OFC Meeting 4
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10 Apr 2018:
SENIORS: Who Will Take Care of Us?
The Future of Health and Social Care for Seniors in 2040
Keith
OUTLINE
Population: The Impending Tsunami!
The Major Problems of Aging: Physical, Social and Mental.
Models of Care: Past, Present and Future.
Group Discussion
Addenda
I have a couple of open questions to ask at the meeting:
- What does respect for human life mean other than the maximizing of lifespan?
- How do we balance the needs of the individual and society as the costs of health care increase?
-- Philip
MINUTES
Notes by Philip:
Keith opened with comments on the coming tsunami of seniors -- it is forecast that in B.C. the number of people over 75 will approximately triple by 2035. He then talked about the structure of residential care. Before 1970 this mostly consisted of unlicensed private boarding houses. This has evolved over the years to three levels of residential care in a mixture of private (though mostly publicly funded) and public facilities: complex, dementia and extended care. 80% of a resident's income up to a maximum of $35,000 is taken to pay for the care. Most residents are older than 85. Isolation and a lack of stimulation are common problems. Alternate models elsewhere include groups of houses with perhaps only six residents plus care workers per house in Scandinavia and neighbourhood watch systems in Japan.
In the discussion we talked about cost, medically assisted death, finding meaning at each stage of life, new models of care such as multi-generational communities (takes a village to look after an old person), and the moral obligations we have.
The cost of care is a large inter-generational transfer of wealth and unless things change this will become much more significant in the future. Money spent on old people is not available for children. New taxes that fund future care, as opposed to pay-as-you-go taxes, robots and a return to more family provided care (with more financial support) are possible solutions. Another is to provide easier to obtain medically assisted death for those who have truly lost the joys of life (don't just have depression) -- though it is not socially acceptable to talk about this in terms of cost savings -- perhaps it is better to frame this as a question of freedom and respect for the individual.
As Ken pointed out, families are judged on their care of their older members -- like the moving to a residential care facility being labelled as "dumping grandma". However the care required can be very onerous for the family - often a 24 hour, 7 day a week obligation. We can always volunteer to do things like spending time with older people. Don pointed out that most people at the table are probably already doing some volunteer work of some sort now. Also volunteers may take jobs away from people who need them.
A couple of participants pointed out that lacking meaning is a problem for every age group. I would add that making meaning for ourselves is an important obligation for all of us. It is one task that cannot be given over to others.
