it. Sorry if this is grim.
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Post by VoodooMedicineMan on Jul 12, 2023 23:57:16 GMT -5
I don't agree with the premise of the article that throwing more money at palliative care is going to change too many opinions on assisted suicide. I don't view those as mutually exclusive. Sure, there is a segment of people that might. Me personally, I fear losing control far more than death, and want to feel at least close to alright during my last days on earth. With time, I favor quality over quantity and hope to keep my modest wealth in the family rather than burning through $30K a month to be trapped in "a home".
I get and respect that people feel differently, but think that should be up to the individual rather than the industry which benefits financially. I think the more people look into the so called experts the more trust erodes and rightfully so. But different strokes for different folks, the more end of life options the better.
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Post by anaix3l on Jul 13, 2023 1:29:32 GMT -5
Don't get me wrong, I'm still all for having the choice. As I have been for ages.
And it's not necessarily about throwing more money at it as it is how that money is used, which is a huge scandal in Romania right now. The people in care homes weren't found in their own shit, full of bed bug bites, with worms in their wounds because there was not enough money for better. The problem was not a lack of money. There was enough money for much better. Except that money got pocketed by those running the places. And some of it got used to bribe the right people so they would look away and pretend nothing was happening. In theory, there should be checks to ensure abuses don't happen. That people who should be cared for and whose families pay good money are not neglected, abused and coerced into signing away what they own. In practice, that has obviously failed.
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Post by VoodooMedicineMan on Jul 13, 2023 9:47:51 GMT -5
Yea I agree. I don't feel that is unique to Romania either. Switch Romania with just about any other country in the paragraph above and the same likely rings true. It certainly would apply to America. I can't read Romanian, but looking at the pictures, although disturbing, I think there may be less sinister explanations to most. The bedding generally looks clean. I'd expect inadequate air conditioning is the reason for people laying on beds with no blankets. That one guy had explosive diarrhea, but it doesn't look like he had been rolling around in it, so it likely just happened and someone took a picture to exploit the situation rather than offer assistance. MRSA and other skin conditions are big problems even at the most expensive places where all precautions are taken. Parasites big and small can get out of control quickly. And I'm certainly not saying there isn't real abuse going on. I think corruption runs rampant within this industry, but that's more related to swindling money than the ground level care patients receive, which is often due to understaffing since hiring more help would cut into that money. People are there because they could no longer care for themselves, and in most cases, required more care than their family could provide, even if it would usually benefit them financially to try. There will always be sales people overstating their services, and this being an area most people would prefer not think about gives them a huge upper hand. Just trust the experts\professionals, they know best... I think the more people look into this, most will arrive at the conclusion that there is a time to call it, much like we do for our pets. However, exactly when to throw in the towel will vary from person to person.
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Post by anaix3l on Jul 14, 2023 4:06:09 GMT -5
Oh, I'm sure abuse is not the purpose, money is. But the frustrations of those only getting scraps end up being poured over those who cannot fight back. I sometimes get cashiers (underpaid, frustrated) lashing out at me at the store over things that are not my fault, but they don't have the spine to bring up with those above them. And I am an able-bodied 40 year old woman who can easily leave them with a bloody nose or file a complaint and get them fired. I can't imagine how much worse that must be for an elderly person in a care home who cannot do anything, they can't physically fight and they're cut off from the outside world. Over the past few years more than ever, as covid provided a very convenient excuse.
A bit of context: the investigation did not start over elder abuse. It started over unpaid debt. The Cristina in the article title is the person running the "care" homes and she had a history of running them through different companies, which she acquired debt with, then dissolved and started others. Every few months, she went through this cycle of dissolving older companies and creating new ones. She also didn't hire staff legally and then she "forgot" to pay them. So they didn't even really have a legal avenue to get their money.
Last year, the owner of some of the buildings where she ran her "care" homes went after her after months of unpaid rent and utilities. That's how he found out what was happening there. He filed a complaint with the regional health administration over the infestations, a complaint with the Ministry of Work over people working there illegally and a complaint with the police over elderly abuse.
After that, two things happened: one, she moved everything and everyone out of those buildings the very next day and two, a couple of people who had worked there came forth and talked about the neglect and abuse going on. Obviously, there's the question of why they didn't do it instantly and only did after it was clear they weren't going to get paid for their time there and after an investigation had already started.
The complaints with the health administration and Ministry of Work got sweeped under the rug. And the police investigation had a pretty bumpy ride too. Cristina met her current husband when he accompanied a prosecutor to one of her "care" homes some 5 years ago when one of the elderly residents committed suicide. They're well-connected.
But an unexpected inspection at the new place where she moved after found major problems. There was a smell of urine everywhere and just one bathroom and one nurse per every 30 people. There were more elderly people there than the official declared number, most of them looking malnourished. There was no paperwork trail, how did those extra people get there. Some said they would like to leave, but they're not allowed. One woman even had a lawyer trying to get her out of there. The employees said they did not know anything and the boss, Cristina, was nowhere to be found.
She eventually answered with a message saying to stop harassing her and better investigate another chain of "care" homes. Owned by the sister of Gabriela Firea, the current as of this afternoon, former Minister of Family. Who is also the former mayor of Bucharest, the wife of the mayor of the town where Cristina's investigated care home was in, a friend of Cristina's business partner, a Daniel (head of the Romanian Church and former collaborator of the communist political police before the '90s) ass-kisser and an eternal trashcan princess. Oh, yeah, she and her husband were the profiteers selling anti-covid talismans.
This is why it all ended up being such a huge scandal here now and why the Romanian Church put out a statement condemning how the elderly people were treated in those homes. They know they'll be forever associated to the hundreds of millions they got for their megalomania/ money swindling project out of our fucking tax money from Firea when she was the mayor of Bucharest and they're trying to distance themselves from her.
Yeah, it's a viper nest.
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Post by VoodooMedicineMan on Jul 14, 2023 11:17:56 GMT -5
Thanks for summarizing the article. It adds some good context to the pictures. Cristina sounds like she'd fit in well in New York or California.
Which reminds me, have you been following any of the news about that Andrew Tate guy? He's an American born former kickboxer who wanted to move to a land of lawlessness and decided up Bucharest, Romania! He supposedly built up quite a social media following there, routinely posting\bragging about how there are no laws there. Now he's going on trial for human trafficking and rape... I haven't read too deep into it, but it's appeared in a few of my news feeds lately.
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Post by anaix3l on Jul 14, 2023 11:55:14 GMT -5
I was kinda hoping she'd fit well in jail...
Didn't follow it closely either, but it looks there was one thing he did not anticipate. That there are already established human trafficking businesses here (unfortunately) and he can't just come and eat out of the market share, especially not in a way that draws so much attention.
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Post by redvers76 on Jul 16, 2023 11:23:24 GMT -5
I was kinda hoping she'd fit well in jail... Didn't follow it closely either, but it looks there was one thing he did not anticipate. That there are already established human trafficking businesses here (unfortunately) and he can't just come and eat out of the market share, especially not in a way that draws so much attention. He's a scumbag of the highest order, but didn't anticipate that there would already be bigger scumbags he was pissing off!? 🤣🫣
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Post by ap on Jul 22, 2023 19:12:15 GMT -5
I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that humans are an increasingly terrible species.
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