Exactly right Alias, been caring for someone since 1994, it certainly restricts the things you are able to do.
Not to mention the heartbreak and mental strain that goes along with it...................we who have lived it (and Senders who chose it as a profession) know just what a doubled edge sword "increased life expectancy" can be..............hang in there, my prayers are with ya Shadow
Is there data to show quality of life v life expectancy? I mean it's wonderful that we've been able to extend life, but the quality of those extended years in my experience is not necessarily rosy. Senders could write volumes on the subject I'm sure. ....
Swedish elderly care
Many elderly people in Sweden are in good health and lead active lives. Most live in their own homes by choice, and can do so thanks to public support in the form of home meal delivery, help with cleaning and shopping, transportation and healthcare when needed. Should their health deteriorate with age, there is special housing with around-the-clock care.
Health and social care for the elderly constitutes an important part of Swedish welfare policy. Of Sweden’s 9.4 million inhabitants, 18 percent are pensioners. This number is projected to rise to 23 percent by 2030, partly because of a baby boom in the 1940s.
More than 5 percent of the Swedish population are aged 80 or over, which is a large proportion compared to rest of the EU member states. Since more and more citizens in this age group are in good health, their care requirements have declined since the 1980s. Most elderly care is funded by municipal taxes and government grants. Healthcare costs paid by the elderly themselves are subsidized.
Sweden invests more of its GDP in caring for its elderly than any other country in the world. All Swedish residents are entitled to a state-financed guaranteed minimum pension from the age of 65, the standard retirement age in Sweden.
Many elderly people in Sweden are in good health and lead active lives. Most live in their own homes by choice, and can do so thanks to public support in the form of home meal delivery, help with cleaning and shopping, transportation and healthcare when needed. Should their health deteriorate with age, there is special housing with around-the-clock care.
Health and social care for the elderly constitutes an important part of Swedish welfare policy. Of Sweden’s 9.4 million inhabitants, 18 percent are pensioners. This number is projected to rise to 23 percent by 2030, partly because of a baby boom in the 1940s.
More than 5 percent of the Swedish population are aged 80 or over, which is a large proportion compared to rest of the EU member states. Since more and more citizens in this age group are in good health, their care requirements have declined since the 1980s. Most elderly care is funded by municipal taxes and government grants. Healthcare costs paid by the elderly themselves are subsidized.
Sweden invests more of its GDP in caring for its elderly than any other country in the world. All Swedish residents are entitled to a state-financed guaranteed minimum pension from the age of 65, the standard retirement age in Sweden.
bullshit.......................I admire your idealism but scoff at your grasp of reality..................we are not nor will we ever be Sweden..............
Politics - Published Monday, 26 April 2010 19:48 | Author: AFP / The Swedish Wire Sweden allows passive euthanasia Halting life-support at the request of a patient is legal, Swedish health authorities said Monday, clearing the way for doctors to agree to a heavily disabled woman's request to be allowed to die. • Swedish ecological burials attract world interest
"A patient who wishes to discontinue treatment has a right to do so. The condition is that he or she understands the information provided by the doctor and the consequences of his or her decision," the National Board of Health and Welfare said in a statement.
The ruling came after the Swedish Society of Medicine asked for a legal clarification, since one law in Sweden allows a patient to decide when to end treatment, while another makes assisted suicide, by turning off a respirator for instance, a punishable offence.
"This is a very good decision, very clear and exactly what we were looking for," Eva Nilsson Baagenholm, the head of the medical society, told the TT news agency.
Monday's decision was also a response to a letter written last month to the health and welfare board.
In the letter, which was leaked to Swedish media, an unnamed 32-year-old woman who has been entirely paralysed and dependent on a respirator since the age of six had asked that her breathing device be shut off.
"I don't want to suffer or rot away, which is what will happen, since the respirator is the only thing keeping me alive," she wrote.
"It is my clear wish that the respirator be shut off after I have been put to sleep. No human being in the world can manage to suffocate themselves while awake without panicking. If I had the ability to do so, I would have," she added.
Following Monday's decision, the woman told the Expressen daily she was "very happy and I feel peace in my soul."
The national health board said doctors should not provide unwanted treatment, and should provide drugs to put a patient to sleep or morphine to ease the pain before for instance shutting off a life-sustaining respirator.
"The main thing is that it is the patients themselves who decided what treatment they want to accept and when it should be terminated," Anders Printz, who heads up the board's legal division, said in a statement.
Actively helping a person to commit suicide by administering lethal substances or force remains illegal in Sweden.
Last Updated (Monday, 26 April 2010 20:21)
Add comment JComments
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
for some reason in America if a family member keeps their loved one home the state seems to 'beat them up mentally' , telling the family over and over and over again how they are ill equipped to deal with such elder folk....AS IF THIS HASN'T BEEN HAPPENING WITHOUT STATE INTRUSION FOR CENTURIES.... everyone feels guilty if no treatment is sought, even if at the request of the elder. the DOH/office of aging gets involved and WHAMO!...STUCK IN THE SYSTEM FOR THE LAST 1-3 YEARS OF YOUR LIFE....it's not a fun ride. I've seen it for 20years and have learned ALOT.
WHAT WE KNOW IS NOT WRONG....don't let them tell you that....
CPS IS ANOTHER STORY(not something I want to pursue)
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
My aunt Joan recently passed away.............she was 83.................when faced with living the rest of her life in assisted care and having to change a colostomy bag daily among other indignities she stopped eating and gave up and died...........although she had a wonderful life, in the end the quality was less than she was willing to accept......I miss aunt Joan, but admire her for making such a difficult decision......I recently decided to complete my living will ..............DNR............................quality of life, greater life expectancy................all (and I'll borrow a phrase from my interweb friend senders) Podium Pucks!!!!
.....I recently decided to complete my living will ..............DNR............................quality of life, greater life expectancy................all (and I'll borrow a phrase from my interweb friend senders) Podium Pucks!!!!
Oh...Didn't you know? The state doesn't only guarantee SAFETY, but also IMMORTALITY. Just sign on the dotted line and give-a-way your liberty so the bureaucrats can guide you to a safe life protected from disease and death. Compulsory health insurance is the first step to immortality in America.
Oh...Didn't you know? The state doesn't only guarantee SAFETY, but also IMMORTALITY. Just sign on the dotted line and give-a-way your liberty so the bureaucrats can guide you to a safe life protected from disease and death. Compulsory health insurance is the first step to immortality in America.
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