Here's to years and years for you, David. And good ones, too.

Hospices seem to vary very widely. The one in Victoria BC where my mom was 
for a week and a half provided better care than many other places for a 
couple of reasons. It is both publicly and privately funded. They receive 
large donations from local people as well as the usual public funding; it's 
part of a public hospital. And, whereas the health care system is normally 
free here, there is a cost associated with hospice services. But not too 
much.  Fees are income-based.  It was somewhere between $500 and $1000 for 
the time mom was there. Worth every penny and much much more. I have heard 
of other hospices where patients reside for years. That doesn't happen in 
this sort of hospice. A couple of months is about the maximum, and then it's 
on to the great beyond. Really, I can't say enough good things about them. I 
don't know if such things exist in the UK, but I hope so. Mom went there 
only when she truly needed 24-hour care and I just couldn't have done it, 
both because I would have been utterly exhausted and also because the type 
of care, at that point, required much more medical knowledge/experience than 
I have.

ja

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, August 25, 2011 3:07 AM
Subject: Re: Conrad and conservativism


> Randolph
>
> as far as my health's concerned, I am afraid it a condition which could 
> mean
> I might be around for years and years yet. And years :)
>
> - although writing ever shorter poems -
>
> Unfortunately, what happened to my mother is commonplace, at least in the
> housing estates of the English Midlands. I'm sure its equivalent happens
> elsewhere. The targets are normally elderly people alone who starting to
> 'lose it' and the 'bad guys' (often a man and woman team, apparently the
> victims are more trusting if there's a woman present) pose as figures from
> 'authority': the council or utility companies.
>
> The stories, if publicised at all, might make a column inch or two in the
> local newspaper, once in a while an incident will have something more
> newsworthy about it and there'll be a flurry of concern. Which subsides.
>
> Likewise, with the gloriously misnamed 'care' homes, an expose will happen
> now and then, as did recently with a home for the disabled in the West
> Country, inquiries will happen, heads will roll, and then: normal service 
> is
> resumed.
>
> With my mother's case the biggest obstacle to any help wasn't the police,
> who were actually quite concerned, but the appalling bureaucratic spiteful
> lazy so-called 'social services' department. I always remember once, 
> during
> one of the interminable phone calls I had to make to them, each one of 
> which
> involved an obstacle course of receptionists and assistants and stand-ins,
> hearing the person on the other end of the line, who had forgotten to 
> press
> the silence button, caustically remark to a colleague that there couldn't 
> be
> anything wrong with my mother as 'she had two settees'.
>
> It said it all.
>
> Although with this very large English Midlands city's equally large
> hospitals I might observe that indifference builds on scale of giants.
> One-eyed giants and cannibals that is.
>
> best
>
> dave
>
>
>
> dave
>
>
>
> On 25 August 2011 10:15, Randolph Healy <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>> Dear David,
>>
>> Sorry to read that things are so bad with you. What you were saying about
>> your mother is horrific. People posing as officials robbing her? That's
>>  depraved. I don't know what to say.
>>
>> I had a sense that you were having health issues but I didn't realise it
>> had got to this pitch. Amazed, though I shouldn't be, at your 
>> indefatigable
>> humour.
>>
>> best
>>
>> Randolph
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> David Joseph Bircumshaw
> Website and A Chide's Alphabet
> http://www.staplednapkin.org.uk
> The Animal Subsides http://www.arrowheadpress.co.uk/books/animal.html
> Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/david.bircumshaw
> twitter: http://twitter.com/bucketshave
> blog: http://groggydays.blogspot.com/
>