[lurkingforacure]

Reading Paula's thread made me realize just how far down the ladder we have sunk in terms of caring for our brethren, even when getting paid to do so. I saw it firsthand as well, helping my mom. The only consistent compassionate care by a third party that my mom got was when she was put on hospice. If I had not been there, her last couple of months in the hospital and then rehab and then back in the hospital would have been, well, I don't really want to even think about that. We've all read the stories. Paula's story is unfortunately not that uncommon and that is very scary. There are a lot of "what ifs" in those situations and what do you do.

Teaching compassion, as Peg suggested, is great, but I just don't see it on a large scale in today's world. People for the most part are quite spoiled, entitled, and lazy, they act as if they are doing the patient a favor helping them when it is their frickin' JOB. You would think in this economy people would shape up, but they know how badly they are needed and indeed, everyday at my mom's facility (and it was a good one) were postings for positions that had opened up. The burnout and turnover rates seem quite high.

But we all know this and the many problems with this situation, whether you are in the hospital, rehab, nursing home, assisted living, whatever, and whether you have a chronic illness and no family close by to help or are healthy for your age. At some point everyone will face needing help. The light at the end of this tunnel for me, however, lies in watching the incredible advances being made, particularly in Japan, in the development of robots to care for people, primarily their elderly population in that country. Toyota just announced they had made a robot who/which (which word is grammatically correct? now THAT'S scary!!) is able to lift and turn a patient properly. This is significant and provides a real alternative.

Now whether you can handle R2D2 handing you your meds instead of a real live person is a personal decision, but at least I see that decision as an alternative fairly soon. It could actually be better, as R2D2 is probably a lot less likely to make a mistake than some chick who is trying to set up a clubbing date on her cell phone while trying to dispense medication at the same time.